The Man Who Found the Missing Link: Eugine Dubois and His Lifelong Quest to Prove Darwin Right

by Pat Shipman

A scientific adventure story follows scientist Eugene Dubois on his lifelong search for the missing link and for conclusive evidence that Darwin's theory of evolution was correct.

Genres: Science, History, Biography, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Popular Science, Evolution

515 pages, Hardcover

First published January 11, 2001

About the author

Pat Shipman is a professor of anthropology at Penn State University. Coauthor of the award-winning The Ape in the Tree, she writes for American Scientist and lives in Moncure, North Carolina.

Reviews

[Katy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit dry and heavy on the biography info (granted it is a biography). However, I was hoping to have more of an archaeological discovery side, I seemed to have learned more about his family and friends than his amazing discovery.

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This excellent biography by Pat Shipman delves deep into to life and career of Eugène Dubois. Using various source materials, including letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts, Shipman reconstructs key scenes from Dubois's life with the flare of a novelist. Dubois's primary claim to fame was the discovery of the first fossils of Homo erectus (called Pithecanthropus erectus by Dubois and also known as Java Man). This fragmentary specimen is also the result his greatest idea, as he was the first to suggest Indonesia as possible location to find Human ancestors. He would do other scientific work but he would spend much of his life promoting and defending his claim that he had found "the missing link".

Shipman clearly respects Dubois's scientific abilities but presents an honest, often unflattering portrait. Dubois was meticulous, brilliant, and determined but also thin-skinned, frequently petty-minded, egocentric, suspicious, and insensitive. Much of the book is framed by Dubois' friendship with Adam Prentice, a Scotsman who lived in the Dutch Indies. This strong friendship, which nonetheless was seriously strained by Dubois's behavior, was perhaps the closest emotional relationship Dubois ever had, even deeper than those with his wife or children. Shipman gives no explicit critique of the racial and sexual prejudices of the time but damns them by implication; she shows, primarily though Dubois's eyes, how thoughtlessly White and male supremacy were taken for granted.

[dejah_thoris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another excellent book by Shipman. This one has less colonial racism than the one on Florence Baker, which is a plus though it doesn't excuse the attitudes of those described. DuBois was also rather sexist, but if you can get past all those biases, he followed his dream and achieved it. This book also brought back warm memories of my early years at UM comparing real Neanderthal skulls to modern human ones in the human anthropology lab. Kudos to you, DuBois, for fighting the good fight right until your death.

[Mark Speed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard about this book on a podcast reference on a Wikipedia page. It's comprehensively researched, and I cannot imagine how hard the author worked on this; it's mind-boggling. She's taken a little bit of poetic licence in reporting some conversations, but that serves to give it life. It's proven invaluable to me for my research, and I'm grateful someone has done such an incredible job.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

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A peek into the "finding" of "Homo erectus". A recounting of the life Eugène Dubois. A place in history not secured. A world of betrayals, paranoia, egos, arrogance, disappointments and rivalries…all powerfully told…
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[Stephanie Foust · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Pat Shipman does an outstanding job depicting Eugene Dubois's life and search of early hominid Java man