Lieberman was my unofficial mentor when I was an undergraduate at Brown University, and this is the one of his books that made the greatest impression on me. It describes in clear and convincing detail why, how -- and at what cost -- humans evolved not merely the cognitive but also the physiological capacity to use language and speech.

Briefly, Lieberman argues first that language and speech must have co-evolved (as opposed to the capacity for language coming first, perhaps being used in gestural modalities before the capacity for speech came about). The reasons for this are complex, but the gist of it is that a supra-laryngeal vocal tract that permits formation of the sounds of human speech is such a non-survival characteristic (adult humans are the only mammals incapable of breathing and drinking simultaneously (thus also rendering infants subject to SIDS in the period when the larynx drops), small mouth and small teeth make us work harder to ingest food, etc.) that it would never have evolved at all if the capacity to use language had co-evolved with some other adequate modality of language use. In addition, general principles of natural selection tell us that the cognitive capacity for language (probably) did not evolve independent of an ability to use language.

Next, Lieberman argues that the cognitive capacities that make language possible are the very same ones that make possible all of the cognitive "feats" that we consider to be particular to humankind: creativity and innovative thought, as well as our highly-developed hand-eye coordination and digital manipulation abilities.

In my view -- but not Lieberman's -- the third part of his argument is something of an afterthought, not a necessary part of his theory and more speculative than data-driven. However, it remains an extremely important and interesting speculative exercise, namely: what is the origin of "true" altruism (by which I mean something more than "kinship" or other, lesser forms of altruism)? Lieberman implies that the same brain areas that evolved to make efficient, linguistic, syntax-governed communication possible are the same ones responsible for true altruism, a trait found only in human beings (if even there!).

To summarize, this is Lieberman's most readable book, intended for a broad, lay audience, and functions as a terrific counterpoint both to hardline, evidence-be-damned non-Darwinian language theorists such as Chomsky and Pinker and to sloppy evolutionary psychology which fails to distinguish the (admittedly few) qualitative differences between human and nonhuman mammalian decision-making.

Lieberman, Professor of Linquistics at Brown University, argues that the unique ability of humans to speak and to rapidly process language information gives us our evolutionary edge over other species. (One on one, tigers win.) His account is a rich revisiting of an idea put forth by Darwin as he places at the center of our unique capacity as a species our ability to work together and transmit information through a rich linquistic tradition. Moreover, he supports his argument with an abundance of data on human speech and language ability and traces the evolution of these abilities. A worthwhile antidote to simplistic "selfish gene" thinking which has become too popular.

My wife and I have hiked the Swiss Alps for 4 consecutive summers. The Lieberman book got us hooked on Switzerland. The book is the most informative resource for "off-the-beaten track" travel in Switzerland. Perhaps the greatest feature of the book is the detail in which every walk is described almost from "boulder to boulder" so even the amateur hiker can feel confident in the alps. Secondly, the book opens up a whole new world for travellers not familiar with "vacation apartments". These rental properties are the REAL "bargains" that can be found in a stereotypically expensive country for travellers. It is obvious the Liebermans have written the book with passion and have uncovered several hidden gems such as the villages of "Ardez" and "Les Haudéres" that most travel guides overlook. If you didn't have this book you'd miss fabulous remote villages and hikes that are well within reach of the average hiker. I have bought both editions and am planning to buy their new book on Mountain Inns...its probably great!

Walking Switzerland-The Swiss Way was an invaluable source of quality information. I used the book to help me choose which hikes in the Val d'Herens, in the Saas Valley, and around Zermatt would best suit my tastes during a two week hiking trip. Each hike was described accurately. The book does not contain wasted prose on "touristy" information, but rather concentrates on the details of each individual hike. The authors have carefully organized the details (how long, how high, what views may be seen at each pass) of each hike. Using the book, I was able to select a new hike each day. I knew what to expect with each new hike, and I was never disappointed with the book. This is the most informative, most accurate book of its kind that I have seen. I recommend it to anyone who wishes to hike in the Swiss Alps, and who needs some ideas of exactly where to go and what to expect. Information is not limited to the Valasian Alps. Hikes in the Jura, Engadine, Ticino, as well as in the Eiger, Moench, Jungfrau region are described as well.

