What makes us human? Drawing from his own experiences in wild places through the decades, the author challenges the conventional notion that being civilized somehow changes what we are. He argues that wildness is an essential part of our humanity, and that our complex civilization threatens it. WILDNESS AND BEING HUMAN questions the basic assumptions we make about ourselves as it follows the evolution of hominids into fully human beings, the development of towns and agriculture, and the unfolding of civilization during the past 5,000 years. This book also considers what we are becoming, while stressing the importance of staying connected to the natural world. It is a whole new way of looking at human nature.