The Book Prize Index

The Ascent of Mind: Ice Age Climates and the Evolution of Intelligence

William H. Calvin

Calvin journeys around the world to show how drastic and frequent climatic changes affected our ancient ancestors in dramatic, life- altering ways--that in matching wits with the undependable prehistoric climate, early humans first developed the capacities for society, culture, and ethics.

ScienceScience · high confidenceScience81 signalsLlm Classifier: Science -> ScienceOpen Library: Effect of climate on -> Nature & EnvironmentOpen Library: Evolution -> ScienceScience & DiscoveryClimate, Weather & DisasterTechnology, Computing & AI

Award History

0 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science and TechnologyMajor1991FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    Matching wits with drastic, frequent Ice Age climatic changes helped early humans develop capacities for society, culture, and ethics.

    Model confidence 66%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    45 / 100 academic

    Trade / academic crossover

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 52%.