Neither light reading or science for the masses, this book is reasonably approachable and very informative. An excellent complement to Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct: this one handles the physiology of language, while Pinker discusses how language is structured by the brain. Lieberman's book is full of the big ideas and fascinating details that make science reading such a pleasure.

This is a must read book for all those who dreams of taking a walking tour in the Swiss Alps. If you are naive like myself you might be facing trecherous vacation as I call it. This book vividly explains what you will expect in the mountain Huts. You may end up sleeping with cows or going out in cold for a bathroom shed in the dark. I am happy that I read this book and rather hiking high I decided to walk downstairs. Authors have certainly very good experiences with the mountains, they know the people there and book explains life in the Huts and type of terrain you might expect and weather conditions. It is not certainly the hills of Vermont, it sounds like it is serious bussiness like climbing Mt. Everest or may be I got scared out of proportion, either way it is a must read for every novice wanderer before you get on the plain.

I'm a compulsive trip planner, and our recent trip to the Alps sent me into trip-planning overdrive. This book was my favorite resource for finding out-of-the-way lodging in the mountains of Switzerland. From the descriptions of the Hotels themselves, to the guides to Switzerland's various regions, to the suggested hiking trails, we found Marcia Lieberman's advice to be impeccable.

Our favorite was the Hotel Waldrand Pochtenalp, a place so far from the beaten path that we never would have found it without the help of this excellent guide!

This is a must-have book for planning any kind of trip to Switzerland. Even if you are just vacationing in one city, it gives you descriptions of short hikes you could do. My husband and I hiked for 6 days going from berghotel to berghotel with a few train and lift rides in between. The information was accurate for all modes of transportation. This book gives you phone numbers to make reservations in advance and very good recommendations for restaurants too. Some of the places we stayed were authentically Swiss with only visiting European tourists. We didn't see many Americans and it made it fun to mix with everyone from different countries. I wish every hiking book was this concise for planning a perfect hiking trip.

Lieberman's "Human Language and Our Reptilian Brain" is a surprisingly readable and fascinating exploration of language and the brain by one of the most ardent anti-Chomskyian neurolinguists writing today(Lieberman, a professor at Brown Univeristy, embodies a healthy opposition to the Chomsky/Pinker madness at MIT). The thesis of the book is that there is no one neural center or "seat" of the human capacity for language. Rather, what we call "language" is in fact a functional system distributed throughout the brain, and is entangled with subcortical circuitry that is not normally associated with language function. Lieberman discredits the blatant intuitionism of Chomskyian linguistics by citing some of the most recent studies in neurolinguistics.

The book assumes some knowledge of neural anatomy, and serious scholars are encouraged to make use of the bibliography. But I think that Lieberman's work exemplifies the neuroscientific approach to understanding human behavior, and I recommend this book for anyone with an intellectual stake in the nature of language and the brain.

This book provides a solid introduction to the realm of speech physiology, speech perception, and acoustic phonetics. The material is highly accessible, even to the reader with little background in linguistics, mathematics, biology, or engineering. The down side is that the information involving experimental and analyitical techniques is somewhat outdated due to advances in technology. If you're looking for a basic, understandable, and wide-ranging introduction to the field, though, I would definitely recommend this book.

I give this work a "C" because I expected more from a man who has spent most of his life engaged in the study of the evolution of human speech and language. This book is loosely constructed, as if the author dictated a few paragraphs over coffee each morning, with little apparent direction in mind other than discussing the overall, global idea that language and speech have evolved along with the anatomy of the head and neck. That's ok, however. This book is geared more to the average reader with some science background. He does a nice job discussing other research that was germinal to our present day understanding of speech perception and production. He reviews his own research on reconstruction of the vocal tracts in skulls of early man. Although his studies over 30 years, which suggested that the human larynx descended in order for human speech to develop, made him almost a popular science icon, alas, some of his work subsequently has been dismissed by various linguists and paleo-anthropologists.

