The Handshake: A Gripping History
(Paperback, Main)
Publishing Details
The Handshake: A Gripping History
By (Author) Ella Al-Shamahi
Profile Books Ltd
Profile Books Ltd
1st February 2022
2nd September 2021
Main
United Kingdom
Classifications
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
History: specific events and topics
302.222
Physical Properties
Paperback
176
Width 126mm, Height 196mm, Spine 16mm
170g
Description
'A fabulously sparky, wide-ranging and horizon-broadening little study ... joyously unboring' - Sunday Times
Friends do it, strangers do it and so do chimpanzees - and it's not just deeply embedded in our history and culture, it may even be written in our DNA. The humble handshake, it turns out, has a rich and surprising history.
So let's join palaeoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi as she embarks on a funny and fascinating voyage of discovery - from the handshake's origins (at least seven million years ago) all the way to its sudden disappearance in March 2020. Drawing on new research, anthropological insights and first-hand experience, she'll reveal how this most friendly of gestures has played a role in everything from meetings with uncontacted tribes to political assassinations - and what it tells us about the enduring power of human contact.
Because the story of the handshake ... is far from over.
Reviews
'Al-Shamahi's beguiling book has a more general claim to attention than merely being an account of the crisis in manners that Covid has made ... cheerful, witty and well-researched.' - Stephen Bayley
'It's a little book of wonder, it's fantastic' - Chris Evans
'A fabulously sparky, wide-ranging and horizon-broadening little study ... joyously unboring' - Sunday Times
'Having not particularly missed shaking hands over the past year, I ended this very engaging little book so desperate to get started again that I'm in danger of becoming a super-spreader.' - Telegraph
Author Bio
Ella Al-Shamahi is a National Geographic Explorer, palaeoanthropologist, evolutionary biologist and stand-up comic. Specialising in in Neanderthals, caves and expeditions in hostile, disputed and unstable territories, she is also a TV presenter, a TED speaker and has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She has degrees in Genetics, Taxonomy and Biodiversity, and is currently undertaking her PhD in Palaeoanthropology.
