Book Description

Although researchers have long been aware that the species-typical architecture of the human mind is the product of our evolutionary history, it has only been in the last three decades that advances in such fields as evolutionary biology, cognitive psychology, and paleoanthropology have made the fact of our evolution illuminating. Converging findings from a variety of disciplines are leading to the emergence of a fundamentally new view of the human mind, and with it a new framework for the behavioral and social sciences.First, with the advent of the cognitive revolution, human nature can finally be defined precisely as the set of universal, species-typical information-processing programs that operate beneath the surface of expressed cultural variability. Second, this collection of cognitive programs evolved in the Pleistocene to solve the adaptive problems regularly faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors--problems such as mate selection, language acquisition, cooperation, and sexual infidelity. Consequently, the traditional view of the mind as a general-purpose computer, tabula rasa, or passive recipient of culture is being replaced by the view that the mind resembles an intricate network of functionally specialized computers, each of which imposes contentful structure on human mental organization and culture.The Adapted Mind explores this new approach--evolutionary psychology--and its implications for a new view of culture. ... Read more

Reviews (10)

A watershed work!
It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance and uniqueness of this work. It is without question, the most comprehensive, most authoritative, most timely, most compelling, most interdisciplinary book ever written on the topic of evolutionary psychology. Practically all the major exponents of this new science are presented and accounted for (Buss, Symons, Daly & Wilson, Tooby & Cosmides, Barkow and Kaplan). In addition, many qualified and distinguished experts in other fields have made valuable supporting contributions (McGrew, Shepard and Fernald). It already stands as a classic in the field of evolutionary psychology and is destined to be a watershed in the development of psychological thought. However, readers beware: this book is not a light, bedside read. It is dense, scholarly reading. Although enjoyable, it is not appropriate for a lay audience looking for pop-psychology. But if you are a social scientists or serious reader who wishes to know what evolutionary psychology is about, there is simply no other book to read. My only question is when can we look forward to a second volume?

More Tooby & Cosmides, please
I was prompted to respond by the review from the individual in Virginia. He or she didn't like the Tooby & Cosmides chapters whereas I feel they were by far the most interesting chapters in the book. Reading their long essay (Chapter 2)is one of the best favors psychologists can do for themselves. Being a psychology major, I know that I was often confused about psychology before reading it, but their combination of cognitive psychology with evolutionary biology finally gave me an idea of where psychology should be going in the future. If only social psychologists and domain-general cognitive psychologists would read it, their research and approach might not be so sterile and boring. My only regret is that the book contained some chapters that were not as strong as the early chapters, but the importance of the good chapters greatly outweighs any weaknesses in the other ones.

Evolution from Several Vantages
This book is a massive tome on evolutionary factors that influence human behavior. It begins with clarification of the kind of Darwinism the authors appeal to, so that everyone is on the same page, and considers the general psychological foundations of Darwinism on culture.

The book then moves on to discuss cognitive adaptations for social exchange, citing human and non-human examples. The book also includes the evolutionary psychology of mating and sex, examining preferences for mate selection and competition, mechanisms for sexual attraction, and the evolutionary use of women as chattel (something any Old Testament and Quran reader can relate to).

A significant portion of the book is devoted to parental care and children, examining how pregnancy sickness, patterns between twins, maternal-infant vocalizations, and child play in the form of chasing each other are all evolutionary mechanisms that continue to be featured.

Steven Pinker adds an essay on natural language and natural selection; Roger Shepard contributes an essay on the man's perceptual adaptation to the natural world; both of which demonstrate the interconnectedness between perception, language, and adaptation.

The book concludes with some of its most esoteric issues: environmental aesthetics, intrapsychic processes, and the theoretical implications of culural phenomena.

The whole book, while not necessarily over-academic, is ultimately dense reading. Most of the concepts and conceptualizations require mental work to apprehend, while the statistics and empirical evidence are clearly described. While drawing from many disparate areas of evolutionary biology, all the essays find their ultimate significance in how the mind, in particular, has adapted to environmental forces. A demanding, but facinating, read.

A fresh start
The argument - and it is an argument - is that human behaviour is strongly influenced by evolved psychological mechanisms, and that those mechanisms are numerous and specific, rather than just one general learning mechanism - ie a human baby comes with an installed operating system and quite a lot of free software, and is definitely not a blank slate. What makes the argument persuasive is the attempt to import the scientific method - hypotheses falsifiable by experiment - to an area previously characterised by mumbojumbo and pseudoscience. Not all the attempts are successful, but as they say it's a start. 100 years late (for psychology) it is saying (a) the brain is an organ so it must have evolved too - let's think about it in a Darwinian fashion and (b) let's try to make pyschology a science not a humanity. It is potentially very offensive to existing psychology practitioners, because it implies that most existing psychologists are witch doctors. It is also very offensive to large bodies of public policy wonks (let's not beat about the bush here - in American speak this book is very offensive to liberal Democrats), essentially saying that most of the "science" behind social and educational policy has no foundation. And because it is polemical - it is shooting at a century of vested interests after all - it overstates its case in some places, although the writers are usually very careful to stress that while behavioural programmes may be partly pre installed, behaviour itself is not hardwired.

It was the start for me of looking at the way we think in a completely different light and led me to later, more detailed, more balanced statements of the case.

It is pretty hard going in places, particularly as they do rather tiresomely go out of their way trying to avoid giving direct offence, but they're not fooling anyone (not mss67 for a start.)But in reality they are yelling that the Emperor ("learning/nurture is all") has no clothes. For all its faults it's the book that has most influenced my thinking in the last 10 years, and definitely a five star performance.

Great work
Finally, a branch of psychology which does not use the standard psycho-babble which distorted our views of human-kind in the 20th century. ... Read more

Book Description

Stuart Kauffman here presents a brilliant new paradigm for evolutionary biology, one that extends the basic concepts of Darwinian evolution to accommodate recent findings and perspectives from the fields of biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics.The book drives to the heart of the exciting debate on the origins of life and maintenance of order in complex biological systems.It focuses on the concept of self-organization: the spontaneous emergence of order that is widely observed throughout nature Kauffman argues that self-organization plays an important role in the Darwinian process of natural selection. Yet until now no systematic effort has been made to incorporate the concept of self-organization into evolutionary theory. The construction requirements which permit complex systems to adapt are poorly understood, as is the extent to which selection itself can yield systems able to adapt more successfully. This book explores these themes.It shows how complex systems, contrary to expectations, can spontaneously exhibit stunning degrees of order, and how this order, in turn, is essential for understanding the emergence and development of life on Earth.Topics include the new biotechnology of applied molecular evolution, with its important implications for developing new drugs and vaccines; the balance between order and chaos observed in many naturally occurring systems; new insights concerning the predictive power of statistical mechanics in biology; and other major issues.Indeed, the approaches investigated here may prove to be the new center around which biological science itself will evolve.The work is written for all those interested in the cutting edge of research in the life sciences. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

The science book to read. Six stars at least.
Stuart Kauffman has an MD and is a generalist. The book deals primarily with theory and understanding of computer simulations of state driven systems of large numbers of connected nodes. It examines how such systems evolve through mutation and gives a clear understanding of the limited role of natural selection in comparison to the self-organizing forces at work within such systems. It examines the meta-interaction of sub-systems of interacting states (attractor basins) that occur within a system. In English: it gives the first theoretical framework for understanding just how it is that cells which all contain identical DNA express themselves as some number of stable cell types. Normally a cell will react to a perturbation in whatever way will return it to its base stable cycle (attractor loop). One type of cell turns into another type when just the right perturbation kicks the system from one attractor basin into a different attractor basin.

