Examining the evolution of humans The Making of Mankind, by Richard E. Leakey. Dutton, 1981. Cloth; 247 pgs. with excellent photos, maps and charts. $24.95 Recognized world-wide as one of the foremost practicing and theoretical paleoantrhopologists, Richard Leakey possesses in addition a social awareness. He is an ardent outspoken advocate for peace and much concerned with the threat of nuclear war. This book, with beautiful photos on almost every other page, first provides a very readable, concise summary of the gradual ascent of the first hominids (man-like mamals) beginning with the three million year old Homo habilis whose skull he found in Kenya with the aid of his Black Kenyan assistant. Leakey pro- ceeds to successively describe Australopithecus (about 2.5 mil- lion years old), Homo erectus (half a million years old), Nean- derthal man (100,000 years old) and modern Homo sapiens (40,000 years old). : For two million years, human beings were hunters of animals and gatherers of edible vegetation. The.earliest people, he stres- ses, survived because they lived in social groups, made neces- sary by the need for cooperation to hunt and to fend off predators. About 15,000 years ago, they developed a *‘mixed economy” of hunting-gathering and of agriculture. This comparatively seden- tary way of life resulted in the formation of small villages, which gradually turned, into towns and cities. It appears, as present and still continuing research indicates, that agriculture became mankind’s main form of life separately could be stored made this radical transformation possible. The book contains a fine study of the first great city, Jericho, built about 12,000 years ago. The Incas, who had an empire larger than that of Rome, build a city called Monte Alban, which rivalled Jericho. Deeply concerned about humanity’s survival, Leakey has long ; been a strong advocate of the basic truth that humans are not innately aggressive. He piles up.enough evidence to demonstrate that violence and wars result from environmental, societal and economic factors, not from innate drives. Furthermore, he effec- tively proves that human beings have only a few simple instincts such as the newborn’s sucking. A consistent and outspoken foe of racism, particularly of apar- theid, he declares in this book, as he had previously in “‘Origins”’ and in his up-to-date version of Darwin’s ‘‘Onigin of Species,”’ that the differences among races are literally skin deep only. Acutely aware that we face extinction should a nuclear war break out, he condems the callous atom bombing of Hiroshima. He says ‘* The lesson of Hiroshima must not be forgotten.’’ He concludes this book with the statement: ‘‘ The future (survival of the planet and of mankind) is up to us.”’ This is the kind. of book that can stir readers’ imagination. However, it is so very expensive that I urge our readers to ask their local librarians to stock a few copies. — Leon Baya ‘thropologist Richard Leakey. . Z Mankind’s evolution has left racial difference only: skin deep main- tains world renowned paleoan- - 4 = and independently in the Fertile Crescent (the arc of fertile land sheltered by the mountains and foothills of Israel, Jordan and Syria to the west, Turkey to the north and Iran to the east), in the valleys of central Mexico and in northern China. Just why hu- mans chose agriculture as a way of life is still being debated, but Leakey does state that the ability to produce surplus food which 80’s outlook grim Nuclear Nightmares: An investigation Into Possible Future nn by Nigel Caider. Penguin, NYC; 1979. Pager, 161 pgs.; 50. The most sinister, most vital (meaning, literally, life) danger mankind and our entire planet ever had to contend with remains the prospect of a nuclear war, with its inevitable, catastrophic results. All other considerations appear to pale into comparative insignificance. This book is made up of a series of talks the author delivered over the British Broadcasting System in 1978. A popularizer of science, Calder is the author of nine books and of numerous articles. Calder states, ‘* The outlook at the start of the 80's is surprising- ly grim.”” He further declares, ‘‘I do not flatter myself that I know how to save the world; I simply report the current faces and theories of nuclear warfare without advocating any particular remedy.” Calder is on firmer ground when he describes the loss of millions of lives, the poisoning of the air and the soil, and the inability of mankind to survive without food, medical care or industries. He censures ‘“‘the West,’’ (never identified as the capitalist nations), declaring, ‘‘Dr. Strangelove is not an entirely mythical character in the West, and fighting imaginary wars all of one’s lifetime leads to unbecoming enthusiasm in reckoning megadeaths. From the surreal world of analysts have emanated hypotheses about how to fight and survive a nuclear war that corrupt the Western concept of deterrence.”’ ; Further, Calder recognizes and emphasizes the stark menace to world peace which will come about were the United States to station the neutron bomb in Europe.’” The more than 100 Persh- ing ballistic missiles and the hundreds of others are capable of: delivering warheads to Soviet targets with great accuracy. Calder speaks of ‘the craziness of a first strike. It is just more obvious now that the most complacent Europeans see what a whirlwind they have reaped with these and other new weapons.” NATO, he admits, has never rejected the concept of a first strike. In the Vietnam War a general destroyed a town in order “to save it.”’ Calder states, ‘‘a first strike will eee Europe to defend it.”” Calder doubts that negotiations between the U.S. and USSR can bring positive results and states that the world’s people cannot possibly have any influence in halting the menace of a nuclear oblivion for all of us. Since Nuclear Nightmare was published, huge anti-nuclear, anti-war demonstrations have taken place in Italy, France, Holland, Belgium, England and in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany); the latter two nations massed close to 600,000 demonstrators who denounced the U.S. and NATO for their war drive — proof of the people’s potential. Because he emphasizes the destructive potential of nuclear war, Calder’s book is worth reading, despite his manifestations of — anti-Sovietism and his pessimism, always a_ reactionary philosophy. & RAGTIME. From the novel by E.L. Doctorow; screenplay by Michael Weller; directed by Milos Forman; produced by Dino de Laurentiis; photo- graphy, Miroslav Ondricek. With James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, Elizabeth McGovern, Mary Steenburgen, Howard E. Rol- Gunn. . Perhaps the most impressive aspect of E.L. Doctorow’s novels is that from his earliest work he has sought to reveal the bigotry, violence and corruption that pre- vail among the oppressive monied rulers in U.S. society. He first searches for actual events in his- always successfully, as un- fortunately was the case in The Book of Daniel, _ his fictionalization of the struggle of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg against their murders). In Ragtime, published in 1975 and continuing to remain a best seller, he has made up for those previous partial failures. Few his- torical novels have been able to capture the ‘‘feeling’’ of a period. as Ragtime does. Unfortunately the screenplay, though it has its merits, has failed to capture much of the turbulence underneath the staid surface of America at the birth of this cen- — Leon Baya os PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 15, 1982—Page 10 » tury. Readers of the novel will in fact be disappointed that much of -lins, Debbie Allen and Moses. tory, then fictionalizes them (not . ? Howard Rollins as Coalhouse with Sarah Ragtime lets down the book the politics have been removed. Early sequences interweave the style — and guilt — of that Gilded Age. The scene is Madi- son Square Garden on top of which socialite architect Stanford White had erected a nude statue of chorus-girl beauty Evelyn Nesbit. She was the wife of in- sanely jealous millionaire Harry K. Thaw, who murdered White when the latter refused to remove the figure. The events which follow lead us to the character we come to know as The Younger Brother, a neurotic inventor of firecrackers, in business with his brother-in- law; he lives with him, and his wife, Older Sister of Younger Brother in the lush suburbs. As the latter becomes obsessed ‘in his chase for the prized about- to-be divorced Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, it is at the home of the Older Sister and her husband that thé maid comes into the dining room shrieking that a Black infant has been dumped into the bushes in the garden. All rush out. The very proper business man is both disdainful and disgusted, but hor- rified when he sees his wife (Mary ‘Steenburgen) take the child in her arms lovingly. Soon the police find the mother, Sarah, (Debbie Allen) a distraught young Black woman, who was hiding. She and the child would be taken away but for the Father and Mother Older Sister who quietly but with 4 great power overrules her chauvinistic husband and the de- serted mother and child find a temporary home. The real story has begun. The news hits the papers, and ~— the father of the child, Coalhouse Walker, a handsome young rag- time pianist, finds his way to the house. Sarah won’t see him at first, but finally relents. I won’t try to match in mere words what happens that leads to the main action. Enough here to | si say that Coalhouse becomes the object of the most malicious racist ‘‘fun’’ by a group of whites; not only are his sense of manhood and justice mocked and viciously abused, but his newtar is literally defecated in, then damaged beyond repair. This abuse, for which he seeks justice and gets only a mocking runaround, builds not only to tragic prevention of his marriage but to his final rebellion, aided by a group of young Black men whorally around him, feeling similarly abused. As Coalhouse, Howard E. Rol- lins is superb, inspiring the rest of the cast, under. the expert direc- tion of Forman, to outstanding performances. James Cagney, a long retired and now 82, returns _ to the screen to play the cold, un- feeling police chief. —. A.T.