Before the dawn
by Nicholas Wade · first published 2006
86% recommend14% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Popular science overview of recent research on human evolution and early prehistory, valued for clearly reviewing the latest findings on how our ancestors lived. Suited to readers curious about human origins.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Nicholas Wade's articles are a major reason why the science section has become the most popular, nationwide, in the New York Times. In his groundbreaking Before the Dawn, Wade reveals humanity's origins as never before—a journey made possible only recently by genetic science, whose incredible findings have answered such questions as: What was the first human language like? How large were the first societies, and how warlike were they? When did our ancestors first leave Africa, and by what route did they leave? By eloquently solving these and numerous other mysteries, Wade offers nothing less t
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…conflicts, this is much more interested in the psychological build up to war in common society, and its effects on society) These books make me very pessimistic about human nature, but Nicholas Wade's Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors provides a nice antidote: the total number of people killed by warfare in the 20th Century, if we followed similar patterns to our prehistoric ancestors,…
on “The Real War 1939-1945 (1989)” ↗…Soseki "The Politics of Dialogical Imagination" Hirano Katsuya "History and Repetition" Karatani Kojin "The Structure of World History" Karatani Kojin "Anti-Oedipus" Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari "Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors" Nicholas Wade "Capital, Volume I" Karl Marx These books have been the most informative and thought-provoking for me this year.
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗…and will not likely be 'reset'. The precise dating of the origin of homo sapiens - if that is even possible - is still in flux. This is the scientific process - science as error correction mechanism. Before the Dawn by Nicholas Wade is a great book reviewing the recent science on our species from about 100k year ago to about 10k years ago. It provides the overview and context that you dont get from a NYT article…
on “Oldest Fossils of Homo Sapiens Found in Morocco” ↗AFAIK, the best (first?) popular science book that tackles this question is Before the Dawn [1] by Nicholas Wade. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_the_Dawn_(book)
on “Cave discoveries suggest humans reached Americas much earlier than thought” ↗It's been a while since I read it, but I remember enjoying Before the Dawn by Nicholas Wade.
on “Prehistoric Horses: Exploring the meaning of Lascaux’s galloping herds” ↗…nerd. If you want to understand how important sociology is, and how clearly it can be reasoned about, read Eric Hoffer. If you want to understand how important it is to understand how we evolved, read "Before the Dawn." Also, I like to look at sociology as the study of complex systems - extremely complex systems. It is difficult to study systems over which you do not have complete experimental control, however it…
on “Why Math is deeper than Sociology [quote]” ↗…https://usrtk.org/covid-19-origins/scientists-proposed-makin... More context about the author of the article: > Nicholas Wade was science editor of the New York Times from 1990 to 1996 and is author of three books on recent human evolution: Before the Dawn, The Faith Instinct, and A Troublesome Inheritance.
on “New documents strengthen the lab leak hypothesis of Covid-19's origin” ↗