This is heavier reading than his popular science book, At Home in the Universe, but preferable for anyone with the necessary tiny amount of knowledge of genetics and logic operations. There are few equations of any kind. The results apply to more than just biological systems.

The book is long because instead of just presenting a few principles that you can try to remember abstractly, he leads you through all the important steps of his research and gives you a real feel for how complex systems actually evolve and operate. The book raises more questions than it answers, as it should be for a book of such originality and importance.

When you fully grok the contents of this book you'll be so excited you'll want to rush and explain it to someone else, which will be utterly impossible, so you'll probably have to lend them your book, buy them the popular version, or face the fact that you are now relatively alone on a higher plane.

New paradigm shift in biology
The Origins of Order will be viewed in the future as a milestone in shifting the existing Darwinian paradigm in biology from a "survival of the fittest" (natural selection) to a new paradigm focused on explaining the "arrival of the fittest" through self-organisation.
Using a boolean (NK) network model and a extensive amount of biological facts, Stuart Kauffman demonstrates in a powerful
way the central role of self-organisation in the creative process of life. His vision that biology seems to operate
as self-organised non-linear dynamical systems at the edge of chaos will have as much influence in biology that a similar vision offered by Nobel prize winner Prigogyne in the field of thermodynamcis. The book connects a web of fundamental ideas from the fields of biology, physics, mathematics and computer sciences and requires a strong background in biology that I unfortunately did not possess. The laborious style, the lack of clarity in the writing and the (unnecessary) length of the book should not stop anyone from reading this amazing book.
Stuart Kauffman combines an intellect and a vision that only very few scientists possess. This book is a must.

Not sure what the fuss is about
There are some interesting subjects in this book such as the theory that estimates the size of the attractors for NK automata. These results are non-trivial but I do not see where the grandiose claims about life living on the 'edge of chaos' come from. Maybe in a few years someone might be able to put some more flesh on his hypotheses but right now they seem to be flights of fancy extrapolated from some trivial models that don't actually do anything.

Hopeful spontaneity
Kauffman believes that spontaneous self-ordering, which both simple and complex systems can exhibit, must be incorporated into evolutionary biology, along with traditional random variation and natural selection. Certain complex systems will be spontaneously self-ordering. Natural selection then tends to push such systems to the edge of chaos. In addition to advancing Kauffman's theories, this reference provides a good overview the Neo-Darwinian synthesis, a review of origin of life theories, a review of genetic regulatory theory, and a review of cell differentiation.

Best book I ever read
It took me a whole summer to read this book in 1993 and it is still the most amazing book I have ever read. If you are computer/mathematically inclined, have an interest in biology, and have enough time to digest it, this book will blow you away. It contains the most amazing hypotheses to come out since 1859. Unfortunately, it takes a huge investment in time to really read this book, but an epiphany awaits those who get through it. ... Read more

Book Description

If, as Darwin suggests, evolution relentlessly encourages the survival of the fittest, why are humans compelled to live in cooperative, complex societies? In this fascinating examination of the roots of human trust and virtue, a zoologist and former American editor of the Economist reveals the results of recent studies that suggest that self-interest and mutual aid are not at all incompatible. In fact, he points out, our cooperative instincts may have evolved as part of mankind's natural selfish behavior--by exchanging favors we can benefit ourselves as well as others.Brilliantly orchestrating the newest findings of geneticists, psychologists, and anthropologists, The Origins of Virtue re-examines the everyday assumptions upon which we base our actions towards others, whether in our roles as parents, siblings, or trade partners. With the wit and brilliance of The Red Queen, his acclaimed study of human and animal sexuality, Matt Ridley shows us how breakthroughs in computer programming, microbiology, and economics have given us a new perspective on how and why we relate to each other.

•Ridley's previous book, The Red Queen, was short-listed for the Writers' Guild Award for nonfiction. ... Read more

Reviews (33)

Engaging and quixotic arguments, but with rigour underneath
Matt Ridley is a British science journalist who has the estimable quality of relying on facts rather than opinions to make his case. In this short, highly readable book he puts forward the evolutionary biologist's theory for the existence of human cooperation and altruism, and he does it brilliantly. The depth and breadth of material covered is extraordinary, and this book well rewards repeated readings (always the sign of good science writing).

From an introductory description of the ideas of Kropotkin, through game theory and Evolutionarily Stable Strategies, to a discussion of free market economics as the 'best fit' to human models of social cooperation, Ridley introduces a wealth of meticulously researched material with sufficient digs at current bien-pensant wisdom on the acquisition of culture to make the average sociologist's hair stand on end.

Matt Ridley writes a weekly column (Acid Test) in the UK broadsheet newspaper The Daily Telegraph, and his customary penetrating analysis of accepted cultural and environmental theory is always a joy to read. He brings this penetrating style to bear on some of the shibboleths of modern sociology (there is a particularly devastating broadside reserved for the egregious Margaret Mead and her band of fellow travelers in the 'Culture Makes Mind' school).

The book concludes (rashly, as even the author acknowledges) with a defense of economic libertarianism. Ridley attempts to show that the whole panoply of cheater-detectors, enlightened self interest and Ricardo-esque comparative advantage that characterises the evolution-moulded systems of human altruism and socialisation can be used to argue in favour of a market-based, minimally interventionist society in which trade is as little hampered by government (or other) interference as possible. Although attempting to introduce economic theory into a work on biology might seem strange, it links in well with the lessons drawn from earlier sections of the book that demonstrate that extra-group commerce is a uniquely human activity. It should also be remembered that an economic analysis of human nature is far from new: the great F. A. Hayek analysed just such a thesis, although his work predates this book by many years.

In summary: a marvellous and rewarding book; extremely highly recommended.

Excellent
This book should definitely be on your short list of books to read if you are at all interested in what makes us humans behave as we do. The prior review by David Gillies sums up the books nicely. I would just like to add one further detail.

The modern intelligentsia and media have portrayed Native Americans and other Aboriginal peoples as conservationists and environmentalists who were stewards of the earth's resources and were 'at one with nature'. If this is true, then it largely refutes Ridley's whole argument. Ridley devotes a whole chapter to this ( Chapter 11 - Ecology as Religion ) and shows that it is a complete myth. Some of the facts he adduces: Shortly after 'Native Americans' arrived in North America, 73% of the large mammals were exterminated and became extinct. Shortly after man arrived in South America, 80% of the large mammals were exterminated and became extinct. As the Polynesians colonized the Pacific, they extinguished 20% of all the bird species on earth. At Olsen-Chubbock, the site of ancient bison massacres in Colorado, where people regularly stampeded herds over a cliff, the animals lay in such heaps after a successful stampede that only the ones on the top were butchered, and only the best joints were taken from them. If you are incredulous - read the book, all the sources are there. Ridley's final conclusion is that the limitations of technology or demand, rather than a culture of self-restraint or religious respect, is what kept tribal people from overexploiting their environment. One nice touch is Ridley's quote of Chief Seattle's speech which Al Gore includes in his book 'Earth in the Balance'.

