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| The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) | 
 enlarge | Author: Jared Diamond
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: £9.78
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New (31) from £5.16
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 7512
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 0060845503
Dewey Decimal Number: 573.2
EAN: 9780060845506
ASIN: 0060845503
Publication Date: January 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Ships next business day. NEW/UNREAD!!! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing-- Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. PLEASE NOTE: Delivery time can sometimes take up to 21 business days to arrive; order ships from USA.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
"It helps us understand what it means to be human" August 15, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a brilliant examination of the rise of mankind from just another species of big mammal to our current domination of the earth, and an important exposition of our position in the world today.
Diamond combines many disciplines to produce a riveting dissection of humanity to dispel any myths of inimitable human nature, presenting examples of "human" nature in the animal kingdom, and the reasons for our sudden rise in The Great Leap Forward.
Diamond continues by warning the reader of the severe consequences of ignoring the destruction of the environment, ideas he pursued further in Collapse. Diamond, however, remains optimistic of our ability to learn from our mistakes and those if fallen civilisations, sentiments I don't share.
Like all of Diamond's books, this is immensely readable, and tackles a subject of great importance to how we perceive ourselves, our place in the universe, and the world around us.
Interesting, informative and entertaining May 17, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
2006 Harper Perennial reissue of 1st edition (1992), 368 pages
This is another of the twenty books Charlie Munger recommends in the second edition of Poor Charlie's Almanack (which I recommend very strongly you get and read). Two of Jared Diamond's books make it on to the list (this one plus Guns, Germs and Steel), so I had high hopes for his first book, The Third Chimpanzee. I wasn't disappointed.
A big theme in Poor Charlie's Almanack is the importance of multi-disciplinary learning. Munger believes that many/most academic disciplines suffer from `man with a hammer syndrome': if your only tool is a hammer, everything tends to look like a nail. Jared Diamond is a man who comes equipped with a full tool kit: he started off in medical research, then pursued a parallel second career in bird ecology, evolution and biogeography and is learning his twelfth language.
The first part of this book is about where we came from and how we have become so different to all of the other animals, when, for example, only 1.6% of our DNA differs from that of a chimpanzee. The second part is about our likely future as evidenced by our relatively recent past (though these broad headings are actually subdivided into five sections by the author).
The book is full of interesting facts and surprising (and well argued) theories. The evidence that he discusses when looking at whether we ever lived in harmony with nature and how far back and regularly our human genocidal tendencies manifested themselves is rather disquieting. It suggests strongly, for example, that my own laissez faire attitude towards the environment is emphatically not justified by human history. The difference between us and the Easter Islanders or Anasazi Indians is that we have a global resource base to compromise before we run into serious trouble.
Diamond also has a theory of how the plant and animal species available for domestication may well have proved the decisive factor in determining which of our societies spread and became dominant. I had not come across it before at all and I found it extremely interesting - it is a prime example of how broadening the information under review may lead to completely different and unusual conclusions.
The Third Chimpanzee is an excellent and interesting book and I have already purchased his next book Guns, Germs and Steel. (I particularly recommend the 2006 Harper Perennial reissue as it contains an interesting addendum at the back with information about Diamond, some recommended further reading, and, most importantly he also discusses new scientific discoveries made since the original 1992 edition.)
 Good book but dodgy conclusion April 17, 2007
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book is a good read, and is about what enabled the 'European' nations to reign supreme over the rest of the world.
Jared decides it was all down to luck. The luck of having the right crops and livestock available, the right climate and the right location.
The "Wealth and Poverty of Nations" by Landes, takes another view and attributed the West's power and wealth down to it's culture of relative freedoms - freedom to own and keep ones wealth for example - it's relatively free economies, that led to the quest for trade, expansion and invention.
The amazing thing is, that where Jared states that America, Africa and Australia were 'unlucky' with their lot, once the Europeans transplanted their culture & freedoms to South Africa, Canada, Australia and the USA these areas became some of the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world.
A good book non the less, but a dodgy 'politically correct' conclusion.
I'd reccomend you buy this and the Landes book for comparison and then make your own conclusion.
Too many ideas, but a useful primate primer September 2, 2006
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
"The Third Chimpanzee" was Diamond's first major book, and it sows the seeds for his three more recent works, "Why is Sex Fun?", "Guns, Germs and Steel", and "Collapse". Many of the chapters here introduce the ideas of the later books prior to their later expansion and development.
Diamond's aim is to view human history through the lens of biology: given that we are about 98% genetically identical to chimps, what light does that shed on our own life-cycle, culture, history and destiny?
The book's first section briefly documents our genetic history - our divergence from a proto-chimp ancestor, and the development of homo sapiens over about six million years (homo erectus, homo habilis etc). Diamond is always keen to draw out the political implications of his science, and suggests that if we were to label chimps as "homo troglodytes" rather than "pan troglodytes", we might make different ethical decisions about their treatment. I found this first section all too-brief - I'd have liked to see a lot more detail on the biological commonalities and differences between humans and chimps.
The second section reviews the human life-cycle, particulary our sexuality - why are we monogamous? How do we choose mates? What can sexual selection suggest about human races? This draws heavily on comparisons and contrasts with other animal species and I found it all interesting.
The third section covers the evolution of things that might seem "uniquely human" - language, art, agriculture, drug use - and traces animal precursors to see whether we really are as unique as we think. I found all of this to be far too brief - a whole book on this area would have been interesting. I did find sympathy with Diamond's argument that the development of agriculture was as much a curse as a blessing (being the source of the apparatus for political oppression).
The next section enters the territory of "Guns, Germs and Steel", discussing how much of human history has been determined by geographical and biological accident e.g. the difficulty in migrating crops across continents with a strong north-south axis (Africa and America) leading to a slower pace of development. This section also asks why the human race seems to be prone to genocide, again with a strong political slant.
The final section covers extinction - both analysing the countless past extinctions of other species that humans have caused, and the implications for our own future.
Throughout, the book's willingness to spell out political implications is very welcome. I also appreciated the extent to which the content draws on Diamond's own extensive work in New Guinea. On the downside, there are just too many ideas here, and it would be nice to see them all explored at greater length - although of course that's exactly what the author has since done in other books.
Marvellous August 6, 2006
4 out of 10 found this review helpful
All i have to say is that this book its one of the best books i ever read Dont pass it!
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