- Publisher: Profile
- Year: 2021
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 174pp
- Illustrated: No
- Dimensions: 197x128mm
- Condition: New
- Weight: 0.2kg
- ISBN: 9781788167819
- Product code: 537241
The Handshake
A Gripping History
Ella Al-Shamahi New Paperback
Postscript summary
Drawing on new research, anthropological insights and first-hand experience, Ella Al-Shamahi explores a gesture that dates to perhaps seven million years ago and which we share with chimpanzees and bonobos. With examples such as the handshake between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, meetings with uncontacted tribes and political assassinations, she reveals the role this human touch has played in our history.
Product information
Full publisher description
'It's a little book of wonder, it's fantastic' Chris Evans
'A fabulously sparky, wide-ranging and horizon-broadening little study ... joyously unboring' Sunday Times
Friends do it, strangers do it and so do chimpanzees - and it's not just deeply embedded in our history and culture, it may even be written in our DNA. The humble handshake, it turns out, has a rich and surprising history.
So let's join palaeoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi as she embarks on a funny and fascinating voyage of discovery - from the handshake's origins (at least seven million years ago) all the way to its sudden disappearance in March 2020. Drawing on new research, anthropological insights and first-hand experience, she'll reveal how this most friendly of gestures has played a role in everything from meetings with uncontacted tribes to political assassinations - and what it tells us about the enduring power of human contact.
Because the story of the handshake ... is far from over.
'A fabulously sparky, wide-ranging and horizon-broadening little study ... joyously unboring' Sunday Times
Friends do it, strangers do it and so do chimpanzees - and it's not just deeply embedded in our history and culture, it may even be written in our DNA. The humble handshake, it turns out, has a rich and surprising history.
So let's join palaeoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi as she embarks on a funny and fascinating voyage of discovery - from the handshake's origins (at least seven million years ago) all the way to its sudden disappearance in March 2020. Drawing on new research, anthropological insights and first-hand experience, she'll reveal how this most friendly of gestures has played a role in everything from meetings with uncontacted tribes to political assassinations - and what it tells us about the enduring power of human contact.
Because the story of the handshake ... is far from over.
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537241
The Handshake
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Drawing on new research, anthropological insights and first-hand experience, Ella Al-Shamahi explores a gesture that dates to perhaps seven million years ago and which we share with chimpanzees and bonobos. With examples such as the handshake between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, meetings with uncontacted tribes and political assassinations, she reveals the role this human touch has played in our history.
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Ella Al-Shamahi
General
197x128mm
Profile
No
Paperback
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