Product Description

Spanning evolutionary science from its inception to its latest findings, from discoveries and data to philosophy and history, this book is the most complete, authoritative, and inviting one-volume introduction to evolutionary biology available. Clear, informative, and comprehensive in scope, Evolution opens with a series of major essays dealing with the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology, with major empirical and theoretical questions in the science, from speciation to adaptation, from paleontology to evolutionary development (evo devo), and concluding with essays on the social and political significance of evolutionary biology today.

A second encyclopedic section travels the spectrum of topics in evolution with concise, informative, and accessible entries on individuals from ­Aristotle and Linneaus to Louis Leakey and Jean Lamarck; from T. H. Huxley and E. O. Wilson to Joseph Felsenstein and Motoo Kimura; and on subjects from altruism and amphibians to evolutionary psychology and Piltdown Man to the Scopes trial and social Darwinism. Readers will find the latest word on the history and philosophy of evolution, the nuances of the science itself, and the intricate interplay among evolutionary study, religion, philosophy, and ­society.

Appearing at the beginning of the Darwin Year of 2009—the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species—this volume is a fitting tribute to the science Darwin set in motion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33002 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1008 pages

From Booklist
*Starred Review* If ever there were an education in a book, there’s one in this massive volume. It’s a two-part affair, the first consisting of 16 topical overviews and the second constituting a dictionary-encyclopedia of key concepts, persons, and landmark publications in the history of evolutionary science. Each piece in both parts is by an authority or authorities in its particular field, each includes its own bibliography, and there are illustrations throughout, invariably reproduced legibly large. The editors kick things off with “The History of Evolutionary Thought,” in which they delineate three stages. Before Darwin published On the Origin of Species, evolution was a pseudoscience that “rode the back of the doctrine of progress.” Though a progressive, Darwin broke the connection of evolution to progress with the concept of “blind” natural selection. But the science of his time could not support natural selection, so it remained a speculative “popular science,” adopted by some as a substitute for religion. Eventually, technological improvements and such twentieth-century developments as genetics and radioactivity led to the acceptance of evolution as a field of fully professional scientific endeavor. Surveys of scientific evolutionary topics, such as origin of life, adaptation, speciation, evolutionary medicine, molecular evolution, and sociobiology, succeed the historical essay, and four reviews of evolution’s impact on philosophy, religion, society, and American culture wrap up the first part of what is most probably the commemorative par excellence of the Origin of Species sesquicentennial. --Ray Olson

Review
If ever there were an education in a book, there's one in this massive volume...What is most probably the commemorative par excellence of the Origin of Species sesquicentennial.
--Ray Olson (Booklist (starred review) 20081215)

Half essay collection, half encyclopedia, it's packed with everything you'll ever want or need to know about the science of evolution.
--Zelda Roland (Wired 20090306)

Broad, engaging, and useful.
--Gregg Sapp (Library Journal 20090226)

Evolution, which is slightly less than 1,000 pages long, covers almost every angle of its huge subject, from the perspective of science, religion, philosophy, and history.
--Evan R. Goldstein (Chronicle of Higher Education 20090322)

Harvard's blockbuster contribution to the Darwin anniversary is a substantial work at almost a thousand pages. (London Review of Books 20090701)

Evolution: The First Four Billion Years is as equally inviting and particularly timely in this bicentennial year of the birth of Charles Darwin and the ever-bubbling controversy with advocates of a creationist explanation for the mysteries of biology...The 16 explaining essays, followed by the second encyclopedic section offer the reader an easily and enjoyable access to what the fuss is all about and why it is important to get one's own opinions based on reality. Life, after all, is too important.
--James Srodes (Washington Times )

More than 100 authors contribute to the rich variety of excellent articles in this highly commendable and scholarly volume. The authors explore in detail evidence supporting the role of natural selection and other forces driving evolutionary change, and consider myriad controversies and unresolved issues in evolutionary science. Illustrative examples are drawn from all levels of life on Earth. The book critically examines distinctions between microevolution--which even religious Fundamentalists generally do not dispute--and the far more contentious macroevolution. Contributors also address the influence of evolution on philosophy, sociology, and religion and provide an excellent discussion of American antievolutionism and the ongoing controversy of teaching evolution versus intelligent design/creationism in schools.
--D. A. Brass (Choice )

About the Author
Michael Ruse is Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science, Florida State University. He is the founder and editor of the journal Biology and Philosophy, and has appeared on “Quirks and Quarks” and the Discovery Channel.

Joseph Travis is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Biological Science at Florida State University.

Edward O. Wilson is Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. In addition to two Pulitzer Prizes (one of which he shares with Bert Hölldobler), Wilson has won many scientific awards, including the National Medal of Science and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Customer Reviews

a fine source book!
There's a lot here in this book's almost 1000 pages. The first 400 pages are 16 chapters (about 25 pages each) by a variety of authors. You'll see chapters on "The History of Evolutionary Thought", "Molecular Evolution", "American Antievolutionism: Retrospect and Prospect", for example. The quality and style varies somewhat: some chapters are more technical than others. You will get some overlap. It's not quite as effective as if it were all written by the same person or pair of people, but it does cover, as it needs to, a broad ground, and does so very well.

Following these 16 chapters you get a 500+ page Alphabetical Guide. This covers ideas, people, nature, etc. So you get about a page and a half on Richard Dawkins, 3 1/2 pages on Stephen Jay Gould, a page on Thomas Malthus, two pages on Bishop Wilberforce, etc. Nothing, curiously, on Lysenko, although he is mentioned at a number of points in the book. There are entries on Crustacea, Insects, Homology, Natural Theology, Piltdown Man, etc. This is a fine book both for detailed reading and also for browsing as well: a good and worthy book for you library shelves!

An incredible bargain: depth and breadth in one volume
I came across this book recently by accident in the bookstore and was both surprised and very impressed at its coverage. Not only is this book a wonderful encyclopedia of both historical and current thinking in evolutionary biology, but it accomplishes this great depth and breadth in a single large but inexpensive volume. If you can only afford a small handful of books on life science, I suggest this should be one of them. Intended for the science educated but not neccessarily biological specialist reader. There are essays on concepts, controversies, applications, implications, links to other fields of science, links with the humanities and culture, just about everything that makes evolution such a dynamic and interesting field of study.

A grand review of Evolution
A compendium of fascinating essays on evolution followed by an alphabetical guide through the subject. An education in science, second only, in my view, to Christian de Duve's wonderful explanation of the subject in his book entitled "Life Evolving", published by Oxford a few years ago--not many years ago--it's worth reading today.