The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal

"Wonderful....Jared
Diamond conducts his fascinating study of our behavior and origins with a
naturalist's eye and a philosopher's cunning." --Diane
Ackerman, author of A Natural History of the Senses

In this fascinating, provocative,
passionate, funny, endlessly entertaining work, renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning
author and scientist Jared Diamond, author of Gun, Germs, and Steel, explores how the extraordinary human animal,
in a remarkably short time, developed the capacity to rule the world . . . and
the means to irrevocably destroy it.

We human beings share 98 percent
of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the
planet--having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and
diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created
breathtaking works of art--while chimps remain animals concerned primarily
with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent
difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary
cousins?
The Third Chimpanzee is a tour de force, an iconoclastic, compelling, sometimes alarming look at the unique and marvelous creature that is the human animal.