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A Natural History of Myself
Random House
February 2009
On Sale: January 20, 2009
368 pages ISBN: 1400065410 EAN: 9781400065417 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The well-dressed ape, aka Homo sapiens, is a strange
mammal. It mates remarkably often, and with unprecedented
affection. With similar enthusiasm, it will eat to the
point of undermining its own health–behavior unthinkable in
wild animals. The human marks its territory with doors,
fences, and plastic flamingos, yet if it’s too isolated it
becomes depressed. It thinks of itself as complex,
intelligent, and in every way superior to other animals–but
is it, really? With wit, humility, and penetrating insight, science
journalist Hannah Holmes casts the inquisitive eye of a
trained researcher and reporter on . . . herself. And not
just herself, but on our whole species–what Shakespeare
called “the paragon of animals.” In this surprising,
humorous, and edifying book, Holmes explores how the human
animal–the eponymous well-dressed ape–fits into the natural
world, even as we humans change that world in both
constructive and destructive ways. Comparing and contrasting the biology and behavior of
humans with that of other creatures, Holmes demonstrates
our position as an animal among other animals, a product of–
and subject to–the same evolutionary processes. And not
only are we animals–we are, in some important ways (such as
our senses of smell and of vision), pitiably inferior ones.
That such an animal came to exist at all is unlikely. That
we have survived and prospered is extraordinary. At the same time, Holmes reveals the ways in which Homo
sapiens stands apart from other mammals and, indeed, all
other animals. Despite the vast common ground we share with
our fellow creatures, there are significant areas in which
we are unique. No other animal, as far as we know, shares
the human capacity for self-reflective thought or our
talent for changing ourselves or our environment in
response to natural challenges and opportunities. One
result of these extraordinary characteristics is the spread
of our species across the entire planet; another,
unfortunately, is global warming. Deftly mixing personal stories and observations with the
latest scientific theories and research results, Hannah
Holmes has fashioned an engaging and informative field
guide to that oddest and yet most fascinating of primates:
ourselves.
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