Evolution: The Human Story, 2nd Edition Hardcover – 1 Jan. 2018

Alice Roberts has an amazing knack for explaining all manner of historical subjects with clarity and precision without ‘talking down’ to her audiences a remarkable talent to be appreciated and celebrating

I'm not a professional book reviewer / scientist / highly educated person so please don't take this review very seriously. I'm just jotting down my opinion on this book and that's all.The pages are of EXTREMELY high-quality material and so are the pictures and their resolution. I can simply be looking and marveling at the pictures for hours without blinking an eye! It's awesome as a gift to your kids and adults alike, and as a coffee-table it's guaranteed to heat up discussion regarding human evolution. You can just leave it on your table in your living room and if a deluded creationist cretin happens to come by for a visit and starts exploring the book, he will be surprised by the so many fossils of early hominids that have been included in the book, along with their details. Not only that, the book also provides a very brief history of biological evolution in general, starting with how life began on earth and the supporting evidence and theories for it, but all in all it emphasizes more on human evolution than anything else, which is expected.In a nutshell, buy this book if you are an Evolution enthusiast interested in collecting books on up-to-date account of evolution written by professional biologists and experts such as Dr. Alice Roberts, want to give a gift to your young kids who ask you questions like "Daddy where did we come from" etc etc (questions most stupid theists would answer wrongly in schools), have an up-to-date reference of hominid fossils and related and trustworthy info on them and have a great-looking book resting proudly on your coffee/dining/living room table to surprise and amaze your guests with!

I taught science throughout my teaching career and was always aware that the school curriculum had some major gaps, with human evolution being one. I would guess that even people with a fairly good science education would struggle to give an account of the development of Homo sapiens and their place in the evolution of hominids and I would also guess that most other people would have a very patchy knowledge. For anyone interested in human evolution this book gives a very thorough account. It contains a great deal of information and the large, clear, illustrations, make it an enjoyable book to browse. I have seen comments that there are some simplistic passaages but I don’t see that as a problem. This book aims to be accessible to all levels and so there are times when Alice Roberts explains things like fossilisation in basic terms but there are also sections which deal with more complex ideas such as determining lineage through mitochondrial DNA. I have other books on human evolution, such as the one by the Natural HIstory Museum which I found useful, but if I were going to recommend one book to give a detailed overview of human evolution I would choose this one. My 7 and 10 year old grandchildren picked it up, were fascinated, and asked a lot of questions about the various illustrations

The illustrations showing what prehistoric man looked likeare fantastic, based as they are, upon the ancient skullsand bones that have been found. The only drawback isthat the accompanying text has been divided into a largenumber of boxes – magazine style. This makes it the idealcoffee table book about human evolution. This is the kindof book that is the ideal present for friends you'd like to seebecoming interested in this fascinating field of study, that hasbeen opening up during the last 30 years. It is also a nicebook to accompany the various DVDs that deal with the topic,such as “Origins of Us” or “Journey of Man”. But the many textsnippets (boxes with scattered pictures and maps) will surelyguarantee that this is a book that will never be read in itsentirety. For a cohesive account of human evolution duringthe past 6 or 7 million years, you will need to consult one of themany text-based books on the topic, of which quite a few areavailable by such authors as Chris Stringer, Stephen Oppenheimer,Spencer Wells or Bryan Sykes. In particular the last of thesemakes for interesting reading with his bestselling “The SevenDaughters of Eve”. I give it one less than five stars, due to thescattered text fragments.

I wanted to study evolution, I was something that just really clicked with me. The idea that "mistakes" or differences, mutations and variations can lead to a competitive advantage and therefore through generations become the new "normal" is just awesome - it's just pure biological magic.I never did study evolution but it's always continued to fascinate me, and this book is a superb way to indulge in the subject. The book is large and the quality is obvious, thick pages with detailed images really help to immerse you in the story of the evolution of humankind.Dr Alice Roberts is personable on TV, and even more so in print. She talks academically but without making it sound academic. This reveals the full story of the evolution of mankind and is told with passion and incredible knowledge. Dr Alice Roberts is the perfect author for this type of book and it's a book I often dip and out of, I've learnt from it and it also gives me a chance to just enjoy a topic that really means a lot to me.

The pictures, the wonderful writer of course and to be able to pass the book to my great grandchildren so they will know the truth.