Becoming Human

Magisterial—merging primatology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology and evolution…Makes an impressive argument that most distinctly human traits are established early in childhood and that the general chronology in which these traits appear can at least—and at last—be identified. -- David P. Barash * Wall Street Journal *
How does human psychological growth run in the first seven years, in particular how does it instill ‘culture’ in us? Tomasello addresses this question…by comparing us to chimpanzees and bonobos. Most of all, how does the capacity for shared intentionality and self-regulation evolve in people? This is a very thoughtful and also important book. -- Tyler Cowen * Marginal Revolution *
An empirically rich view of human uniqueness that is not only informed by developmental psychology but also by cross-cultural and comparative research. Becoming Human is a theory of human origins, but it is first and foremost an attempt to understand the constant unfolding of our nature. -- Ivan Gonzalez‐Cabrera * History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences *
No philosophical question is older than What are we, we humans? Michael Tomasello contributes a splendid, empirically based answer to this hoary debate in Becoming Human. -- Benjamin Gregg * International Dialogue *
Theoretically daring, experimentally ingenious, and astonishingly generative, Becoming Human squarely tackles the abiding question of what makes us human. -- Susan Gelman, University of Michigan
This grand synthesis of three decades of collaborative research at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig is a landmark in our understanding of human development. -- Paul Harris, Harvard University
Becoming Human is destined to become a classic. Anyone who is interested in cognitive science, child development, human evolution, or comparative psychology should read this book. It surely would have provoked a letter from Darwin—an intellectual ancestor, along with Vygotsky, of this scientific masterpiece. -- Andrew Meltzoff, University of Washington
This is a must-read from a thinker who has had a major hand in our current understanding of the genealogy of human uniqueness and character. -- Henry Wellman, University of Michigan