Rating: 
Summary: Excellent introductory book from a field authority
Review: Dr. Tattersall's writing is straightforward, unbiased and presents a clear view of this compelling area of paleoanthropology. Written as an introduction to the field, the volume does as charged, with copious full page photos, illustrations and a summation of currently held theories without the complexities of a technical journal.
Rating:
Summary: Great Intro To Our Neanderthal "Cousins"
Review: I am a high school student with an interest in human origins and I found "The Last Neanderthal" fascinating. The author does justice to Neanderthals without making the book too academic. He answers, as much as current theory and evidence allow, many of the questions I had about Neanderthals: How much like us in intellect and abstract thought were the Neanderthals? Were they our ancestors? What was their geographic range? How many were there? When did they disappear? Did modern humans eliminate them? And so on. Tattersall discusses cranial shapes and skeletal remains, other human ancestors, genetics, stone tools, cave bears, and what have you. There are plenty of photographs of skeletons, skulls, tools, maps, and plenty of sidebar topics. This is a great book for intelligent laypeople of all ages and I greatly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Intro To Our Neanderthal "Cousins"
Review: I am a high school student with an interest in human origins and I found "The Last Neanderthal" fascinating. The author does justice to Neanderthals without making the book too academic. He answers, as much as current theory and evidence allow, many of the questions I had about Neanderthals: How much like us in intellect and abstract thought were the Neanderthals? Were they our ancestors? What was their geographic range? How many were there? When did they disappear? Did modern humans eliminate them? And so on. Tattersall discusses cranial shapes and skeletal remains, other human ancestors, genetics, stone tools, cave bears, and what have you. There are plenty of photographs of skeletons, skulls, tools, maps, and plenty of sidebar topics. This is a great book for intelligent laypeople of all ages and I greatly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Illustrations, Clear Concepts, Outstanding Text
Review: I'm not a reader who usually pays too much attention to photos and illustrations, but I could recommend "The Last Neanderthal" on that basis alone. There are nearly 150 of them in this 200-page book, some covering an entire page in my oversized edition. Almost all of them are superb. The illustrations are mostly of various fossilized bones and reconstructions. They are not haphazardly thrown throughout the book or tightly grouped in the middle, but introduced when appropriate for the text.Ian Tattersall's set-up of what is known about Neanderthals is masterful. Most of the first third of the book is about evolution, how fossilization works, and a brief description about what is known of the precursors to both Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. Tattersall is clearly at home with this material and confident in his presentation of it. He takes his time in this area - even though it has little to directly do with the topic of his book - because one cannot understand Neanderthals unless one has some understanding of other pre-modern humans and the scientific techniques used to understand them. The set-up is not wasted on a flat ending. When Tattersall finally gets to the Neanderthals, he maintains a high level of interest for the reader by first showing how the scholarly views on Neanderthals have changed so much over the last hundred-fifty years (much more fascinating than it sounds) and then by moving into areas about its evolution and what is known about its lifestyle. He appears to be a fair partisan, pointing out evidence both for and against different sides of the numerous controversial topics on Neanderthals.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Illustrations, Clear Concepts, Outstanding Text
Review: I'm not a reader who usually pays too much attention to photos and illustrations, but I could recommend "The Last Neanderthal" on that basis alone. There are nearly 150 of them in this 200-page book, some covering an entire page in my oversized edition. Almost all of them are superb. The illustrations are mostly of various fossilized bones and reconstructions. They are not haphazardly thrown throughout the book or tightly grouped in the middle, but introduced when appropriate for the text. Ian Tattersall's set-up of what is known about Neanderthals is masterful. Most of the first third of the book is about evolution, how fossilization works, and a brief description about what is known of the precursors to both Homo neanderthalensis and Homo sapiens. Tattersall is clearly at home with this material and confident in his presentation of it. He takes his time in this area - even though it has little to directly do with the topic of his book - because one cannot understand Neanderthals unless one has some understanding of other pre-modern humans and the scientific techniques used to understand them. The set-up is not wasted on a flat ending. When Tattersall finally gets to the Neanderthals, he maintains a high level of interest for the reader by first showing how the scholarly views on Neanderthals have changed so much over the last hundred-fifty years (much more fascinating than it sounds) and then by moving into areas about its evolution and what is known about its lifestyle. He appears to be a fair partisan, pointing out evidence both for and against different sides of the numerous controversial topics on Neanderthals.
Rating:
Summary: Great descriptions and illustrations
Review: Ian Tattersall has a superb sense of what a layman wants to know about neanderthals and our origins of Homo Sapiens. The book is beautifully illustrated with photos and diagrams of bones, skulls, and charts. He tells us the latest theories of where the neanderthal originated and how they relate to Homo Sapiens. He is forced to use many pages to describe all of our possible ancestors to show where the Neanderthal fits in the grand picture.
Rating:
Summary: the last neanderthal
Review: Tattersall's book is a must have. It covers all the basics in a compelling style and with particular focus on site locations. The photos and illustrations are as good as those of any "coffee table" book. It is too light on some particular aspects concerning extinction, e.g. hybridization, pelvic ring size, birth/death ratios, and exotic disease resistance, but is superior in descriptions of Neanderthal morphology and environment.
Rating: 
Summary: Neanderthal True Human or Sub Human?
Review: Tattersall's work is best demonstrated in "The Last neanderthal". A brief history of the neanderthal finds starting in the 1800's to the present. Though I hold closer to the view in Jack Cuozzo's "Buried Alive", Tattersalls 'Neanderthal' includes some rare pictures not often seen elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Neanderthal True Human or Sub Human?
Review: Tattersall's work is best demonstrated in "The Last neanderthal". A brief history of the neanderthal finds starting in the 1800's to the present. Though I hold closer to the view in Jack Cuozzo's "Buried Alive", Tattersalls 'Neanderthal' includes some rare pictures not often seen elsewhere.
Rating: 
Summary: Lavish Photography and Illistrations
Review: The Last Neanderthal is a lavishly photographed and illustrated book. Ian Tattersall covers the Neanderthal finds with great detail, and a lot of the book is devoted to the history of discovering and analyzing the Neanderthal finds. Mr. Tattersall is a pure evolutionist - as one would expect - but he is very careful to identify his opinions verses the actual findings at Neanderthal sites. This is a refreshing change from the usual "scientific" approach by other authors on such subjects who present their opinions as fact. This careful technique adds a great deal to the book and speaks well of Mr. Tattersall's mind set. A lot of authors cannot distinguish their opinions from fact. The book is very interesting, well written and a lot of fun to study. There are some unanswered questions, because the cannot be answered, that should have at least been mentioned. For example, what role did disease play in the eradication of the Neanderthals? Perhaps the "invading" humans brought diseases that managed to end the species without any overt aggressive acts. In any event many such questions go unaddressed, but that is a minor complaint in an overall impressive effort
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