I must stress my debt to the work of hundreds of scientists over the course of more than a century. At a personal level, I owe much to my students and colleagues (the distinction has become very indistinct), who have continually pushed me to think harder about how we came to be and to carry out studies to test guesses (aka hypotheses). Terrance Nearey, and Robert Buhr were among the first. Molly Mack and Karen Landahl, whose untimely deaths have left a void, provided insights on how children and adults learn languages and the nature of speech and language, as did Judith Parker, Joan Sereno, Allard Jongman, and Patricia Kuhl. Joseph Friedman, Liane Feldman, Emily Pickett, Hiroko Nakano, Jesse Hochstadt, Beverly Young, Angie Morey, Sheila Blumstein, Jennifer Adeylott, Thanassi Protopapas, Sonja Kotz, John Donoghue, Ann Graybiel, and Oury Monchi helped me understand how brains seem to work. Alvin Liberman, Franklin Cooper, Edmund Crelin, Arend Bouhuys, Ken Stevens, Dennis Klatt, and Jeffrey Laitman played key roles in research on the role of speech in language and its evolution. Though I think that he has set a wrong course, Noam Chomsky initially set me on this journey. Tecumseh Fitch, before he signed onto Chomsky’s crew, made significant contributions on the evolution of human speech. Chu-Yu Tseng guided me through the tone languages that most people on earth speak. Liz Bates and Fred Dick helped in everything. My son Daniel Lieberman, with Robert McCarthy, showed that the time course for the development of the anatomy that allows humans to produce sounds that enhance speech communication extends over the first eight years of life, instead of a year. Daniel’s comprehensive study of the evolution of the human skull has been invaluable. My son Benjamin’s book, Terrible Fate: Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe, forcefully pointed out facts that cast doubt on any genetic basis for moral conduct. Robert McCarthy’s studies of the fossil record of human evolution were especially helpful. Svante Paabo graciously shared his thoughts on the transcriptional factor, FOXP2, that distinguishes us from other species. Eric Schwartz at Princeton University Press provided sagacious editorial advice throughout this project. And Marcia Lieberman put up with my continually intruding on her own work to see what she thought of what I was thinking of at the moment. But any misinterpretations of anyone’s research or ideas are my own.