This comprehensive and well-established text is appropriate for courses in world prehistory taught in anthropology departments. It tells the beginning student a narrative story of human prehistory with a global voice and without a specific theoretical viewpoint. Designed to show how today's diverse humanity developed biologically and culturally over millions of years against a background of constant climatic change, it treats all areas of the world evenly and covers all periods of prehistory from human origins to the appearance of literate civilizations. Recent discoveries, new archaeological methodologies, and the latest theories of human biological and cultural evolution are emphasized throughout.