"How can you buy or sell the sky? The Land?...Every part of this earth is sacred to my people..."

This quote would seem to establish Native Americans as the original environmentalists. Unfortunately, the speech was never given. It was written by Ted Perry, in 1971, for an ABC television drama. Who says TV doesn't shape our perception of reality. ( It seems poor Gore is out of touch or is it calculated deception? How could he be expected to know that Chief Seattle owned slaves and killed almost all his enemies. ) If you are incensed over this, maybe ecology is a religion for you? Politically incorrect stuff to be sure. All this to establish that humans have a 'nature' which transcends their cultural milieu.

I highly recommend the book.

read another book by Ridley
Matt Ridley is my favorite popular science writer, but this is his worst book. Maybe it's not that bad, but his others are much better, especially "Genome" and "The Red Queen."

Anyway, a lot of research has been done since "The Origins of Virtue" was published. In its time it was better than it is now, but I recommend getting a more recently written book instead.

As above, I especially recommend "Genome" and "The Red Queen."

But here are some other books you may want to check out before deciding what to purchase:

Jared Diamond's classic "Guns, Germs and Steel"

Robert Wright's "The Moral Animal" (predates "Origins of Virtue" but is still better)

Steven Pinker's "The Blank Slate"

Sarah Hrdy's "Mother Nature"

Pascal Boyer's "Religion Explained"

I liked all but the conclusion
This is a belated review... penned after reading Ridley's more recent book "Genome" and making some casual comparisons.

Where "Genome" stays on its track, "Origins of Virtue" gets rather derailed. Skip the final chapter and you'll enjoy this book. (Or if you're a Libertarian then read ONLY the last chapter and feel vindicated.)

For the most part it's a fine book, one of those rare science books that's entertaining to read. Ridley ties together biology, economics, sociology, anthropology, game theory and more to show how humans (and many other creatures, even at the cellular level) have evolved to be naturally cooperative: being generous has benefits apart from esteem-building.

The problem I have with the book is that Ridley, after leading the reader chapter by chapter through a terrific set of examples and specific experiments and demonstrating the inherent ability of humans (and many other animals) to form first and second order, mutually beneficial alliances, and behave in what appears (on the surface) to be an altruistic manner with no need for religion, government or culture to prompt them, goes on to present a view of government that is pure Newt Gingrich (or Adam Smith) in its philosophy. His final chapters deal with humans' failures as environmental custodians (debunking the myth of the noble savage), proposing that unfettered private property rights are the only way humans can protect the environment for the common good. His logic seems good on the surface but he leaves out a critical point: properties are bought and sold like any other exploitable resource. He does say at one point that currency speculation is a "zero sum game", but so is property speculation based on resource extraction. This view, where a private owner (such as Weyerhauser to use a Northwest example) is assumed to do what is for the common good simply because they are (in theory) thinking long-term and wisely using land that they (or more precisely, their shareholders) own is clearly false. The result is just a "value-added" phenomenon whereby the low-profit, high-efficiency forest is converted (over time) into a sprawling, high-profit but low-efficiency housing development, or golf course, or commercial park. What's good for the property owner is often not good for the society.

That aside, the book is fine, entertaining and thought-provoking.

A Stunning Biological Argument for Loving Your Neighbor
Too often, science and religion are placed at opposite ends of a continuum that does not necessarily reflect reality. Both science and religion are different methods of searching for the truth.

This book does a surprisingly good job of highlighting the often shocking truth that religion and science are not mutually exclusive. What is most amazing is that Ripley's scientific explanations shed such great light on many of the fundamental problems most Christians ponder every day.

Why is it better to give than to receive? Why should we turn the other cheek? Ripley approaches the problem from a scientific perspective, but the truths are universal. Cooperating with each other is always more productive than destroying each other.

The greatest gift of this book is exposing warfare for what it truly is -- a biological remnant of our animal nature. Ripley's grace is to provide a "scientific" explanation for Christ's charge to love your neighbor as yourself. The world will never be the same. ... Read more

Amazon.com

In many ways, the 20th century has been the Age of Physics. Out of Control is an accessible and entertaining explanation of why the coming years will probably be the Age of Biology -- particularly evolution and ethology --and what this will mean to most every aspect of our society. Kelly is an enthusiastic and well-informed guide who explains the promises and implications of this rapidly evolving revolution very well. ... Read more

Reviews (37)

Painful but thought provoking evaluation of complex systems
This is the best badly written book I have read lately. Kelly's book provides an enthusiastic reflection on the evolution of complex systems, full of vivid images and provocative metaphors, yet one can't avoid the impression he wrote it down as he thought of it. Kelly is a magazine editor (Wired) and his book comes across like a 475-page magazine article -- whenever he decides to change directions mid-chapter, he simply inserts a rosette and moves on. This book and its readers would have been well served by passing the text through the hands of a demanding book editor -- the result would have been a text about 150 pages shorter and much clearer. It also would have been helpful to have had the text proofread -- I nearly tore up the book reading over and over his confused expression "hone in on", an illiterate cross between "hone" and "home in on." I don't know Kelly's educational background. Reading his book I get the impression that his formal credentials are minimal but that he's very good at finding smart people and following them around. The result is a book that chronicles the development of this field while communicating his fascination with complex concepts he just barely understands, and his dilletante's infatuation with the jargon that describes it. The ideas in this book, and particularly the juxtapositions of ideas that Kelly assembles, are well worth reading about. But a better approach might be to skim the book, noting authors and titles, and then go straight to the source material listed at length in the back.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in the future.
Love this book. A great introduction to a world of ideas and concepts about evolution and technologies that are already shaping our (near) future. Horizon-expanding ideas--indeed, the chapter on Borges Library literally had my brain "buzzing" with activity and a restless night of wild dreams on the subject. As the author states himself, he does not write or develop anything new, rather, he creates exposure to the fascinating work of others. Though it is not difficult or dry, the entire book is concepts--not for someone looking for a light novel.

Nature Creates New Things Out of Nothing Every Day
This book must have been as much fun for Kevin Kelly to write as it is to read. It's a little long but very easy to understand. It'll make you think and you are sure to enjoy thinking about the ideas and examples in here.

A more correct title might be "Out of Centralized Control." Kelly's point is that Nature is not a command and control monolith, but instead, a network of relatives, friends, neighbors, and sometimes predators. Nature does not control the Universe so much as it encourages cooperation within the Universe. The examples Kelly gives in the first few pages set the tone of the rest of the book. One is the flock of geese, which somehow knows its migration path from hemisphere to hemisphere even though none of the geese in the flock have ever flown it before.

As Kelly shows us, there are plenty of surprises in Nature. Uncertainty is built in. That's life ! Some readers might find it hard to believe that Nature is not particularly concerned about efficiency. It doesn't mind duplication, redundancy, and a little waste. It fact, it wants these things because they lead us to flexibility. Kelly's point in all this seems to be that Nature does not play by the numbers.

It might be even harder for some readers to believe, at first, that Nature creates new things out of nothing every day. But, Kelly will win you over on that point and many more. His "Nine Laws of God" which sum up the book in the last chapter made me want to read it a second time.

