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The Handshake: A Gripping History

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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.

174 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 25, 2021

51 people are currently reading
593 people want to read

About the author

Ella Al-Shamahi

2 books20 followers
Ella is a National Geographic Explorer, palaeoanthropologist, evolutionary biologist... and stand-up comic. She specialises in Neanderthals, caves and expeditions in hostile, disputed and unstable territories. She almost exclusively works in places it is hard to get insurance, such as Iraq, Yemen, Nagorno-Karabakh and places she can’t publicly admit to. From heading up exploratory expeditions to joining cave excavations, the conditions can be unusual, from avoiding landmines to wearing a burqa for security reasons.

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5 stars
49 (22%)
4 stars
88 (41%)
3 stars
64 (29%)
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12 (5%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
Profile Image for Chris Siler.
33 reviews
January 6, 2024
I do love single topic science books. A deep dive into some random quirky topic? I’m there, and Ella Al-Shamahi delivers. I’d never given more than a passing thought to the handshake, other than what my professors keep harping on about for interviews. And I’d certainly never thought it was old enough for primates to be doing it (though I think the bonobos may have it more figured out than the chimps in the greeting department). I’m happy to report on the other side of 2020 that the handshake does again, reign supreme over formal greetings, though Ella gives some great ideas for alternative handshakes, should global pandemics threaten us once again. Got an airline interview coming up, think I might try the ol’ penis handshake, see how that goes over. I’ll keep you guys updated.
Profile Image for Dave Summers.
279 reviews1 follower
August 21, 2025
Half of this book is the nerd backgrounder I was craving . The other half is a rapidly poorly aging occasionally political diatribe. Unnecessarily judgey, author would have benefited from Michael Jordan’s ethos that everybody buys sneakers. Disappointed.
Profile Image for Shannon.
16 reviews
September 3, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I only chose to read this after enjoying the Human documentary series. Very well researched, but digestible to read, especially considering the anthropological aspects. I was surprised and loved just how funny this book is, plenty of laugh out loud moments!
4 reviews
May 3, 2021
This is a very topical and fascinating appraisal of a critical aspect of human interaction. The author has a wide experience of human interactions and uses this to home in on the specific function that hand shakes form in social bonding. She brings both humour and erudition to this task.

I would definitely recommend this for everyone who is feeling starved of human contact as an indication of the importance of this part of our behaviour.
Profile Image for George.
47 reviews5 followers
March 25, 2021
The Handshake, by Ella Al-Shamahi, is a witty and engaging short read. Documenting the history of the handshake from its inception until March 2020, when it completely disappeared from use due to Covid-19, this book seeks to investigate exactly where the handshake as we know it came from. The author is a palaeoanthropologist herself, and thoroughly investigates the origins of the human handshake, as well as handshakes used by certain species in the animal kingdom, ultimately proving that it is not a human construct, but is instinctual. She details the symbolism of the handshake and looks at why we as humans use it. She also looks at other greetings used worldwide, especially those used by uncontacted tribes, who use certain greetings that are remarkably similar to those used in the globalised world. The following chapters feature a step-by-step guide to the perfect handshake, and cover some of the best and the worst handshakes in history. Finally, other forms of handshake for use in our modern times are considered, and the author draws on first-hand experience to make a rather amusing close to the book. This is a highly engaging non-fiction book which I would recommend to anybody wanting to learn more about a topic relevant to us all. It is an accessible book for the general reader, but is very well researched.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Profile Books, for the review copy of this book!
Profile Image for Antonio Gallo.
Author 6 books56 followers
March 21, 2021
Esattamente un anno fa scrissi un post con questo titolo. Non avrei mai pensato che un anno dopo ne avrei scritto un altro con il medesimo titolo, in occasione della pubblicazione di un libro su un argomento del genere tanto insolito. E’ pur sempre vero che la realtà riesce a superare la più sfrenata fantasia.

E’ inutile che io stia qui a ricordare cosa e perchè è successo tutto questo. L’intero pianeta Terra è stato costretto ad evitare la stretta di mano, una delle azioni più comuni che gli uomini hanno fatto dalla notte dei tempi. E’ diventata un’azione pericolosa, tanto da uccidere. E’ pur vero che con le mani gli esseri umani si sono scannati sin dai tempi di Caino, ma che si potesse arrivare ad uccidere semplicemente stringendosi una mano, di strada ce ne abbiamo fatta. Strette di mano pericolose da non compiere se vogliamo fermare la diffusione di un nemico tanto invisibile quanto diabolico, che abbia mai condizionato la vita degli esseri umani.

