The more we learn about our many-handed cousins, the more fossils are found connecting us with them, and the more our and their genetic systems are studied, the plainer becomes our relationship with them. Millions have resisted this idea and millions have not yet reconciled themselves to it. Some today are still quite horrified by the thought of a "horrid chimpanzee" sitting on a branch and scratching, as a kinsman - or, worse yet, an ancestor, as was the lady of Princess Ida when wooed by a "most unsightly Ape".
Robbing and killing their "enemies" make much of the human species feel good. After all, a live man is superior to a dead one by any test you can give them. When you kill an enemy, you automatically make yourself his superior. So we should not be surprised when men go to bizarre lengths to find pretexts for attacking other groups, whether racial, religious, linguistic or other.
Our world faces a future of global warming, depletion of natural resources, overpopulation and religious and political strife. While some observers wring their hands in anxious frustration, others choose to ignore the future: "Why should I worry? I'll be dead by then anyway!" "Live for the present!" "What has prosperity ever done for me, that I should care what happens to it?"
Why can't human beings band together for global common good? Why do we fund it so difficult to get along with other people of different nations, religions and races?
Renowned science writer L. Sprague de Camp studies our global "wrong-headedness" by examining our primitive past. Writing with insight and humor, de Camp explores what makes us tick as the products - and victims - of our prehuman past. He delves into the legacy of evolution and shows how it has affected our historical and social development. The survival traits of our ancestors, which include foraging in bands, scrounging for food and chasing other scavengers away from the kill, are at the heart of our highly competitive and combative nature - the tendency to view others as adversaries.
Are we "only monkeys shaved"? Can we overcome our prehuman character? The Ape-Man Within answers these and other fundamental questions facing our global society.
L. Sprague de Camp is the author of over one hundered books including The Fringe of the Unknown (Prometheus).