One nice companion to this book would be "Morphic Resonance and the The Presence of the Past: The Habits of Nature" by Ruppert Sheldrake. That book presents a theory that is considered radical by many, yet the critics usually concede that it's well reasoned and fills many of the gaps in our knowledge of Nature.

If you'd like to think about the theological implications of Kelly's ideas, try a few books about process theology, particularly these: "A Basic Introduction to Process Theology" by Robert Mesle, "What is Process Theology?" by Robert Mellert, and "Ominipotence and Other Theological Mistakes" by Charles Hartshorne.

Groundbreaking book, but newer titles offer more insight
This book was groundbreaking in 1994; its insights have been improved upon by more recent writing on the same subjects. If you are interested in this topic, I recommend considering Steven Johnson's EMERGENCE before you buy this book; Johnson discussions some of Kelly's ideas, but offers are more up-to-date analysis of the phenomenon of non-hierarchical/centralized models of organization. Otherwise, this book is valuable for its historical positioning--how things seemed and were seen almost a decade ago.

Giddy Plagiarism
I agree with the "Chicago reader" who said this book could've used an editor, but it's one of the best poorly-written books I've read too.

Kelly's cheerleading for the decentralized, "hive-mind" mentality smacks of the giddy 1940's Tomorrowland propaganda -- oblivious to market realities, people's resistance to change and the fact that simple technologies always win head-to-head competitions with more complex technologies. Yet he makes a valiant attempt to pull a Douglas Hofstadter, and write a "Godel Escher Bach" of future technologies. None of his examples or conclusions are original, but that doesn't diminish the cumulative power of his argument. ... Read more

Book Description

"Dazzling...A feast. Absorbing and elegantly written, it tells of theorigins of life on earth, describes its variety and charaacter, and culminates in a discussion of human nature and teh complex traces ofhumankind's evolutionary past...It is an amazing story masterfully told."
FINANCIAL TIMES (LONDON)
World renowned scientist Carl Sagan and acclaimed author Ann Druyan have written a ROOTS for the human species, a lucid and riveting account of how humans got to be the way we are. It shows with humor and drama that many of our key traits--self-awareness, technology, family ties, submission to authority, hatred for those a little different from ourselves, reason, and ethics--are rooted in the deep past, and illuminated by our kinship with other animals. Astonishing in its scope, brilliant in its insights, and an absolutely compelling read, SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS is a triumph of popular science.
... Read more

Reviews (35)

Understanding ourselves...
...and the reasons why we do what we do as humans --that's the basic concept of this book which, as most books written by Sagan, is easy to understand and read.

He starts with the big bang, followed by one cell organism , gradually taking the reader into a tale of how it is that we as a species came to be. It gives plausible explanations of so many of the things that religion cannot explain. Biology, human nature and sociology are explained in a simple but interesting way . It leaves the human species uncovered on just what it is that makes us. Books such as Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors enriched my life. Sagan and Druyan were a great team and I for one miss Carl Sagan and his wise approach in explaining science.

Carl Sagan breathes humanity into the souls of his readers
From DNA, Darwin, and Huxley to dominance, submission, and primates this book has it all. Carl Sagan was simply a shaman of words and wisdom, while being a prophet of science and rational thought. Shadow's of forgotten ancestors is Sagan's finest hour with unwavering skepticism and a passion unparalleled in the scientific community. I have read this book cover to cover twice, and still feel as though it will have more insight to offer as I begin to read it a third time. The book reveals the egocentric nature of man and his attitudes toward animals as lesser organisms based on ancient fears of his own past . Animals are very complex and intelligent, a sentiment that is for some a deplorable idea with atheist and Darwinian connotations. Sagan simply diffuses the idea to his readers that animals have the ability to feel complex emotions and acquire learned behaviors from parents, just as humans. It is not the author's intention to drag humans through the mud of the animal world, but, rather, lift the animals up to the level of humans by showing our similarities which include: reproductive strategies, behavior patterns, altruism, love, and the perpetuation of the species. Sagan offers an alternative view of the world, a world in which man shares the Earth with other organisms and accepts their differences rather than condemning them. Such an optimistic belief in a world that breeds hate, bias, and indifference. Anyone who reads this book and still believes man is superior to animals and holds a special place in the world, missed the entire point and needs their compassion spoon fed to them.

Have You Ever Wondered Who We Are?
After I read The Dragons of Eden, I learned that Carl Sagan explored more than cosmology. He also explored evolutionary biology-stimulated by his wife, the biologist Ann Druyan. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is a book that Sagan and Druyan wrote together. It is much more scientifically rigorous and sophisticated than The Dragons of Eden, and deals not with the evolution of the tripartite brain, but on the evolution of consciousness itself. Druyan and Sagan write that we are like babies left in a basket on a doorstep, never knowing and always wondering what our ancestry is. For me, the most influential of the book's explorations involve the study of the levels of consciousness in other animals, aside from the human animal. Through study after study, many amusing and all interesting, Druyan and Sagan emphasize that the difference between the consciousness of the human animal and other animals is "a difference of degree rather than kind." Indeed, some of the studies indicate that some of the other animals may have consciousness that surpasses in degree that that of the human animal. The book stresses that we will not understand who we are until we view ourselves as part of a continuum, and the book also explorers the history of human resistance to this idea. One or two of the chapters were too difficult for me to understand as a non-scientist, but I was basically able to understand the book while only skimming the difficult chapters about DNA construction and such. It was nice to know that rigorous science was part of the book. This is one of those books that will change your outlook on the world.

My favorite book
I had a fundamentalist upbringing and even was a missionary for a couple of years. I'm now 49. Twenty years ago the Cosmos TV series changed my life. I've since read all of Sagan's books. While all are good, I think the most valuable is Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and the second most valuable is Demon Haunted World. Also, the photograph of earth taken by the Voyager spacecraft from beyond the orbits of Neptune and Pluto, in Chapter 1 of Pale Blue Dot, is something everyone should see.

All my life I wondered why we behave the way we do and why things are the way they are. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is the most helpful thing I have found.

For me, parts of the first third of the book were a little dry, but it became a livelier read after that.

enlightening
Sagan/Druyan deconstruct the Western Chrisitan Myth of Intrinsic Human superiority over their mammal kinfolk. They show how we may be cleverer, but not that much different then our primate
cousins. Sobering, intelligent and beautiful. Recommended. ... Read more

Book Description

Principles of Human Evolution presents an in-depth introduction to paleoanthropology and the study of human evolution. Focusing on the fundamentals of evolutionary theory and molecular genetics approaches to important questions in the field, this timely textbook will help students gain a perspective on human evolution in the context of modern biological thinking.

The second edition of this successful text features the addition of Robert Foley, a leading researcher in Human Evolutionary Studies, to the writing team. Strong emphasis on evolutionary theory, ecology, and behavior and scores of new examples reflect the latest evolutionary theories and recent archaeological finds. More than a simple update, the new edition is organized by issue rather than chronology, integrating behavior, adaptation, and anatomy. A new design and new figure references make this edition more accessible for students and instructors. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

a lousy textbook
I was considering this textbook for the human evolution class that I am teaching and did not like it. The text is full of unidefined terminology, such as "...intertro-chanteric groove that runs from a small and moderately deep trochanteric fossa to just above the lesser trochanter." (p 238). No discussion of the significance of this feature follows. Discussion of anatomical adaptations to bipedality is very sketchy, limited to basics (1.5 page). There are numerous allusions to circumscientific conflicts, apparently intended for those few dedicated who attend annual AAPA meetings, e. g.: "Although the nature of the discovery is mired in political controversy, there seems to be little doubt..." (p237).

