Debating humankind's place in nature, 1860-2000

the long version

This is a really good book on the history of paleoanthropology--the study of human origins. In fact, there may not be a better book on the market that does what Delisle (McGill Univ.) does in summarizing how the issues of human origin and evolution have been addressed in the years following Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859). Delisle organizes the discussion chronologically into ten chapters, with an introductory chapter that presents a nice overview of how paleoanthropology has changed over the decades in terms of method and content. Adding to the book's usefulness are two essays by other paleoanthropologists: an opening statement by Milford Wolpoff and a closing essay by Bernard Wood. Both are excellent opinion pieces by eminent scholars in the field and add substantially to Delisle's discussion. Delisle includes an excellent biographical appendix that lists alphabetically the major paleoanthropologists whose work he discusses. The only (minor) complaint is the lack of artwork. Although Delisle includes a number of historical diagrams related to human origins, he misses a golden opportunity to help readers understand the myriad complexities of modern methods used to understand the human evolutionary tree and its complex array of branches. Summing Up: Highly recommended.