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.