From one of Canada's most distinguished writers and scientists comes this startlingly prescient examination of how humanity's evolutionary past shapes both human nature and the human future. Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 1955 and hailed by The New York Times as demonstrating "the imagination of an artist" and "the courage of an independent and original mind," Man's Emerging Mind is the compelling story of man's evolution, told with humour, insight, and poetry. In a book that remains as relevant as today's news headlines, Berrill examines the various crises confronting humanity-resource depletion, overpopulation, cultural nihilism, and ecological collapse-and suggests a way forward that safeguards both our essential humanity as well as the beauty and diversity of the natural world.

N.J. Berrill's profile page

N. J. Berrill was one of mid-twentieth-century Canada's leading scientists and writers. Born in Bristol, England, in 1903, he received his doctorate at the University of London. In 1928 he joined the faculty at McGill University, where he served as chair of the Department of Zoology for more than a decade and then as Strathcona Professor of Zoology from 1947 to 1965. His research focused on marine organisms and he contributed dozens of papers to leading scientific journals over a span of more than 50 years. Named to Britain's Royal Society in recognition of his accomplishments in science, Berrill embarked on a second career in the 1950s as one of North America's leading science popularizers. The Living Tide was singled out by Rachel Carson (author of The Sea Around Us and Silent Spring) as one of the best books of 1951, and two of Berrill's later works-Sex and the Nature of Things and Man's Emerging Mind-won the Governor General's Award for creative non-fiction, Canada's most prestigious literary prize. Berrill continued to carry out research in the United States following his retirement from McGill. He died in 1996.