And Disease - The Story of the Human Body

The author describes the body's transition from ape to man using many examples of physical and mental development. His explanations are logical and convincing especially for an amateur evolutionist like myself. At times, it's overly technical and repetitive in some areas but the book provides many answers as to why our species has survived environmental and social changes of the past.

Academic, but not dry. Entertaining, but not sensationalistic. Historical and personal account. This book enhances individual confidence and hope for the future of our species by revealing the most important biological advantage of our species-endurance.

Our biological evolution has not kept up with cultural evolution which opens us to new types of health problems that our earlier ancestress did not have to deal with. Understanding this, hopefully, will help us make better choices.

As a biology instructor, I have students that often ask me why certain anatomical features exist. Although this book would not answer all their detailed questions, it does give many easy to follow explanations that I'll be sharing with students. A broad audience would enjoy the stories in this book.

I cannot recommend this book enough. Fascinating and extremely useful information. I don't know why my anthropology class in college had to be so boring. They should have just read us this book instead.

A good read from a well-respected human biomechanist/physical anthropologist. Not too mention a distinguish Harvard Professor. Pick up this book to improve your understanding of human evolution and locomotion in a relatively easy manner.

Great read for anyone wanting to learn about why we are the way we are. At times he may have included too much detail but this can be easily skimmed over. He also revisits points which I find is helpful to ingrain to memory. Definite recommendation.

A good read from a well-respected human biomechanist/physical anthropologist. Not too mention a distinguish Harvard Professor. Pick up this book to improve your understanding of human evolution and locomotion in a relatively easy manner.

Great read for anyone wanting to learn about why we are the way we are. At times he may have included too much detail but this can be easily skimmed over. He also revisits points which I find is helpful to ingrain to memory. Definite recommendation.

got it from library and ordered my own copy after 1 chapter. presents the latest knowledge in diet,exercise,evolution,genetics,health and a reasoned,realistic and practical application of "primal" diet concepts. not so sure i care for his government mediated solution to our current health problems. government NEVER does anything right or well. but,he's a harvard guy and obviously a genius,so bit of top down management of society's problems by the cultural and political elites is to be expected. at least his fixes are more measured than our governments disasterous solutions to the drug and poverty problems. a must read. wish i could afford 10 copies to pass out to friends and family.

I bought this as a gift for someone. That someone lives with me. They really liked the book. I really like the premise of the book. Some days, I'll walk over to the book, pick it up and think, "Book, I'm going to read you some day. When I have time and a quiet place to read you and can linger over your words and think about what they mean. Book, in 17 years, when I kick my children out of my house (or sooner if those bastards keep making a racket), I'll read you."

In all seriousness, its a great book, that the person I live with, really enjoyed reading.

I like most of what this book outlines. I dislike the fact that it is so hard to change human behavior. What gives me hope is that this author has so concisely posed the problem. We are cavemen and women in modern cultures mismatched to our ancient biology.

I'm amazed that current psychologists and social professionals don't have a clear education in our human history and what drives us. This book provides that overview of why we are what we are. Think about it: 4 million years of DNA programming and in the last 50 years our "social" leaders want us to change: we should be fairer, we should tolerate heretofore marginal types of people, we shouldn't feel "tribal" towards "others", etc, when our programming is just the opposite. The only complaint I'd make is this book is somewhat like a academic text, and therefore drones on into esoterica. Highly recommend.

The book was insightful and provided possible medical reasons for common ailments. Conjectures and logical assumptions were given throughout the book, but without scientific studies to back some of the conjectures and assumptions, much of the book is just theory.

Great book to learn more about modern common diseases and ways to prevent them. But it seems we human beings are still far from doing enough to rescue ourselves from these mismatch diseases as we do not persevere doing the right things and eating the right food against our own instinct.

Thank you for this wonderful book. It was a very interesting read, and I really couldn't put it down. Like, getting the connection between WHAT we are eating now that is really creating the problem, as a result of being genetically programmed to search for and gnaw on for our very existence. Terrific book.

I believe that anyone who is interested in any kind of self development needs to read this book. Dr. Lieberman gives an excellent explanation of how and why human beings evolved, and then uses the information to shed light on the fundamental problems which plague us today. It reminds me of the first time that I read Desmond Morris's The Naked Ape, only this book is done with almost an additional fifty years of accumulated research. It really puts a lot of ideas about diet and exercise in to perspective.

Brings a different perspective to health and while I tended to be suspicious about novel (or fad) diets like paleo this book helped me to understand it and many other aspects of our modern live that conflict with our health.

Lieberman's book traces the evolution of the human body through the period when all humans were hunters and gatherers in a clear and accessible way. It then notes a number of ways in which the evolution of culture since the beginning of the agricultural revolution has given rise to "mismatches" between the human organism as it evolved within the environment provided by hunting and gathering culture on one hand, and the environment created by the agricultural and industrial revolutions on the other, leading to the widespread occurrence of such non-infectious diseases as dental cavities, epidemic obesity, and diabetes 2. It thereby provides a highly accessible understanding at a deep level of many modern-day health problems; it's a scholarly (though, again, highly accessible and readable) treatment of modern health problems of interest to everybody.

The understanding of evolution is constantly changing. This, seems to me, to be as close to a current understanding of the process as I, a lay person, am likely to read and understand.

It is well written and a good read. The footnotes and index make up approximately 40% of the book and I was disappointed when it ended. I read the notes, too.

A two part book. First a course on human evolution. Second a course on cultural evolution that explains how our bodies are affected today. I found the book very informative and gave a copy to each of my children.