Book design is also very poor, and the illustrations are borderline with unprofessional. I had to go to the original publications to identify the blur objects shown on Fig. 9.6. See also figs 9.7, 11.7, 11.4. Of course, illustrations adapted from John Fleagle's book are great, some presented without proper reference (e.g. Fig 6.24). However, if you want a textbook with Fleagle's illustrations, just buy "Primate Adaptations and Evolution", a great textbook.

just trying to counter the review from that theistic lunatic
Lewin is a great expositor of evolutionary ideas. I get so tired of the lunatics bashing books on evolution at Amazon. Here is a fine book that some might not look closer because of the effect that lunatic has via the weighting of star reviews. I urge everyone sane thinker to join me in diluting that nut. Thanks!

An overall comprehensive overview of paleoanthropology
Well-written for a freshman physical anthropology course, complete with numerous illustrations and charts. Roger Lewin explains in concise and easily-understandable language not only the field of paleoanthropology, but basic evolutionary theory, dating techniques, and paleoprimatology. The book presents multiple views on any debated issue, which should encourage open-mindedness and objectivity among students. However, "Principles of Human Evolution" afforded inadequate coverage to the earliest hominids, instead devoting the whole first half of the text to non-paleoanthropological background information. While this may be useful to beginners, readers who already possess the necessary background will feel inclined to skip ahead. There is also a lack of much anatomical detail, with which the text might have been much more informative and appealing to more advanced anthro readers. Overall, a good book, but there is still room for improvement.

Principles of Human Evolution
I enjoyed this book, which is essentially a general text on modern anthropology. It discusses not only the physical evidence for human evolution, it also outlines for the student the history and current status of controversies within the field. The latter includes such topics as the "lumping" and "splitting" of species, the "out of Africa" verses the "multi-regional" theories of modern human origins, the Neanderthal controversey, and the evolution of consciousness as the true measure of what it means to be "human." The book would make a good text for an introductory college level course to physical anthropology but might also interest the high school level student. ... Read more

Book Description

What is a meme? First coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 study The Selfish Gene, a meme is any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation: stories, fashions, inventions, recipes, songs, and ways of plowing a field, throwing a baseball, or making a sculpture. It is also one of the most important--and controversial--concepts to emerge since Darwin's Origin of the Species.

Here, Blackmore boldly asserts: "Just as the design of our bodies can be understood only in terms of natural selection, so the design of our minds can be understood only in terms of memetic selection." Indeed, The Meme Machine shows that once our distant ancestors acquired the crucial ability to imitate, a second kind of natural selection began: a survival of the fittest among competing ideas and behaviors. Those that proved most adaptive--making tools, for example, or using language--survived and flourished, replicating themselves in as many minds as possible. These memes then passed themselves on from generation to generation by helping to ensure that the genes of those who acquired them also survived and reproduced. Applying this theory to many aspects of human life, Blackmore brilliantly explains why we live in cities, why we talk so much, why we can't stop thinking, why we behave altruistically, how we choose our mates, and much more. With controversial implications for our religious beliefs, our free will, and our very sense of "self", this provocative book will be must reading any general reader or student interested in psychology, biology, or anthropology. ... Read more

Reviews (71)

At play in the fields of the memes
Blackmore romps across the memetic landscape like a puppy after a butterfly, and it is only when she worries over a bone of contention here or there that the results are less than delightful. If you read this book as an explication of sound scientific principles, you may be misled and -- worse! -- put off by tedious bone-worrying. So feel free to skip the occasional bit of tedium (I'm thinking particularly of material in the chapter "Three problems with memes") and go for the big ideas: why our brains are so big, why we talk so much, and most importantly, who we think we are.

I'd read nothing about memes before The Meme Machine and only a little about Universal Darwinism, but I found that Blackmore explained the principles well enough for argument's sake. When she hits her stride toward the latter half of the book, proof by hand-waving becomes the rule, and that's all to the benefit of the idea fest.

The ideas in the final chapters about memes of the self are well worth entertaining though sometimes self-contradictory (pun intended). I can admit to having an experience of self-shifting that can only be described as mystical -- enjoyable for me, but some might find it disturbing to have fundamental concepts of "selfness" discarded. For more ideas along these lines, I'd recommend The Invented Reality, ed. by Paul Watzlawick, and The User Illusion by Tor Nrretranders.

At the risk of making The Meme Machine sound like a pop-psych book (it's not), I'd add that the meme's-eye view allowed me to see that I had acquired world-view beliefs that were unhelpful and even psychologically destructive. "Meme-izing" these beliefs isolated them and rendered them harmless. Memes can indeed behave like psycho-viruses, but understanding memes offers a cure.

The Meme Machine unleashed!
Human bodies evolved by natural selection, just
as other animals. But still we are different.
According to Susan Blackmore thats because we are
capable of imitation. We can thereby copy ideas,
habits,inventions, songs and stories. I.e. memes.
And now memes are as powerful, if not more powerful,
than the good old genes, in directing human evolution.

I find the idea intriguing, and certainly
Susan Blackmore argue well for the idea.
The (evolutionary) pressure for imitation skills
requires big brains. So we evolve big brains, as people
mate with the ones with the most memes.
Language is invented in order to spread memes.
Film stars, journalists, writers, singers,
politicians and artists become the most
attractive, as they are the ones who spread the
most memes.
Things that are hard to explain in a genetic
context (such as adoption, birth control, celibacy) are
easy to explain in a meme context
(the memes are happy with it, as it help spread

more memes).
Science becomes a process to distinguish
true memes from false memes. Fax-machines, telephones,
etc. are created (by the memes) in order to spread more
memes. Writing is a battleground in the head between
memes wanting to be spread.
etc.

It all rings true to me.
Except Susan Blackmores claim that the self
is a complex meme. Certainly it is puzzling
that blind people are reported thinking that their
"I" is located at their fingertips, when they
read Braille.
Still there are other explanations to what
a human "I" is than memes. Personally,
I prefer Antonio Damasios, as he explained
it in the book "the feeling of what happens".
Nevertheless, Susan Blackmores book is a very
exciting read, with lots of clever thoughts.

-Simon

very poor in itself...
if you would like to read something on memes one of the best books (Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme
by Richard Brodie )
it seems to me realy something clear about this new model or contruct or life paradigm.i may say something about susan b. book, it seems the truth about memes,like maybe one preacher telling one ot the gospel, ``subliminal authorrity manipulation``i would not say that.there is no deep reality(bohr)there is no chair(watzlawick).brodie is aware and a very clear with no preachings.another splendid quamtum... Liane Gabora home page on the net.

