The World Before Us cover art

The World Before Us

How Science Is Revealing a New Story of Our Human Origins

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

The World Before Us

By: Tom Higham
Narrated by: John Sackville
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Fifty thousand years ago, we were not the only species of human in the world. There were at least four others, including the Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonesis and the Denisovans. At the forefront of the latter's ground-breaking discovery was Oxford Professor Tom Higham. In The World Before Us, he explains the scientific and technological advancements - in radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA, for example - that allowed each of these discoveries to be made, enabling us to be more accurate in our predictions about not just how long ago these other humans lived, but how they lived, interacted and live on in our genes today. This is the story of us, told for the first time with its full cast of characters.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Tom Higham (P)2021 Penguin Audio Anthropology Archaeology Biological Sciences Earth Sciences Evolution Evolution & Genetics Genetics Science Paleontology Natural History Africa

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Kindred cover art
Ancestors cover art
The Dawn of Language cover art
The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being cover art
Ancient Bones cover art
A Story of Us cover art
Human Evolution, 2nd Edition cover art
The Denisovans cover art
A Brief History of Earth cover art
Fossil Men cover art
Cave of Bones cover art
Buried cover art
First Peoples in a New World cover art
Close Encounters with Humankind cover art
The Origin of Humankind cover art
Neanderthal Man cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
Detailed description of the latest scientific discoveries in paleo anthropology. Accompanied by a PDF with figures. Very good narrator.

Informative and engaging

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Didn’t want it to finish, may start again from the beginning… Well narrated and totally fascinating

Wonderful

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I listened to it again straight away and learned more the second time around 🤓

Quality stuff

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The intriguing story of who we, are and where we came from, continues. With every new advance in technology, we further unravel the mystery of our origins. The inherent chronology and unexpected twists and turns make for an absolutely entertaining and very informative discourse.

Informative and well narrated

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I recently read Chris Stringer’s The origin of our species, which is little more than a decade old, so I was expecting a lot of overlap here, however it would appear that the field has come a long way.

The information is presented in a way that is both informative and entertaining and I was sad to finish the audiobook. (I have bought the actual book so that I can re-read).

Higham uses personal anecdotes as well as empirical data to take you on a journey of evolution and extinction over the past couple of million years, but is also humble enough to acknowledge the limitations of his assumptions based on the limited database of evidence.

Highly informative and entertaining. I didn’t want it to end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A good up to date account of human evolution. Glad to have listened to it.

Told well

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Absolutely amazing. Incredible insight into modern genetics. Fab performance. Really enjoyed this have listened to it five or six times. Just incredible what we can now know.

Excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Interesting book. Really got going in the last few chapters, but the back stories at the start provided evidence for such Interesting conclusions.

Fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great survey of modern understanding of the different species of humans among our ancient ancestors. Fair amount of focus on the techniques used to interpret evidence, and also attention paid to the story of the scientific process leading to where we are now.

Overall if you've ever thought this topic is interesting and wanted to explore a little deeper I'd definitely recommend this book.

I appreciated that the author makes it clear when he is stating a belief that is not established by scientific consensus. This book does not appear to have any agenda besides education (and at times boasting about his part in scientific achievements that he is especially proud of).

Fascinating topic well covered.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As a teenager, 50 years ago, I was fascinated by seeing paintings of Cro-Magnon man and assumed Homo sapiens had exterminated Neanderthals.
This book explores how we interbred and migrated. The science is fascinating and clearly explained, though you really need a life science background.
Much is hard facts but the book includes informed speculation.
Well worth a read. I hope there will I am able to read and understand the revised reprint explaining new advances in five or ten years time.

So much to learn about who we are and how we got here

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews