Released Feb.11, 2025 University of California Press
Humans give a lot of attention to the neck. We decorate it with jewelry and ties, kiss it passionately, and use it to express ourselves in word and song. Yet, at the neck, people have also shackled their prisoners, executed their opponents, and slain their victims. Beyond the drama of human culture, animals have evolved their necks into a staggering variety of shapes and uses vital to their lifestyles. The Neck delves into evolutionary time to solve a living paradox—why is our neck so central to our survival and culture, but so vulnerable to injury and disease?
Biologist Kent Dunlap shows how the neck’s vulnerability is not simply an unfortunate quirk of evolution. Its weaknesses are intimately connected to the vessels, pipes, and glands that make it so vital to existence. Fun and far-reaching, The Neck explores the diversity of forms and functions of the neck in humans and other animals and shows how this small anatomical transition zone has been a locus of incredible evolutionary and cultural creativity.
Reviews
“A novel blend of history, art, and science that tells readers everything they’ll ever need to know about a crucial body part.” ― Kirkus Reviews
“Dunlap has clearly thought deeply and widely about his subject. . . .He has drawn quirky anecdotes that provide insights into both the biology and social history of necks.” — Natural History
“In his attempt to make sense of the neck and its dangerous contradictions, Mr. Dunlap’s fascinating discourse travels through anatomy, paleontology, anthropology, the arts, the zoo, museums, medicine, murder and more. . . . Superb.” — Wall Street Journal
“The human neck is the “ultimate multitasker”, writes biologist Kent Dunlap. “It flexes, senses, vibrates, transports, and secretes every second of our lives”, using bones, muscles, cartilages, cords, tubes, nerves, glands and nodes. …The book shows Dunlap’s fascination with the neck, ranging from anatomy to Indian dancing, opening with a medical drawing from Henry Gray’s classic Anatomy (1858), showing the neck’s tortuous inner complexity.” —Nature
“I have never thought of the neck from this point of view before: as a functional entity fulfilling many different and important needs. Kent Dunlap offers a unique and important look at the neck as much more than a mere arbitrary junction between the head and the torso, with their conflicting demands to house the brain, the heart, the lungs, and gut.”—Pat Shipman, author of Our Oldest Companions: The Story of the First Dogs
“A whole book about necks? Yes! Covering both science and culture, Dunlap reveals how our necks are a site of strength as well as vulnerability and the role they play in communication, status, and sex. Dunlap is the ideal guide to this underappreciated part of our body, and you’ll never think of the space between your head and torso in quite the same way after reading this entertaining and engaging book.”—Rebecca Heisman, author of Flight Paths: How a Passionate and Quirky Group of Pioneering Scientists Solved the Mystery of Bird Migration
Purchase options
University of California Press
Riverbend Bookstore (West Hartford, CT)