In his introduction, the author points to the fact that in Charles Darwin’s Descent of Man he wrote that our human ancestors most likely began in Africa, since gorillas and chimpanzees there were our closest relatives, and would most probably share a common ancestor. Darwin’s theorizing has so far agreed with the evidence found in the last 100 years of searching in east Africa.

The author writes about the people who, over the years, have uncovered the fossil remains and stone tools that have provided the clues of early humans or hominids. He gives a vivid view of the competition and feuds among the researchers and the difficulties some of them had receiving recognition from the experts and refusals to accept their findings. There is also the story of the infamous Piltdown man hoax in 1908 Britain.

One noted researcher, a South African palaeontologist, Elizabeth Vrba, has proposed an explanation for the arrival of new species and the demise of those old and less adaptable to the impact of climate change. A change, she explains, that has caused woodland to become savannah, and force tree dwelling hominids to walk upright -- be bipedal – to thereby free their hands in order to survive in a new treeless environment.

The molecular biologists have contributed with the genetic evidence; using mitochondrial DNA, they have revealed that a ‘modern human family’ had originated as a single genetic line in Africa within the last 200,000 years. They later emigrated 55,000 years ago, generation by generation: one group moved along the coastlines of southern Arabia and India; and another group moved into western Asia, the Levant and then Eurasia.

This book provides a readable overview of the past history and present of research into the origins of human life.