Missing Links: In Search of Human Origins

  • John Reader
Oxford University Press 350 pp. £25 (2011)

The cast of ancient superstars in palaeoanthropologist John Reader's book has grown significantly in the 30 years since the first edition. Neanderthal Man, Lucy and other early hominin fossils are joined by finds from Homo floresiensis to Ardipithecus in a stunningly illustrated update. Powered by enthusiasm and peppered with controversy, the search for human origins is laid out clearly and succinctly, from the first fossils and Victorian revelations, to frauds such as Piltdown Man and triumphs such as the 'world's oldest child': the Australopithecus afarensis fossil unearthed in Ethiopia and called Selam ('peace').

American Madness: The Rise and Fall of Dementia Praecox

  • Richard Noll
Harvard University Press 390 pp. £33.95 (2011)

Between 1895 and the 1930s, tens of thousands of Americans were diagnosed with dementia praecox — an 'incurable' psychosis described by German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin. The diagnoses then petered out. Psychologist Richard Noll traces the trajectory of this near-forgotten disorder, showing how it became the first specified disease of psychiatry, legitimizing that field's place in medicine. Noll also shows how the debates today around the successor to dementia praecox, schizophrenia, are leading to a trend in psychiatry towards diagnoses that could fit better with genetics.

Galileo's Muse: Renaissance Mathematics and the Arts

  • Mark A. Peterson
Harvard University Press 336 pp. £21.95 (2011)

The great scientist Galileo Galilei was also a gifted draftsman and accomplished musician, steeped in Renaissance poetry. But art was no side interest for Galileo, physicist Mark Peterson claims. The mathematical inspiration for his findings, such as four of Jupiter's moons, was fished from the humanist stream then flowing so powerfully in Italy. So it was Dante's Inferno, Filippo Brunelleschi's great domes and artist-innovators from Piero della Francesca to Leonardo da Vinci, not the medieval tag ends of science, that inspired Galileo and ignited the Enlightenment, Peterson argues.

What Doesn't Kill Us: The New Psychology of Posttraumatic Growth

  • Stephen Joseph
Basic Books 288 pp. $26.99 (2011)

Tsunamis, assault, near-death accidents: such experiences are popularly imagined to scar victims 'for life' and leave them in thrall to post-traumatic stress disorder. After two decades of research, positive psychologist Stephen Joseph argues that, for many, these traumas can become an “engine for transformation”. Backed by case studies, he covers trauma's emotional toll, the underlying biology, the realities of resilience and the array of therapies on offer, such as trauma-focused cognitive behaviour therapy. This is a thorough and common-sense look at the psychology of survival.

The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon's Last Uncontacted Tribes

  • Scott Wallace
Crown 512 pp. $26 (2011)

Conquering civilizations have ebbed and flowed through Latin America, but uncontacted tribes such as the flecheiros (or Arrow People) still survive deep in the Amazon rainforest. Now their home and culture are threatened by deforestation, epidemics and marginalization. Journalist Scott Wallace takes us on a journey through a warzone where irreplaceable habitats and the knowledge of traditional peoples are the casualties.