For example, there is no reason why humans could not develop speech and language with a higher seated larynx. Indeed, a human can be understood while using just ONE vowel in running speech (this is in iximpil iv whit i min). And a language could be constructed around one vowel by simply making longer words. Also, humans who are adept at buccal speech (where the vocal tract is basically the oral cavity) can be readily understood.

It is true that a lowered larynx indeed allows more vowels to be produced and makes speech more efficient, but that does not prove that this was why the larynx descended. The larynx may have descended in order for humans to bellow out deeper nonspeech warning cries to predators. And, further, a higher larynx is not the reason chimps do not talk. That is to say, there is no reason to suspect that had their larynges moved South, nonhuman apes would begin conversing in human-like fashion. Lieberman points out that the chimp lacks higher cortical centers for speech and language, but he eschews a Chomsky-type innate language acquisition device. His arguments against this are interesting, if not compelling.

Certainly, articulators such as the tongue,velum, and lips, and the way they are articulated are far more critical to the production of speech than is the position of the larynx. Yet, the perception of speech takes place despite fairly sloppy articulation.

In Lieberman discussion of vocal tract normalization, he suggests Terrance Nearey (1978) first described this phenomenon, when, indeed, this concept was written up very nicely by Tim Rand in a Haskins Lab Research paper in 1970.

As Lieberman writes in the Coda of this book, "Evolution in itself has no direction." Despite his research and views, I believed the larynx gradually lowered in humans, but did not HAVE to. It just evolved that way and consequently made speech more efficient. Lips could have protruded more to lengthen the vocal tract (and thus allow more vowels), but, if anything, human lips, in general, have receded over time, not protruded. Yes, a lowered larynx increases the risk of choking to death, but does this really prove that the reward of more efficient speech is the underlying cause for this? Who knows?

What came first, the lowered larynx or language? I say, language, however "primitive" it may have been. What did Eve say to Adam? Obviously, she spoke the equivalent to "Yes" or we would not be here now. Lieberman is correct in saying there may have been many Adams and Eves over the past five million years. He exhibits his humane side when he adds "We are not the lords of creation, made in God's image because we talk, masters of the birds and beasts, which cannot speak. The purpose of human life is surely that we must use the gift of speech, language and thought to act to enhance life and love, to vanquish needless suffering and murderous violence - to achieve a yet higher morality." He may be stretching it a bit here, but it would be nice to think he is right.

Given how short this book is, it's surprising how poorly organized it is. There's a lot of interesting information in here but the job of turning Lieberman's incoherence into a reasoned thesis is left entirely up to the reader. This is really a shame, since some of Lieberman's arguments and cited studies really are interesting -- but in that sense _Eve Spoke_ is more of a limited reference tool than a book. I've read this book twice, and the content is still pretty fuzzy. I'm just thankful it wasn't assigned reading, as taking notes for this must be a nightmare.

In short: decent writing, useful material, terrible organization. Definitely a library read.

Lieberman's book is concise, well-written, and fascinating. While the book may be intended for a popular audience, some knowledge of basic anatomy and neuroscience is necessary in order to fully appreciate his ideas. The organization of topics is refreshingly casual, unsuitable for textbook writing, but perfectly appropriate for this particular work. A quick, enjoyable, and informative read. Great preparation for a cocktail party.

Having spent more than 25 years in radio, a good portion of it behind the microphone, I was sorely disappointed by Mr. Lieberman's book. An Englishman, Mr. Lieberman has no experience in radio, other than as a listener. That hardly provides the qualities needed to provide indepth, insightful observation to the mania in the mornings practiced by radio stations all across the country. The taut one line to short paragraph descriptions fail to do justice to the men and women who "cranked up the sun and kicked the rooster" for radio listeners each morning. Perhaps the most grievious of errors is the fact that West Coast personalities get the short shrift in Mr. Lieberman's book. Unless you're a die hard radio history book collector or someone who doesn't mind throwing away $30 on this book, I'd recommend that your money is better spend on other books covering the subject.