The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease

In this landmark book of popular science, Daniel E. Lieberman gives us a lucid and engaging account of how the human body evolved over millions of years. He illuminates the major transformations that contributed to key adaptations to the body: the rise of bipedalism; the shift to a non-fruit-based diet; the advent of hunting and gathering; and how cultural changes like the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions have impacted us physically. He shows how the increasing disparity between the jumble of adaptations in our Stone Age bodies and advancements in the modern world is occasioning a paradox: greater longevity but increased chronic disease. And finally—provocatively—he advocates the use of evolutionary information to help nudge, push, and sometimes even compel us to create a more salubrious environment and pursue better lifestyles. 


[With charts and line drawings throughout.]

• Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human
• Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
• Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine
• The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World - and Us
• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
• Evolution: Making Sense of Life
• In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
• Prehistoric Life: The Definitive Visual History of Life on Earth
• Reconstructing Human Origins: A Modern Synthesis (Third Edition)
• Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It