The first book to explain how speech and gesture evolved together in a system that all humans possess.

1. Introduction - gesture and the origin of language; 2. What evolved (in part) - the Growth Point; 3. How it evolved (in part) - Mead's Loop; 4. Effects of Mead's Loop; 5. Ontogenesis in evolution - evolution in ontogenesis; 6. Alternatives, their limits, and the science base of the Growth Point.

David McNeill is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Chicago. His publications include Gesture and Thought (2005) and Language and Gesture (Cambridge, 2000).