Description
Temporarily out of stock
Title: Story of the Human Body, The: Evolution, Health & Disease
Author: LIEBERMAN DANIEL
Format: PAPERBACK
Publication date: 19/11/2014
Imprint: PENGUIN
Price: $20.00
Publishing status: Active
The Story of the Human Body explores how the way we use our bodies is all wrong. Our 21st-century lifestyles, argues Dan Lieberman, are out of sync with our stone-age bodies.
Never have we been so healthy and long-lived – but never, too, have we been so prone to a slew of problems that were, until recently, rare or unknown, from asthma, to diabetes, to – scariest of all – overpopulation.
The Story of the Human Body asks how our bodies got to be the way they are, and considers how that evolutionary history – both ancient and recent – can help us evaluate how we use our bodies. And what is the human body’s future?
‘Monumental. Takes us on an epic voyage that reveals how the past six million years shaped every part of us . . . Through Lieberman’s eyes, evolutionary history not only comes alive, it also becomes the means to understand, and ultimately influence, our body’s future.’ Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish
‘Tremendous . . . Lieberman evokes the excitement of evolution.’ Perri Klass, Washington Post
‘Lieberman’s message is that modern life has created mismatches between our abilities and adaptations and the stresses we place on our body by often living thousands of miles from our family’s origins, sitting down all day long rather than actively gaining a livelihood by physical work, and snatching at quick, high-energy foods. The evolutionary approach produces some counterintuitive surprises.’ Peter Forbes, Guardian
‘Daniel Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, argues that our twenty-first-century lifestyles are out of synch with our Paleolithic bodies, and that is leading to trouble.’ Gillian Orr, Independent
‘Lieberman is a true expert.’ John Hawks, Wall Street Journal
ISBN: 9780141399959
Pages: 480