Before The Dawn: Recovering The Lost History Of...
Nicholas Wade divides Before the Dawn into twelve chapters, which are roughly in the chronological order of the human past. The first chapter, Genetics & Genesis, gives a general overview of the themes that are explored in the book. The central theme is that the human genome provides a record of the human past, including what Wade calls the "two vanished periods" of human evolution and prehistory.[1] Through information from the human genome, Wade proclaims, it is possible to determine when humans lost their body hair and began to wear clothes, to track their migration out of Africa, to discover if they interbred with Neanderthals, and even to reconstruct the evolution of language.[1]
Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of...
Mr. WADE: Well I, I found I was writing many stories about genetics, growing a human genome that was sequenced just three years ago, 2003, and many of them looks into dark corners of the human past that we, had been inaccessible before then. And I conceived the idea of writing this book focused on the most recent 50,000 years of our history. There are many books about fossil skulls and stone tools, and those end about 100,000 years ago. But 50,000 years ago I think is where it really starts to get interesting. That's when the ancestral human population lived. And many of these new genetic findings help explain aspects of our past that we would never have known about, otherwise. So in the book I've tried to weave together all the traditional disagreements that bear on the human past, archeology, paleo-anthropology, historical linguistics, with the thread of genetics as the common theme.
Mr. WADE: Well it, I think it's lost because there are so many, sort of blank pages in our history. You know, from about 50,000 years ago to 15,000, which is when you see the first settlements, there are almost no records left of what we did except for a few stone tools and the painted caves of Europe. It's all gone. So you might think it would be impossible ever to reconstruct what happened then, and yet the genome gives us a way of doing so. At least sketching out the broad outline of what was happening.
2.Wade also mentions several times throughout the book that the ancestral people (meaning the early Homo sapiens circa 50,000 years ago) were so aggressive that it was impossible for them to live in settled communities, and that's why humans did not live in permanent settlements until later in our history when we lost our aggression. Not only is his evidence for this claim extremely slight, but he later contradicts himself by saying that people living in settled communities would have been under constant risk of attack. First of all, he offers no evidence for this. Who would have been constantly trying to attack them? He doesn't say. But if it were true, then doesn't that imply that humans were still freakishly aggressive after they started settling permanently, if there were such frequent rampages against each other? Gahhhh, the holes in logic here hurt my brain. And this is only one example of many.
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_OC_InitNavbar("child_node":["title":"My library","url":" =114584440181414684107\u0026source=gbs_lp_bookshelf_list","id":"my_library","collapsed":true,"title":"My History","url":"","id":"my_history","collapsed":true,"title":"Books on Google Play","url":" ","id":"ebookstore","collapsed":true],"highlighted_node_id":"");Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our AncestorsNicholas WadePenguin Books, 2007 - Science - 314 pages 22 ReviewsReviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identifiedNicholas Wades articles are a major reason why the science section has become the most popular, nationwide, in theNew York Times. In his groundbreaking Before the Dawn, Wade reveals humanitys origins as never beforea journey made possible only recently by genetic science, whose incredible findings have answered such questions as: What was the first human language like? How large were the first societies, and how warlike were they? When did our ancestors first leave Africa, and by what route did they leave? By eloquently solving these and numerous other mysteries, Wade offers nothing less than a uniquely complete retelling of a story that began 500 centuries ago. What people are saying - Write a reviewUser ratings5 stars114 stars73 stars42 stars01 star0Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identifiedLibraryThing ReviewUser Review - themulhern - LibraryThingI tried to listen to this multiple times, but never really got into it. Since Wade wrote his COVID essay, though, he is a more interesting person, so I decided to give the book another go. Continued ... Read full review
We undertake this task in the belief that an eye-witness of many of the scenes and incidents herein detailed and a personal acquaintance of most of the actors in and sufferers by the overwhelming calamity, is best prepared to give a reliable version of its remarkable phenomena, adventures and contingencies; of its wonderful escapes, fearful tragedies and indescribable results but it is necessary for the reader to understand, that very few intelligent observers witnessed the scenes and incidents described from the same points of observation; that many were overcome by fear, personal bereavements or great anxiety; that before the bewildered gaze of every onlooker, the appalling panorama of flame passed with the speed of the whirlwind, licking up, with its thousand-forked tongue, great blocks of brick and stone buildings as readily as if they had been mere toy houses of lath; and that intelligible description is necessarily hampered by these and a hundred other influences that encumber the minds of those who are now seeking to make a reliable history of these astounding occurences. The reader that did not witness these scenes never can picture them to his imagination. The readiest writer that saw and mingled in them will never present the picture as he saw it, to the mind of his reader: for neither pen nor pencil can do it justice. However heart-rending the details, the rent hearts of thousands of bereaved ones will declare them far, very far, short of the truth.