Are memes Science?
I happen to have read a few articles on memes before getting started with this book. After reading it, I still have this love hate relationship with the whole concept of memetics.
At times, I find the concept enlightning. Ideas presented by Dr. Blackmore on gene/meme coevolution in shaping the human brain and in developing a language are the main strength of this book. Thinking about human culture as a group of memes that shape the thought of its members seems to make a lot of sense. But the question remains, does common sense equal Science?
Obviously not. There is hardly any evidence that would substantiate the presence of memes as replicators. Maybe it would have been much more scientific to say that memes in human culture is an extension to the Baldwin effect. It could also be that memes "go off" sometimes and set selectional pressures on organisms reaching outcomes that would not be predicted by sociobiology and evolutionary pschycology.
Until a biological correlate for memetics is found, memetics can only be regarded as a social theory. For it to make it into biology, alot of work should be done. However, if one day this replicator was found, Dawkins, Blackmore and Dennett will be Golden. Their memes would be immortalized in the cultures of generations to come.

Stretching the facts to fit the theory: a scientific nemesis
If you're not familiar with the terms "memes" or "memetics" or havent stumbled onto books by Richard Dawkins this would not be a bad place to figure out what this relatively fresh scientific fuss is about.
A meme is an idea that "seeks" to occupy a brain, use it as a host and then as a tool to spread. Many memes form memeplexes and memeplexes in turn form behaviors. The more powerful a meme is the better its chances to be "hosted" (accepted) and thus spread regardless of its usefullness or not and regardless of its "goodness" or "badness": if it's strong enough it will be replicated and spread.
This, in a nutshell, is the theory about memes and memetics presented in this book.

In my opinion it doesnt take too much convincing for this theory to appear pivotal in the process of understanding the works of the human brain. It is so strikingly obvious that this is exactly what's going on in the every day wars of the minds around "our" world that what is actually interesting is to what extend this process stretches.
And while S.Blackmore does a great job in laying out her theory and explaining memetics she does eventually fall into the great trap such scientific theories are prone to: overgeneralising and dogmatising.
To an extend, memetics do provide an adequate explanation for human behavior, but on the other hand, they leave certain areas as dark as they were before memetics were conceived. For example, memetics do not provide an explanation as to why memes that actually work towards our self-destruction as a species get copied anyway. Stating that they are replicated because "they are strong" is too simplistic because
a) masses of people might not replicate such memes yet they do prevail because of the structure of our societies
b) what does it say about our "intelligence" (the very same intelligence that helps us understand memes) if we do indeed copy self-destructful memes?
It is especially about this second question that this book and in general the theory about memetics fails to be fulfilling the way memetists would wish for.
I would personally have no problem to entertain the idea that our "intelligence" is way overrated and that our brains are majorly flawed but such an idea is not offered to me as an option in this book, and not only that, but the exact opposite is basically at times claimed and at other times implied in the "Meme machine".

Memes do exist (massively so) and do influence what we are and what we do (undeniably so). But where is the line drawn and is there such a line?
Memetists state that such a line probably does not exist and that memes are directly and solely responsible for every human behavior that we see around us. That would be too holistic and too nihilistic at the same time. Why do i say that?
Well, for starters it is actually totally hilarious that we are actually a species that admits it can only use a sorry 5% of its brain and yet with this 5% it claims to understand the other 95% as well. Memetists (and scientists alltogether) seem to somehow overlook this "tiny", "little" detail not only when they examine the human brain but also when they take on other, bigger (??) issues on, such the universe and so forth.
The theory that seems to be a great dogmatic aspect of our current science: "there's only what meets the eye" (and memetics stands on exactly that premise when you analyse it down to its core) is one that never convinced me and actually, the more i read and acquire what little knowledge i can as a human the more inplausible it becomes.

This is not the view of a theist (I'm very far from that) but the view of a realist, whatever realism my personal 5% usage of my brain allows me to.

Understanding what memes are and how they work will help you understand our current predicaments more than anything. The fact that most of the time we imitate without discrimination, without applying judgement is obvious but is it our nature? What if we taught children how to NOT imitate in such a pathetic way or how to filter and process every single thought that goes or gets created in their brains? What would happen then and where would that put the whole memetics theory?

To finish things off, i do recommend this book. I do in no way recommend to accept it in the overwhelmingly dogmatic fashion it presents itself.
Memetics are useful and we need them in our effort to understand. But if we try to turn them into another scientific religion we will achieve the exact opposite. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Good, up to the second half of the 20th century
Larson is quite competent at describing the history of evolutionary thought up until recent decades. Then he becomes obsessed with Wilson's pop-sci "sociobiology" and completely misses the much more significant Zukerkandl & Pauling, Kimura, Jukes & Cantor, Walter Fitch, and the whole revolution in molecular evolution which brought evolution out of the swamps of mere "naturalism" and into serious molecular and genomic studies.

Much ado over nothing
Overblown worthless drivel. Much hype over an old idea

A Litte of Everything
Edward J. Larson manages to pack this little book. The author goes beyond the usual small format of the Modern Library Chronicles series only a little in terms of page number but seems to cram much more information in than the readers of this dazzling series usually encounter. And the joy is that he does it so effortlessly, with scientific jargonize only sneaking in near the very end. The concept of evolution is covered from Cuvier in the Napoleonic era through Darwin and onto the modern 21st culture wars in America. Everything important is touched on in a manner that makes it relevant, understandable, and interesting, and the story flows quickly and intelligently. It is one of the better volumes of the series making the best use of the space allowed in order to introduce important historical ideas and events to the general reader. A highly recommended read.

Evolution-- a history of delusion
This is a well-done and very succint history of the theory of evolution, or at least, Darwin's theory, from the eighteenth century to the present. Even a critic of Darwinism might find it interesting as far as it goes. Unfortunately the subject of evolution is so filled with confusion even, or especially, among Darwinists (and the Darwin book market no doubt so unforgiving)that any historical account is likely to mirror the standard hero myth and even a specialist is likely to follow the programmed theoretical 'pack of lies',unawares. The key moment, not for theory, but general paradigm fixation, was of course the publication of Darwin's Origin (with Wallace quietly squelched in the background in the famous Ternate letter episode ensuring Darwin's priority). One of the confusions of this history is that early researchers understood the complexity of the question, and would never have proposed an idea as simplistic as Darwin's, which however took over the field. As Larson points out, by the end of the nineteenth century, Darwin's theory of natural selection was in eclipse and only made a comeback with the rise of the Synthesis. The appearance of the new population genetics, with its mathematical veneer, and new twists seen in the work of such as Hamilton, took on the appearance of a final triumph, especially with its crackpot versions of the evolution of ethics, always the stumbling block for a theory like Darwin's. But it is as if the Darwinists have learned their lesson and won't let it be eclipsed again. Historians of the subject are at the mercy of this second round of delusion, often unable to see the limits of the math models which most definitely are not a full theory of evolution.
A complete history of the idea of evolution might as well point out that Lamarck was the real founder of evolution, despite his other confusions over adaptation for which he is mainly known. Or point to the teleomechanists working in the legacy of Kant, or the work of such as St. Hilaire in embryology, a contribution only now becoming known. Indeed, any history of evolution should be setting the record straight in the age of hox genes and dna. Instead, the paradigm is managing to survive a complete expose of itself. A work such as Soren Lovtrup's Darwinism: Refutation of a Myth does that up to a point.
The appearance of the idea of evolution was in some ways more insightfully considered, though entirely in premature fashion, in the eighteenth century, witness the work of Kant or the insight of Diderot who refects on the embryological aspects of the egg, as recounted by Ilya Prignone in his Order and Chaos. The generations just after Newton still had some who grasped the full implications and difficulty of theories of evolution, but such was the tide of scientism that the whole subject derailed at the start. So, in the sense of Kuhn, everyone seems in the grips of the phase of 'normal science' and unable to wrestle free of the tentacles of delusion. In many ways Lamarck still had the better idea (forgetting the red herring of his adapational confusions) with his insight into two levels of evolution. Lamarck was a radical discredited in the wake of the French Revolution, and rapidly deep sixed. Darwin a proper Whiggist estab type, and swiftly promo'ed. The connections to ideology seem to escape all parties, including the Marxists who bit on the hook and never managed to see the key instance of their own critiques.
The history of evolution is a corrupt subject, as one can see. Caveat lector.

