Books like World prehistory by Grahame Clark

V. Gordon Childe’s 1939 work explores how archaeological evidence illustrates the Marxist view of cultural evolution, emphasizing interpenetration, creativity, and the entwined development of biological and cultural traits leading to modern humans.

How, where, when, and why did human beings take the first steps in their journey to populate North America? First published in 1987, The Great Journey tells the story of the search for the first Americans--one of archaeology's great controversies. An enhanced edition of this dramatic narrative and real-life mystery follows the trail of evidence from the Old World to the New, beginning with an update on the debates and discoveries that have taken place since the late 1980s. Fagan presents the latest archaeological findings on both sides of the Bering Strait, new genetic and linguistic research that amplifies earlier theories, and he assesses the importance of global warming to first settlement. The saga of how Asians came across the Bering Sea land bridge begins with the emergence of modern humans in tropical Africa some 150,000 years ago. Fagan describes the great Homo sapiens diaspora, which included the settlement of America, during the late Ice Age. He evaluates the various routes that brought Stone Age hunter-gatherers from Siberia into North America and beyond. This magnificently readable book, widely regarded as a classic of archaeological writing, sets forth different scenarios for first settlement, the controversies over the extinction of large Ice Age animals, and a brief overview of cultural developments since the time of the Paleo-Indians. Lavishly illustrated with maps, photographs, and line drawings, the updated edition of The Great Journey offers an entertaining yet sober assessment of what we know about the first Americans. Brian M. Fagan is emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

This little book, first published in 1948, is part of the Chicago Natural History Popular History series that explains difficult subjects in ways and terms we all can understand. It was published at a time in Anthropology when exciting things like carbon dating were first being used and refined. "Prehistory means the time before written history began. Actually, more than 99 per cent of man’s story is prehistory. Man is at least half a million years old, but he did not begin to write history (or to write anything) until about 5,000 years ago. The men who lived in prehistoric times left us no history books, but they did unintentionally leave a record of their presence and their way of life. This record is studied and interpreted by different kinds of scientists." - Summary by the author and phil chenevert

Colin Renfrew’s concise survey of human prehistory traces the emergence of human societies from early hominids to the dawn of writing, highlighting archaeological, geological, and genetic breakthroughs that illuminate our ancient past.