The Third Chimpanzee for Young People: On the Evolution and Future of the Human Animal

by Jared Diamond, Rebecca Stefoff (Adapted by)

Overview

At some point during the last 100,000 years, humans began exhibiting traits and behavior that distinguished us from other animals, eventually creating language, art, religion, bicycles, spacecraft, and nuclear weapons—all within a heartbeat of evolutionary time. Now, faced with the threat of nuclear weapons and the effects of climate change, it seems our innate tendencies for violence and invention have led us to a crucial fork in our road. Where did these traits come from? Are they part of our species immutable destiny? Or is there hope for our species’ future if we change?

With fascinating facts and his unparalleled readability, Diamond intended his book to improve the world that today’s young people will inherit. Triangle Square’s The Third Chimpanzee for Young People is a book for future generation and the future they’ll help build. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781609806118
Publisher:	Seven Stories Press
Publication date:	05/19/2015
Series:	For Young People Series
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	73,791
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.01(h) x 0.96(d)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

In addition to teaching geography at UCLA, researching the birds of New Guinea and the Southwest Pacific Islands, and promoting the practice of sustainable environmental policies to leaders around the world, JARED DIAMOND is also the author of bestselling books about evolution and human history. Diamond studied physiology at Harvard and Cambridge, before narrowing his research to the cellular and molecular mechanisms of the gall bladder. It was on a summer trip to New Guinea in 1964, however, that he first began to carefully consider the questions that would intrigue him for the next half-century: why did New Guinea’s extremely intelligent and resourceful indigenous peoples have no writing, chiefs, or steel tools? His Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies was an attempt to answer that question. Diamond is the author of several other books on geography and evolutionary biology, including Why is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. The Third Chimpanzee for Young People is his first book adapted for younger audiences. Diamond lives in Los Angeles.

REBECCA STEFOFF specializes in writing nonfiction for young readers, with a focus on scientific, historical, and literary subjects. Her adaptations include A Young People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn and A Different Mirror for Young People by Ronald T. Takaki.

Read an Excerpt

How This Book Came to Be
My own interests and background shaped this book. As a child, I wanted to be a doctor. By my last year in college, that goal had gently changed, and I wanted to become a medical researcher. I trained in physiology, which is the study of how living systems function, from cells to animals. Afterward I went on to teach and do research at the University of California Medical School in Los Angeles. 

But I had other interests as well. Birdwatching had attracted me since the age of seven, and I had also been lucky to attend a school that let me plunge into languages and history. I did not like the idea of spending the rest of my life on physiology alone. Then I had the chance to spend a summer in the highlands of New Guinea, a large tropical island north of Australia. the purpose of the trip was to measure how successfully birds were nesting. That project collapsed when i was unable to locate even a single bird’s nest in the jungle, but the trip fed my thirst for adventure and birdwatching in one of the wildest remaining parts of the world.

After that first trip to New Guinea, I developed a second career, focused on birds, evolution, and biogeography. I’ve returned to New Guinea and the neighboring Pacific Islands many times to pursue my bird research. As I saw human activity destroying the forests and birds I loved, I became involved in conservation, helping governments design national parks to protect ecosystems and plant and animal species. 

Finally, it was hard to study the evolution and extinction of birds without wanting to understand the evolution and possible extinction of the most interesting species of all, the species that includes you, me, and everyone on earth—Homo sapiens, the modern human. this book was the result. It begins with a look at our origins several million years ago. It ends with some thoughts about our future, and about ways we can learn from our past. 

Table of Contents

Introduction: what makes us human?

part one: just another big mammal
chapter 1: a tale of three chimps chapter 2: the great leap forward

part two: a strange life cycle 
chapter 3: human sexuality 
chapter 4: the origin of human races chapter 5: why do we grow old and die?

part three: uniquely human 
chapter 6: the mystery of language chapter 7: animal origins of art 
chapter 8: agriculture, for better and worse 
chapter 9: why do we smoke, drink, and use dangerous drugs? 
chapter 10: alone in a crowded universe

part four: world conquerors
chapter 11: the last first contacts chapter 12: accidental conquerors chapter 13: in black and white

part five: reversing our progress overnight 
chapter 14: the golden age that never was 
chapter 15: blitzkrieg and thanksgiving in the new world 
chapter 16: the second cloud 

Afterword : nothing learned, everything forgotten? 

Glossary

Index

Photograph and Illustration Credits 

About the Authors 

Editorial Reviews

"This is exactly the kind of book that should be a 'set text' for a reinvigorated science curriculum: engaging, thought-provoking and bang up to the minute. If your teachers aren't recommending books like this - go out and get them anyway." Guy Claxton, author of What's the Point of School?

From the Publisher

This adaptation (with Rebecca Stefoff) of Diamond’s adult book, The Third Chimpanzee HarperCollins, 1992), guides the reader through the evolution of humans as they began to differentiate themselves from animals. Human DNA is less than 2 percent different from chimpanzees, yet we have created language, art, agriculture, and complex tools. Diamond shares the history of man’s migration from Africa to Europe, Asia, and eventually the Americas, proposing theories of how the climate, available food, and man’s innate traits affected that migration. He also discusses how colonization by more advanced cultures affected primitive tribes and the animal species in several areas of the world. Interspersed throughout the text are one- to three-page explanations giving more depth and specific examples of facts and theories discussed. He explains how biology, geography, archaeology, and ecology come together to help us understand the development of mankind over thousands of years. He also touches on the possibility of civilizations on other planets. Diamond provides a rather pessimistic view of human nature and our future, but dedicates the book to the next generation in the hope that they will learn from the past he has delineated here. This readable book will appeal to those with an interest in evolution and man’s effect on the environment throughout history. It could be used as a supplementary text for social studies or sciences in high school. Reviewer: Deborah L. Dubois; Ages 15 to 18.

VOYA, June 2014 (Vol. 37, No. 2) - Deborah L. Dubois

05/01/2014
Gr 9 Up—Adapted for younger audiences by the redoubtable Stefoff but not significantly different in scope, arguments, or, for that matter, reading level from Diamond's original (Harper, 1992, 2006), this wide-ranging study of what makes us human offers provocative views of evolution, adaptation, cultural diffusion, sexuality, genocide, race, mass extinctions of the past and present, the roots of drug abuse and language, and even the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ("we're alone in a crowded universe. Thank goodness!"). The strength of Diamond's views is what makes them provocative, whether he's explaining why we—uniquely among social animals—prefer to have sex in private, or portraying the urge to smoke or take dangerous drugs as another manifestation of seemingly anti-survival animal displays, such as the male Bird of Paradise's plumage. A reasonably large array of photos, charts, and period images supply illustrations for what amounts to a comprehensive compendium of current issues. Thoughtful readers interested in any fields related to evolutionary science, anthropology, psychology, human history, and culture will find plenty to ponder.—John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York City

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