The trials of an idea
Edward Larson has capped a fine string of publications on evolution with this history. A study of the idea of evolution and consideration of the mechanisms driving it, this book introduces you to the major thinkers and researchers involved. Each chapter focuses on an individual or a concept, explaining the rationales behind the idea and its supporters. Larson's evocative prose style keeps the account moving smoothly, even when disputants over an idea grow disruptive and acrimonious.

Larson opens with consideration of the problem of deep time. With biblical authority decreeing a young earth and the immutability of species, the idea of change over time was deemed impossible, if not heretical. Ironically, the first scholar to open the notion of deep time was one of evolution's "staunchest foes" - Georges Cuvier. This French scientist was an early expert on comparative anatomy, stressing form resulted from functional use of an organ. His studies led him to argue that fossils truly represented extinct species. However, new species didn't evolve from the older ones, he argued, but were the result of an act of subsequent creation. Extinctions were due to some catastrophic event. The idea of species succession, however, introduced the notion of deep time - an Earth older than then supposed.

From Cuvier, Larson logically moves to the ideas of another French scientist, Jean Baptiste Lamarck. Today, Lamarck's ideas are blithely dismissed, but Larson shows the significance of his contributions. Although the paleontological record provided spotty support, Lamarck rejected Cuvier's "fixed species" sequences for a form of continuous change. Thinking that changes to the body would be reflected in later generations, Lamarck developed the thesis of "acquired characteristics". Larson makes clear that Lamarck's ideas, although denounced today, were a needed foundation for Darwin's great insight.

Larson's summary of Darwin's Beagle voyage and development of the concept of evolution by natural selection is clear and succinct. Except for Larson's insistence on calling it "evolutionism", thereby changing a scientific idea into an ideology, it's a fine synopsis. Larson is correct in concentrating on human evolution. No matter what Darwin wrote of pigeons or barnacles, people wanted to know how humans fit into the evolutionary scheme. More than one scientific and social issue depended on that pivotal point.

Larson describes the years of challenge to natural selection and the rise of Mendelian genetics leading the assault. Objectors to natural selection came from more than just the ranks of Christian dogmatists. Lord Kelvin's calculation of the sun's waning heat denied evolution sufficient time to operate. Others argued that breeding species blended traits instead of separating them into new species. Later, the most important student of heredity, Thomas Hunt Morgan, rejected natural selection in favour of a mutation-driven mechanism. The turning point came with J.B.S. Haldane, Sewall Wright and Ronald Fisher's new "biometric" studies in population genetics. The merging of Mendelian genetics with Darwin's natural selection is now known as the "new synthesis" or "neo-Darwinism". That combination has proven the most lasting and meaningful aspect of thought on the idea of evolution. From it, Larson explains, arose E. O. Wilson's innovative concept of sociobiology. The behaviour of social insects offer insight into group interaction and are applicable to human evolutionary history.

There are many books with information on the history of evolution as a concept. Why choose this one over any of them? The main reason is Larson's focus on evolution as an idea. The biological themes are discussed only briefly, keeping Larson free to relate the history of the concept. He describes some of the off-shoots of Darwin's original thesis, such as Gould and Eldredge's "punctuated equilibrium", but cautiously avoids any commitment to any of them. His purpose is relating how the idea came to dominate science. He also portrays its Christian opponents in the United States and how their strategies have been applied in driving education away from science to embrace religious themes, however disguised. As an overview, this book is an outstanding introduction. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada] ... Read more

Book Description

The book covers a wide variety of topics, each integral to a complete understanding of genome evolution.The chapters are all authored by different experts in the respective fields, but all follow the same themes of integration, pluralism, and evolutionary implication.The book is written to be accessible to graduate students while still being relevant to researchers in genomics and evolutionary biology.

This book can serve as a supplement in genomics, genetics, evolution, and population biology courses. ... Read more

Reviews (11)

A must for science and history lovers!
This is an under-rated read. It is the story of Charles Darwins 5 year journey on the Royal Navy ship, HMS Beagle. If ever there was a fateful voyage, this is it. But of course in this case, it is a 'fate' of hope, joy and true discovery.

The writer, in case you don't know him, is an enthusiastic and slightly rebellious young British naturalist, Charles Darwin. Here he reveals a style of cool-headed prose, sombre reflection, humour, and scientific enthusiasm. Amongst other things he describes his traverses in the Andes mountains, his jaunting about the Galopagas Islands, and his reflections of the bristling new British colony of Sydney. He collects specimens at places as diverse as the open sea, the remote Australian coast, and various islands of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. One particularly interesting piece describes his experience of a major earthquake on the Chilian coast, with details of totally destroyed coastal townships, and a major tidal wave. Of course he doesn't miss the correlation of the earthquake and a rather significant mountain chain running down the length of the Chilian coastline.

A good insight into the thoughts and style of the man, 19th century scientific prose, as well as the world itself in that interesting period of human history-the early to mid 19th century. This edition incidentally is also the unabridged one, which serves the reader better than some others.

A great classic of science.
From 1831 to 1836 Charles Darwin, then a young man in his twenties, was the official naturalist on the Royal Navy ship HMS Beagle. The Beagle spent five years completing a survey of the coasts of South America and making a series of longitude measurements around the world. This proved to be one of the most important scientific voyages of the 19th century, for it was on this voyage that Darwin made the observations that lead, twenty years later, to his formulating the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. This book is Darwin's account of his observations on this voyage. Darwin was a master of detailed observation, and he describes the things he observed -- the plants, animals, geology, and people -- in loving detail. His accounts are always lively and full of interest. Darwin was also a master of inductive reasoning, and there are several superb examples of this in this book. Perhaps the finest is Darwin's induction of the cause of the formation of the coral atolls that dot the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean (his theory was proved correct in the 20th century). Indeed, much of the value of this book for the modern reader lies in the many examples it contains of scientific, inductive thought; a powerful method of reasoning that is as neglected today as it was in Darwin's time.

Penguin Version is abridged, with no warning on the cover
The 1 star is for Penguin, because the cover does not warn you that the content has been sharply abridged. Darwin's thinking and writing are wonderful -- but grossly and unfairly cut to ribbons.

