Review by Choice Review
Even though the biblical account of human origins long dominated Western thought, serious challenges to Genesis began to emerge in the 16th century. Most were a consequence of European global expansion and ballooning knowledge of non-Western peoples and ideas. Biblical chronology began to crumble under discovery of the Americas, of human differences that defied received notions of universality, and of non-Western creation narratives. In the 16th and 17th centuries, skepticism was heresy, yet monolithic thought began to crack. Debate opened on questions concerning language origins, human ancestry, long and short chronologies for human history, and single or plural human genesis. These issues were not only theological and scientific. Origin narratives accrued political and economic significance. In the 18th century, human origin theories were involved in debates about slavery, forms of government, and diverse moral systems. The politics of pre-Adamism changed with new questions. As scientific readings of human origins gained ascendancy, Adamic thinking retreated to the realms of xenophobia, racism, and antisemitism. Livingstone (geography and intellectual history, Queen's Univ., Belfast) does full justice to this important history. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All upper-division and graduate collections and above. R. Berleant-Schiller emerita, University of Connecticut
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
