First Steps How Upright Walking Made Us Human

Blending history, science, and culture, a stunning and highly engaging exploration by an eminent paleoantrhopologist of how walking on two legs allowed humans to become the planet's dominant species. Humans are the only mammals to walk on two rather than four legs -- a locomotion known as bipedalism. We strive to be upstanding citizens, to honor those who stand tall and proud, to take a stand against injusticies. We follow in one another's footsteps and celebrate a child beginning to walk. But why and how, exactly, did we take our first steps? And at what cost? Bipedalism has its drawbacks: giving birth is more difficult and dangerous, our running speed is much slower than that of other animals, and we suffer a variety of ailments, from hernias to scoliosis. In First Steps, paleoanthropologist Jeremy DeSilva explores how unusual and extraordinary this seemingly everyday ability is. A seven-million-year journey to the very origins of the