Darwin's best
Forget the image of the grim, ancient, grey-bearded savant. By the time those pictures were taken Darwin was long past his energetic prime. BEAGLE catches him literally starting out on his life-long voyage of discovery at a time when he was still extremely physically active and just beginning to come to grips with the seriousness of his interest in Natural History. Later in life he said that the VOYAGE was his personal favorite of all his writings, and one can see why. Darwin set off young, energetic, but frankly naieve & a little foolish (his father ahd written to him at Cambridge saying that he feared that he would never amount to much, and apart from his work with Henslow, much of his college career seems to have been devoted to what we would now call "partying hearty") He returned a seasoned naturalist and explorer, with the germ of his Great Idea firmly implanted. While in many ways VOYAGE is describing a vanished world, Darwin's keen eye for detail renders each landscape with such clarity that one feels that one is really along for the trip -and, thank goodness, some of the places he went to are still there for us to go & wonder at. There is no Big Theory here, just an enormous sense of wonder and excitement, with little of the periodic homesickness that shows up in the letters that he was writing during the voyage. Perhaps most intriguing is the remarkably SHORT section on the Galapagos -I remember thinking the first time that I read the VOYAGE "Wait, but wasn't the Galapagos THE Big Deal?" No, not to read it here in the original. One gets the sense that many of Darwins fundamental beliefs were already in gestation long before he left the coast of South America & by the time he gets to the Galapagos, he is increasingly anxious to be home & working it all out. Make sure that you get a COMPLETE version of the Voyage, there are many editions (including abbridgements) out there.

Caution, this is an abridgement.
I bought this version when I could not find my old copy. On trying to find a favorite passage (Darwin's revulsion at a parasitic wasp in Brazil and the inconsistency of such cruelty with any providential design of nature by a good God), I noticed that it was not there. I do not know what else is missing. I find it infuriating that this was not adequately noted on the cover of the book. I always prefer books as the author wrote them, especially when the author is Darwin. This is a lively, beautiful and haunting work that I first read when I was thirteen and have read twice since. Readers deserve the whole thing. ... Read more

Book Description

A compelling, authoritative, and superbly illustrated account of the rise and eventual domination of our species.

Human domination of the earth is now so complete that it is easy to forget how recently our role in the history of the planet began: the earliest apes evolved around twenty million years ago, yet Homo sapiens has existed for a mere 150,000 years. In the intervening period, many species of early ape and human have lived and died out, leaving behind the fossilized remains that have helped to make the detailed picture of our evolution revealed here.

This exciting, up-to-the-minute account is divided into three accessible sections. "In Search of Our Ancestors" examines the contexts in which fossilized remains have been found and the techniques used to study them. "The Fossil Evidence" traces in detail the evolution of apes and humans, from Proconsul to the australopithecines, and Homo erectus to the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The latest fossil finds at major new sites such as Dmanisi in Georgia and Gran Dolina in Spain are appraised, and new advances in genetic studies, including the extraction of DNA from extinct human species, are evaluated. "Interpreting the Evidence" reconstructs and explains the evolution of human behavior, describing the development of tool use, the flourishing of the earliest artists, and the spread of modern humans to all corners of the world.

The book is superbly illustrated with hundreds of photographs, diagrams, and specially commissioned reconstruction drawings by the artist John Sibbick. 430 illustrations, 175 in color. ... Read more

Book Description

Previous editions of Evolutionary Biology, widely used and translated into five other languages, were praised for their broad scope, synthetic overview, and even-handed treatment of controversial topics. The Third Edition, while maintaining these features, reflects the ever greater breadth and depth of evolutionary science by providing expanded treatment of many topics and by emphasizing the new intellectual and molecular perspectives that have revolutionized evolutionary studies in the last decade. Equally significant, the book has been made more accessible to student readers by a more expansive style of presentation, by a completely new two-color art program (and a full-color portfolio), and by extended examples that convey not only the evidence for hypotheses, but also the ways in which evolutionary hypotheses are framed and tested. After introducing the historical, ecological, and genetic foundations of evolutionary study, the text progresses from the history of evolution as inferred from phylogeny and paleobiology, through the genetic mechanisms of evolutionary change and speciation, to the large, challenging themes of macroevolution, the evolution of diversity, and human evolution. Topics that were treated only sparingly in previous editionsóform and function, coevolution, the evolution of life histories, the evolution of behavior, and the evolution of genetic systemsónow receive full-chapter coverage. Abundant cross-referencing emphasizes the unity and coherence of evolutionary biology, highlighted text and a glossary provide easy access to definitions of technical terms, and an extensive bibliography provides interested readers with an entry into most of the topics embraced by evolutionary biology. Reflecting its theme that evolution both draws on and illuminates all the biological sciences, Evolutionary Biologyis the most comprehensive textbook in its field. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

the best organized, most comprehensive text available
I have been using Futuyma's Evolutionary Biology in various editions since 1983, when it was my undergraduate evolution textbook. Nowadays, I'm the professor. In my opinion, the 3rd edition is simply the best textbook for a college evolution course there is. It is organized in a logical manner, emphasizing conceptual issues and not marching up the geological timescale or across the phyla, or getting bogged down in lengthy case studies. I have considered other texts, including Ridley, Freeman and Herron, and Strickberger, each of which has some unique qualities, but Futuyma's book is scholarly, thoughtfully assembled, and provides as comprehensive a coverage of micro- and macroevolutionary ideas as is possible in a 700 page book.

The book could have more color pictures, and the coverage of systematics could be a bit more substantial (but as it is it is superior to alternatives).

Easy but profound
This is certainly a must have book! First because it is extremely enjoyable and covers lots of topics. You can read for fun, but you can also work on it. In evolutionary biology I often see books that present the authors' personal view on the subject, many of them discussible and lacking of experimental support. I think that Futuyma is extremely careful and tries to be neutral, which makes this book a reference book on the topic, as it is rather safe.

Real Evolution
As a teacher and an Evolutionary Biologist, it's disappointing that there aren't many textbooks or scholarly works, particularly in the field of evolution, that are both accessible and scientifically rigorous. Doug Futuyma has done an excellent job of making this work both.

Textbooks are unfortunately often written by professionals who seem more interested in impressing their colleagues with the elegance of their explanations than in presenting their material in an easy-to-understand way for students. What we teachers usually end up with in those cases are texts that make our job more difficult, forcing us to re-explain material that students have already paid lots of money to read. This book does a good job of keeping that to a minimum.

This is not an easy task with a subject like evolution. First, evolution is not simply "survival of the fittest". In fact, it's hardly that at all. It is vastly more complex; it is a very elegant process by which much of the complexity of our universe, particularly living systems, came to be.

Second, evolution has been so misunderstood, and misrepresented, both intentionally and unintentionally, for so long, that it is often difficult for the uninitiated to understand what biologists really mean when we talk about it. This is becoming even more of a problem as other fields of study, particularly the Social Sciences, see it's utility and begin using it without always understanding it completely. The result of all this is that the common view of evolution bears little, if any, resemblance to the scientific theory.

I used an earlier edition of this book in my first undergraduate class in the subject, and today as a professional Evolutionary Biologist I still keep it on the shelf over my desk as a reference and teaching aid. I recommend this book to anyone who seriously wants to understand evolution and why all modern biology is built upon this single theory.

A textbook even a layman can love
I'm not a biologist, or even studying biology, but I needed to find a good introduction to evolutionary biology. This textbook was recommended to me by several biologists, and I've found it to be both chock-full of information and engagingly written. Even a layman such as myself, with only a modest scientific background and whose last biology course was way back in high school, could pick this textbook up and follow along. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to know what biologists mean when they talk about evolution.

It's just the best book in evolutionary biology
The full boo ... Read more

Book Description

The seventh volume of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin covers two of the most momentous years in Darwin's life and in the history