Cro-Magnon cover art

Cro-Magnon

How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Cro-Magnon

By: Brian Fagan
Narrated by: James Langton
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Best-selling author Brian Fagan brings early humans out of the deep freeze with his trademark mix of erudition, cutting-edge science, and vivid storytelling.

Cro-Magnon reveals human society in its infancy, facing enormous environmental challenges - including a rival species of humans, the Neanderthals. For ten millennia, Cro-Magnons lived side by side with Neanderthals, an encounter that Fagan fills with drama. Using their superior intellects and tools, these ingenious problem solvers survived harsh conditions that eventually extinguished their Neanderthal cousins.

Cro-Magnon captures the indomitable adaptability that has made Homo sapiens an unmatched success as a species. Living on a frozen continent with only the most basic tools, Ice Age humans survived and thrived.

©2010 Brian Fagan (P)2010 Tantor Anthropology Biological Sciences Civilization Evolution Evolution & Genetics Science Social Sciences World Africa Polar Region

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Unbound cover art
Once and Future Giants cover art
The Great Warming cover art
The Dawn of Language cover art
Buried cover art
First Peoples in a New World cover art
The Neanderthals Rediscovered cover art
Some Assembly Required cover art
Scotland's Hidden Sacred Past cover art
Wild New World cover art
A Story of Us cover art
Across Atlantic Ice cover art
Denisovan Origins cover art
The Dragons of Eden cover art
African Genesis cover art
The History of the Ancient World cover art
All stars
Most relevant
Too much imaginative speculation, too little hard evidence. A good story but not an academic book.

A good general public book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book is a highly engaging exploration of how anatomically modern humans pushed out the Neanderthals using surprisingly small technological advances. The parts of the story which are related as a story of a meeting or hunting trip jar a little a thte beginning but they do add to the book greatly and, at their best, can really bring to life this era of human development.



If you have read Chris Stringer's "Homo Britannicus" the this is a must because it updates that story with new information.

Human prehistory brought to life

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The book is out of date. The triumphant speciesism is silly, as is the noble savage. The endless repetition is boring.

Outdated

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.