A complete journey from pre-history to the most recent genetic analysis of human diversity. Some chapters had a technical appeal, such as Chapter 6, Drift migration and qualitative analysis of human genetic diversity.
As an enhancement of both Chapter 4, Genetics as a key to human origins and prehistory and Chapter 10, Voyages:Prehistoric human expansions, please permit me to recommend, National Geographic: The Human Family Tree, DVD (96mins.), 2009, as being very useful. The video complimented the text and gives a good introduction to both chapters, further providing visual support to the molecular clock hypothesis and the global diffusion of Homo Sapiens. The exploration work being done in Anatolia Turkey, Catalhoyuk Research Project, a Neolithic agrarian settlement has a website and also adds interest.
The scholarship of the authors, their numerous published articles and explanatory expertise is beyond comparison. Every chapter is well planned and the story grows with an intensity. Linda Stone, et al., reinforced explanations on every turn. I believe this book is something you read several times and learn something different each time. There are so many intricate facts, the total picture, using the most current methods of scientific investigation of genetic and cultural evolution, I couldn't put it down.
