Jeremy Crampton comments on David Livingstone’s book Adam’s Ancestors, here; a book I mentioned in my ‘reading list’ post yesterday. Jeremy provides a brief outline of what the book is about, and notes the part he paid in Livingstone’s argument. He suggests that Livingstone’s earlier book  The Geographical Tradition “must count among the best books in geography of the last 30 years”, something I would certainly agree with – indeed I included it in my list of ambitious geography books of the last 30 years.

Adam’s Ancestors is a really interesting book, and well worth a read. I found it most useful for my present purposes in suggesting some further reading. Jeremy’s post is helpful in providing a bit of background on one Preadamite proponent, James Gall, and his links to cartographic projections. The only thing I’d disagree with in Jeremy’s post is the suggestion that the fossil challenge to Biblical creationism was in the 19th century – I think it’s somewhat earlier, and predates evolution which has a somewhat different trajectory: I will post more on this as my own reading develops.