L’autrice di questo libro, Ella Al-Shamahi, una scrittrice nata da una famiglia araba yemenita, naturalizzata inglese di Birmingham, scrive che la nostra mano è un’arma biologica che brulica di agenti patogeni pronti a contaminare chiunque stringa un’altra mano. La nostra mano diventa, quindi, anche l’occasione per scrivere una storia dell’orrore alla maniera di un libro giallo.

E’ stato calcolato che un cm2 di pelle della mano contiene 10/7 (dieci alla potenza di sette) batteri. Il comune virus del raffreddore sopravvive sulle mani fino a tre ore. Ella Al-Shamahi è un’autrice, esploratrice, paleoantropologa accademica, cabarettista e presentatrice televisiva. Un curriculum impressionante, che meriterebbe molte strette di mano di congratulazioni, ma è il caso di tenerla a distanza.

Un libro sul passato e sul futuro della stretta di mano ha una non trascurabile importanza in questo nostro tempo che vede lo scontro dei pugni, il tocco dei gomiti o l’oscillazione della caviglia, sistemi che hanno sostituito in maniera del tutto comica, la storica stretta di mano.

Il libro accattivante di Al-Shamahi ha una pretesa più generale, scende nel campo dell’antropologia. Non vuole essere semplicemente un resoconto della crisi nei modi di vivere che il Covid ha causato. È in effetti un piacevole esempio di scrittura antropologica pop.

Si dice che la stretta di mano abbia avuto origine nel Medioevo per dimostrare che chi voleva stringerla non aveva il “coltello sotto il mantello”, come affermava Geoffrey Chaucer. La cosa viene decisamente smentita da Al-Shamahi. Nelle sue ricerche, infatti, dice di aver trovato un rilievo mesopotamico del IX secolo a. C. nel Museo dell’Iraq a Baghdad che assomiglia molto a un rituale che stringe la mano.

Ci sono poi, lei lo scrive, riferimenti a strette di mano in Omero. Nei libri di storia si legge che nel 1901, Leon Czolgosz si avvicinò al presidente americano McKinley, invitandolo a stringergli una mano. Ma, poi gli sparò con una pistola ammantata nell’altra. Come si dice nella filosofia Zen, qualunque cosa sia vera, è più vero il contrario.

L’anno passato ci ha liberato da molte intimità pubbliche obbligatorie tradizionali, con grande sollievo di chi non ci ha mai creduto. Le strette di mano sono espressamente vietate, non possiamo più respirare l’aria, nè liberamente baciare sulla guancia. Possiamo anche fare a meno di queste azioni, ma la stretta di mano è così fondamentale per la nostra cultura che qualcosa di importante andrà perso se scomparirà dalla vita quotidiana.

Ci è stato insegnato da piccoli che una stretta di mano deve essere ferma e decisa, che il baciamani è un atto galante, anche atteso e voluto. Gesti sempre benigni, di saluto, approvazione, fiducia e fraternità anche se gli antropologi non sono tutti d’accordo, e se la stretta di mano sia un universale che trascende le culture. Le prove sono contrastanti. Certamente lo sfregamento del naso Maori rimane una preferenza locale. Non so se lo fanno ancora da quelle parti.

Nel libro non si dice. Ma la sfrontata Ella non si fa scrupolo di ricordare la scossa del pene come saluto in uso nella tribù australiana dei Walbiri. Gli scimpanzé tremano, ma gli umani orientali no. Recenti ricerche hanno dimostrato che tutti i movimenti della pelle eccitano il nervo vago, che è collegato a tutto, compreso il membro precedentemente citato. Sembra che siamo programmati per tremare, anche se lei non lo dice.

Quello che è certo è che le mani sono state sempre oggetto di grande attenzione anche artistica. Quel famoso disegno del 1508 di Dürer mostra mani in preghiera intense di emozione. Adamo che cerca la mano di Dio sul soffitto della Cappella Sistina di Michelangelo non sarebbe stato lo stesso se fosse stato un colpo di gomito. Per la maggior parte degli italiani, il gesto della mano è una seconda, se non una prima, lingua. Questo lo sappiamo bene. Non ci voleva lei, la Ella Al-Shamahi, a farcelo notare.

