This little book, first published in 1948, is part of the Chicago Natural History Popular History series that explains difficult subjects in ways and terms we all can understand. It was published at a time in Anthropology when exciting things like carbon dating were first being used and refined. "Prehistory means the time before written history began. Actually, more than 99 per cent of man’s story is prehistory. Man is at least half a million years old, but he did not begin to write history (or to write anything) until about 5,000 years ago. The men who lived in prehistoric times left us no history books, but they did unintentionally leave a record of their presence and their way of life. This record is studied and interpreted by different kinds of scientists." - Summary by the author and phil chenevert