The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins, 3rd edition
Klein RG. 2009. The Human Career: Human Biological and Cultural Origins, 3rd edition. The University of Chicago Press. 989 pp. ISBN 978-0-226-43965-5
It has been twenty years now since the first edition of this book came out, and with each edition the book increases substantially in length and weight. In this voluminous third edition, the number of references swells by 1700 and the total page count approaches one thousand pages. Although there have clearly been considerable updates in sections, given the wealth of information that has come out in the past decade since the second edition was published, the text still follows the same overall structure as before. The first chapter gives a very quick introduction to evolutionary process, classification and nomenclature. It has not been substantially changed from previous versions (and unfortunately has some outdated views – such as the acceptance of the biological species concept in evolutionary biology), but remains a useful albeit too brief introduction to some rather complicated ideas. The second chapter focuses primarily on dating techniques, both relative and absolute. Chapter three gives a very brief background to a number of primate-related issues, including an introduction to the skeleton, classification and description of the Order, and highlights of pre-hominin primate evolution. Klein mentions in the Preface that this is the only chapter he has reduced from previous editions, as the fossil record has become increasingly complicated and difficult to relate directly to human evolution. Chapters four through seven focus on the paleoanthropological and archaeological record of human evolution, and as in previous editions are a rich resource for understanding the current state of knowledge in the field. Chapter eight concludes with a synopsis of the four chapters that preceded it. In addition to adding a considerable amount of updated detail and references, Klein has made two important changes to the structure of the book. First, he has moved some of the more detailed information into tables (such as tables of fossil sites and their geologic ages, fossils recovered, references, etc). Second, unlike in previous editions, where references were included throughout the text either by surname/date (first edition) or by number (second edition), this third edition has removed the references entirely from the text and instead includes brief listings of references (and what they focus on) at the end of each section. This may make the text more readable for students, although it is somewhat disconcerting for the academic who is more used to formal structured attributions.
