Robert Ardrey Book order
October 16, 1908 – January 14, 1980
Robert Ardrey was a playwright and writer who became a pivotal figure in revolutionizing thought on human nature. His early plays, influenced by his mentor Thornton Wilder, found success on Broadway and later gained international acclaim. Ardrey transitioned to screenwriting in Hollywood, establishing himself as a top-tier writer. He later relocated to Africa, where his research into human origins led to his most influential work. In this, Ardrey challenged prevailing social science assumptions, positing that human behavior is partly shaped by inherited instincts, a hypothesis later largely vindicated by science.
- 1977
- 1972
- 1969
African Genesis
A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man
- 1961
“Not in innocence, and not in Asia, was mankind born.” So opens Robert Ardrey's earthshaking 1961 classic African Genesis, his first professional foray into the scientific realm. In 1955 Ardrey travelled to Africa to examine the collection of the then-obscure paleontologist Raymond Dart. He saw, culled from a cave occupied by early humans, a collection of antelope jawbones perfect for sawing, and antelope forelegs perfect for clubbing. He saw the skull of a juvenile proto-human, apparently bashed in. A growing body of evidence suggested that man had evolved on the African continent from carnivorous, predatory stock, who had also, long before man, achieved the use of weapons. An acclaimed dramatist, Ardrey's interest in the African discoveries sprang less from purely scientific grounds than from the radical new light they cast on the eternal question: Why do we behave as we do? Are we naturally inclined towards war and weapons? From 1955 to 1961, Ardrey commuted between the museums and libraries and laboratories of the North, and the games reserves and fossil beds of Africa trying to answer that question. The result was African Genesis. In a sweeping work that encompasses the evolutionary roots of nationalism and patriotism, private property and social order, hierarchy and status-seeking, and even conscience, Ardrey tells a story of man never before heard, and redefines what exactly it means to be human.
