The Human Past: World Prehistory and the Development of Human Societies

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Customer reviews

review by: paulmckee date: 2009-02-18 rating:
A tremendous piece of work
I have always wanted to understand more about prehistory (The history before writing) and early history and this book has provided a unique resource for this, and all in one place. br /The book is highly accessible and well written and informs across a broad range of subjects. For example, I never new that Africa went straight into an Iron Age, missing the bronze age altogether! dating methods such as Carbon 14 and mitochondrial DNA are well explained, together with limitations of the approaches. br /I would recommend this book to anyone who seeks to find out a bit more about where we came from.

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review by: date: 2008-12-06 rating:
Actually...
This book contains a vast history of human life and covers many aspects of the development of human societies which is sympathetic and complimentary to students of anthropology as well as archaeologists. br /Well referenced and presented with clean lines and good spacing makes this book informative and a pleasure to read with many illustrations to clarify and support the text. br /There is also a 'further reading and suggested websites' section to conclude each chapter, acting as a starting point for further study of a topic. br / br /In short: In-depth and informative. br / br /And the language? Had not noticed... This book is on the undergraduate reading list for the Arch and Anth course at Cambridge, no one seems to mind.


review by: date: 2008-10-04 rating:
THEY CAN'T SPELL, THEY WON'T SPELL
Do NOT buy this book. br / br /This is meant to be the erudite textbook for an Open University course. Unfortunately, this book makes it impossible to read and concentrate on key concepts, when for some mystifying reason the publishers have chosen to use 'Americanese cod-spelling', instead of the correct printed form of Queen's English we use here in the UK. br / br /This is extremely off-putting and should NOT be deployed in a UK textbook by UK academics writing for UK students in the UK. It may be an increasing, unwelcome and disgraceful trend in British universities - and if so, it is a 'trend' that should certainly be thoroughly resisted! No doubt some people will, in Orwellian fashion, deliberately misconstrue what I am saying as racist. However, they miss the point by a mile. br / br /Now, I may have made an unwitting 'typo' or syntax error here, everyone does now and then - but the format of this book is something else. This book is an insidious, and damaging, 'dumbing down' of the worst kind. An assault on correct English and an assault on the reader. The point is that, in the UK, plough is spelt just like that - p.l.o.u.g.h. - and centre is spelt c.e.n.t.r.e. - and artefact is spelt with an 'e' - an E! - not an 'i'. br / br /It is time that publishers woke up to the realisation - not -zation! - that the English language is NOT to be deliberately vandalised in this way, and the beauty and integrity of English usage here in this country, formulated over centuries, should not be compromised. br / br /** Particularly in works of 'academic' literature! ** br /So, author and publisher, Shame On You! br / br /Amazon customers: await the revised publication of this work with spelling corrected - or, meanwhile, if you do actually care about contributing to maintain good standards in our culture, language and heritage, then start by buying something else.

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