This Very Short Introduction presents a succinct and accessible guide to the key episodes in the story of life on earth - from the very origins of life four mil

Fossils have been vital to our understanding of the formation of the Earth and the origins of life on it. Keith Thomson presents an explanation of fossils as a

This volume in Oxford's A Very Short Introduction series offers a concise, readable narrative of the vast span of American history, from the earliest human migr

This text is about the central role of evolution in shaping the nature and diversity of the living world. It describes the processes of natural selection, how a

There are many stories we can tell about the past, and we are not, perhaps, as free as we might imagine in our choice of which stories to tell, or where those s