Some fears are expressed that real estate will deteriorate now, and that lots in the burnt district will be less valuable than before the fire, for a year or two to come. Those who are badly involved, and therefore obliged to sell, will not realize as much for their property as under more favorable conditions, but prices generally will not recede, and the demand will soon bring about a material advance in really desirable property; for strangers are even now coming here to invest capital and engage in trade, and this influx will increase more rapidly than ever before in our history when the world is convinced, as they soon will be, of our
Boards of Trade all over the land also convened with alacrity and poured out their treasures abundantly; swelling greatly the funds which were to partially relieve the distresses of those who had thus suddenly lost their all, and were afflicted, as were never before so many persons in so short a time.
A short distance on, we come to a lone stone wall, the foundation of a house, the former residence of a family named Lawrence, all of whom perished. Immediately in front of this place was the iron work of a wagon, which once belonged to Chas. Lamp. Lamp lived about a mile beyond, and when he found the fire approaching his house so rapidly, he hitched up his team, and with his wife and five children drove with all speed toward Peshtigo. In a very few minutes after starting he heard screams in the wagon, and looking back found that the clothes of his wife and children were all ablaze. It was certain death to stop, and he therefore urged his horses to still greater speed, but before he had moved many rods, one of the horses fell, and finding that he could not get him up, and seeing that all of his family were dead, Lamp started to save his life, which he did after being most horribly burned. He is now in the hospital at Green Bay, and is slowly recovering. When at the latter place I saw him, and had a full narrative of the bloody tragedy from himself. What little was found of the charred remains of the wife and five children were buried in a field not far off. Of the wagon not a speck was to be seen, excepting the half-melted iron work.
During the whole of the 17th, and of the ensuing night, the gale increased in severity, and the fire raged with unabated violence. The city now seemed but the almost boundless crater of an indistinguishable volcano. Various colored flames shot up to an immense height into the air; incessant explosions of gunpowder, saltpetre out of iron and stone, and burning rafters were hurled far off into the surrounding plain, crushing many in their fall. Multitudes encircled by the flames in the narrow streets were miserably burned to death. The scene of confusion and dismay has probably never been equalled. The soldiers, stifled with smoke, singed with flames and lost in the streets of the burning city, fled hither and thither, before a foe whom they were unable even to attack. They were often seen staggering beneath immense packages of treasure, which they were frequently compelled to abandon to effect their escape. Miserable women were seen carrying one or two children on their shoulders and dragging others by the hand, attempting, often in vain, to flee from these accumulating horrors. Old men, with beards singed by the fire, crept slowly and feebly along, and in many cases were overtaken and destroyed by the coils of flames that pursued them. Napoleon was indefatigable in his exertions for the rescue of his soldiers and the remaining inhabitants.
In the same year of the last great fire in New York, Quebec suffered terribly from the same destroying element. On the 28th of May a fire broke out in the Faubourgh St. Roch which destroyed 1,500 buildings before it could be quelled. Several lives were also lost. Exactly one month later 1,300 buildings were burned, and by these two conflagrations nearly two-thirds of the city was laid in ruins. The pecuniary loss has been stated at $8,000,000. 041b061a72