I molteplici significati della stretta di mano sono dimostrati nella violazione del gesto tanto quanto nell’osservanza. Rifiutare una mano offerta è un insulto devastante. C’è chi i modi convenzionali con le mani non li accetta, come ad esempio non li accettava Donald Trump, germofobo per eccellenza.Tuttavia, in un raro atto di autodisciplina, accettò il rischio fino al punto da far diventare la stretta un’epica scossa di 29 secondi con Emmanuel Macron al loro primo incontro. Al terzo, si baciarono.

Culturalmente parlando, la stretta di mano è sempre esistita convivendo tra l’etichetta e la gestione dei germi. È uno dei pochi gesti tattili a nostra disposizione che invita all’intimità senza suggerire anche un interesse erotico o predatorio. Alla fine, quando tutto sarà finito, almeno lo speriamo, dovremo fare un patto tra i benefici emotivi del contatto della stretta di mano e il conseguente rischio di contagio. Al-Shamahi ha scritto un libro allegro, spiritoso e ben studiato, anche se, lei dice, è un argomento “sporco, malsano e vietato”. Dio solo sa quanto!
Profile Image for Holly Cruise.
336 reviews9 followers
December 8, 2021
Short, very short, book about the handshake. Is there an equivalent of 'novella' for non-fiction? Is this a longread with a nice cover?

It starts with the science bit, and by the science bit, I mean a chapter or two about the deep-time origins of the headshake as an inherited gesture from an ancient ape who gave rise to humans and chimps. There's evo-psych/evo-archeo and I was a bit wary of this section. I know evo-psych and the like are a recognised field, and I'm sure there's science to back it up, but I can never quite convince myself of its full veracity. This is probably on me. Reading about how humans are hardwired to want to shake hands and hug is weird to an autistic person who often very much does NOT want to do either of those things (my brain wants physical contact with select people only, and if you're not on the list it will direct me to avoid; sorry, it's not personal).

The observations of hand gestures in other species, and throughout human societies is pretty interesting, whatever my brain thinks of it. And Al-Shamahi is a witty writer (you can tell she's also a standup). I enjoyed her observations about behaviour and her railing against covid-19 for cruelly stealing away handshakes when she's spent 2/3 of her life not doing them as part of her "fundamentalist Muslim" upbringing. Her passion for the handshake added another reason for me to hope the pandemic ends soon - she deserves to shake hands! Such joy in doing so.

Another very short read, and perhaps a tiny bit padded out at the end with a chapter doing short looks at famous handshakes, good and bad, which was a bit lightweight. But overall, charming and cheerful.
Profile Image for Vanessa N.
128 reviews
December 8, 2022
‘The Handshake’ is fun, interesting, data-driven, and incredibly apt in today’s new normal.

It’s a short read in which no words are wasted on fluff - that in itself is worth celebrating.

One intriguing thing that I’ve learnt is that handshakes go beyond the tactile. The touch in handshakes allows smell to be delivered to the recipient (chemo-transfer). In fact, many people tend to unintentionally smell their hands after a handshake (Eg: by touching their face more, etc) We may have shook hands instead of other body parts because there’re more receptors in our fingers and palms.

Of course, handshakes are not prevalent in countries such as Japan and Thailand. The author suggests that this could stem from a historical and cultural response to similar epidemic events (instead of cultural respect). After a few generations, the original reason may be lost.

My views on the simple handshake have indeed been ‘forced into a paradigm shift’, thanks to palaeoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi.

Other fun stuff: Our extra-long thumb revolutionalises our dexterity and propelled our ability to create things.

