Adam or Ape: A Sourcebook of Discoveries about Early Man

By and Stephanie Prost [Eds.] Leakey, L. S. B., Jack Prost

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0870737015
• ISBN13: 9780870737015
• Release Date: January 1971
• Publisher: Schenkman Publishing Company
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Get to the Roots of the Evolution Debate

The debate now raging over Darwinism, creationism, "intelligent design" and human evolution is mostly just a discussion of the contents of "Adam or Ape". This amazing collection of essays, speeches and scientific papers, several dating from the 1920s, should be required reading for BOTH sides. For me, the biggest surprise is the piece by William Jennings Bryan (who was portrayed as a pathetic old fool in 'Inherit the Wind', the movie about the Tennessee Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925). His essay here is of course a Christian's defense of Genesis, but it's far more thoughtful and eloquent than any ignorant propaganda peddled by later believers. Another of the collection's many gems is Dart's paper on his African discoveries that revolutionized the scientific version of the human story. The editor, the great anthropologist L.S.B. Leakey, had a broad, deep understanding of evolution that came from digging in the earth as well as digging through old documents. If you're looking for books to sharpen your own arguments, buy this one first. Bryan's essay is worth more than all the Creationist nonsense published since. On the Darwinist side, many more recent books are mostly just superficial summaries of the papers that can be found here in the far more interesting (and well-written) originals. "Adam or Ape" is like discovering the missing link in the debate over Darwin. It richly deserves a place on the same bookshelf with the King James Bible and The Origin of Species. (This review is written by Van Howell, E.F. Salzman's husband.)