From belief in Adam and Eve and a 6,000-year-old universe, Asimov traces the discoveries that have helped us piece together the history of man's origins. False leads, true finds, theories rejected and resurrected, and an outright fraud (Piltdown Man) are all part of the story, which Asimov tells with matter-of-fact dispatch if not distinction. (Wool's drawings, however, give the book a cheap, dreary, textbookish look.)