All in all, I’m way too mesmerised by the no-longer-trivial handshake.
Profile Image for Rosario.
1,156 reviews75 followers
September 18, 2022
I enjoyed this; it was interesting. Why we shake hands and all the implications of when and how we do it is quite a topical issue these days, and Al-Shamahi brings an interesting perspective to it, both as a palaeoanthropologist and as someone who used to refuse to shake hands due to her religious beliefs. The writing is engaging and lighthearted, and makes this very readable. However, when you have a book that is under 200 pages and a big chunk of it is Buzzfeed-style listicles of top 10 best/worst handshakes, then I start to doubt whether the author had enough to say for a book, or whether this should have been a long article (much as I enjoyed said listicles).
3 reviews
January 12, 2023
I’ve been a fan of Ella for a while and was thrilled to finally receive her book at the holidays. To me, there is nothing more appealing than a comedic approach to anthropology, sociology, and history. Reading her thoughts on handshakes during and post COVID seems almost more interesting now that it did during the height of the pandemic as we see how split people have become on social distancing, touch, etc. I loved this read and am hoping for (much) more from her!
211 reviews2 followers
September 10, 2025
The first three chapters do a reasonable job of covering the history and origins of the handshake, but the remaining chapters read too much like excuses to pad the book out. I also found the author's jokes" increasingly annoying.

As the author says in her acknowledgements section: What a remarkably well-suited ‘lockdown project’. Well, so that explains this book's existence. It was a product of its time.
Author 1 book10 followers
March 28, 2021
Will the handshake die an ignominious death due to covid-19? Ella Al-Shamahi draws from multiple disciplines to trace its history, the reliance of our society on a quick 'unit of touch' that symbolizes diverse but positive messages, and the resilience of this simple gesture. Loved the chapters on history's best and worst handshakes.
Profile Image for Stacey.
23 reviews
April 18, 2021
An incredibly interesting wander through history and meaning - why do we handshake? Does everyone? What other options are there/have there been? And how will C19 affect it, of at all?
Fascinating, and I'm now obsessed with watching how we greet each other!
Profile Image for Shane Neeley.
Author 2 books1 follower
April 20, 2021
This book helped me accept my first handshake in about a year. It was worth it! A very plain one compared to some of the eccentric traditions in the book. But satisfying nonetheless as the primate I am in need of skin contact.
82 reviews
May 17, 2021
A timely book about handshakes, their historical and anthropological importance to us as humans. Although it clearly has an academic base, it is an accessible book for all readers, providing humour and genuine thought provoking details on handshakes.
Profile Image for readsofmytwenties.
64 reviews
August 7, 2023
I really loved this book. It’s SO well written, and timely in this post(?) covid era. Some bits were a little denser and slower paced than others (hence the 4 stars), but overall a fun, interesting, lovely read.
Profile Image for Emma Govan.
29 reviews1 follower
April 2, 2021
An incredible read. Really interesting and well written. V funny.
Profile Image for Ian.
239 reviews2 followers
September 16, 2021
Really enjoyed this short history of the handshake and it’s future or lack of a future etc… really interesting evolutionary points as well.. ella is a very witty writer as well
Profile Image for Callum Batchelor.
15 reviews
December 28, 2021
Really witty and insightful book. The author is clearly a very intelligent person and her humour had me in fits of giggles. Highly recommend
950 reviews17 followers
October 24, 2022
A gripping read, detailing the history of how the handshake is older than we think, along with cultural norms and values, including the author's own views on the subject.
Profile Image for Happy Heinrich.
30 reviews
August 14, 2025
Great coverage of the topic in the first half, but the second half is skippable. Also, written during the pandemic and seems like a bit of a time capsule in places.
Profile Image for Daniel.
1,179 reviews852 followers
March 30, 2024
Ella Al-Shamahi
The Handshake: A Gripping History
Profile Books
176 pages
7.0
Profile Image for Andrea Premoli.
163 reviews2 followers
December 19, 2023
Un saggio interessante e divertente. Capace di essere leggero nonostante l'argomento, scientifico e molto circoscritto, grazie ad un linguaggio semplice e chiaro. L'ultimo capitolo, relativo alla possibile scomparsa a causa della pandemia di questo gesto insito nel nostro DNA, lascia ampi spunti di riflessione: ci crucciamo tanto per questa pandemia, convinti che "nulla sarà mai come prima", ma la realtà dei fatti è che non è la prima (né l'ultima) crisi temporanea che affrontiamo - noi e il gesto di stringersi la mano.
Profile Image for Duncan Laanela Pearce.
17 reviews1 follower
December 9, 2024
An interesting book about the history and implications of such a seemingly mundane task. Loved the book and made me take handshakes more seriously.
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