People of the Stone Age: Hunter-Gatherers and Early Farmers (Illustrated History of Humankind, Vol. 2)
This volume is second in a new series devoted to the history and development of humans, as told by an international array of anthropologists. The first book, The First Humans: Human Origins and History to 10,000 BC ( LJ 12/93), covered human origins; this one focuses on what Colin Renfrew calls in the foreword "the Great Transition," when technology, food production, and human settlement advanced markedly. All areas of the world are explored, although much of the material covers Europe exclusively. Written for informed lay readers, the work succeeds through a combined use of short articles and extensive color photographs of sites and artifacts. This volume compares favorably with the dated Time-Life series, "The Emergence of Man," published in the early 1970s. People of the Stone Age is current, even including an article on the Ice Man of Tyrol, discovered in late 1991. It is a good acquisition for libraries desiring a lavishly illustrated, nonacademic treatment of early human history.- Joyce L. Ogburn, Yale Univ. Lib., New Haven, Ct.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.