Books about evolution?

November 14, 2007 7:28 AM

What is a good book about modern evolutionary theories?

I'm looking for a well-written overview of biology and evolutionary theory as it stands today. I'd like something detailed and rich (to use an analogue for physics, perhaps a notch or two above A Brief History of Time), but still accessible to someone without deep scientific training. Does such a thing exist?

posted by solistrato to science & nature (15 comments total)

The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins.
posted by Uncle Jimmy at 7:34 AM on November 14, 2007

Also, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. I know people who are turned off by his (anti)religious noisiness, but that doesn't come through in his science books. He really does a great job of explaining evolution in a way that's interesting and easy to understand.
posted by vytae at 7:40 AM on November 14, 2007

Origins of the Modern Mind by Merlin Donald is a great read. Deals more with cognition, but crosses many disciplines.
posted by zap rowsdower at 7:43 AM on November 14, 2007

I've just started reading Almost Like a Whale by Steve Jones (subtitle; "The Origin of Species Updated"). I haven't got far enough to tell if it's quite the level you're after, but I suspect it might be.
posted by Luddite at 7:48 AM on November 14, 2007

Seconding 'The Selfish Gene', and also seconding the fact that it's not annoyingly anti-religious (If I remember correctly, there's only a couple hundred words mentioning religion at all).

I just read it a couple months ago, it retaught me a lot of my high school bio, and then schooled me in evolutionary theory in a painless, interesting way.
posted by bluejayk at 8:00 AM on November 14, 2007

I appreciate the disclaimers re: Dawkins; as his public profile has leapt from "cranky evolutionary" to "anti-religious in a really overbearing way", I've steered clear of him because, dude, I just want to read about evolution. We can get to the whole "God is evil" thing as soon as I get a grasp on what the various evolutionary theories in the works are.

What about Stephen Jay Gould?
posted by solistrato at 8:23 AM on November 14, 2007

Gould is very good - and you'd certainly be able to piece together an overview of evolutionary theory from his work - but he's definitely a particpant and a partisan, trying to steer the field in a certain direction. "The Structure of Evolutionary Theory" is an argumentative title, not a descriptive one. Plus that thing is frickin' long.

I'd suggest What Evolution Is by Ernst Mayr.
posted by dyoneo at 8:52 AM on November 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

Third Dawkins. The Selfish Gene and Ancestor's Tale are incredibly informative. I think there should be college courses based around the Ancestor's Tale
posted by nameless.k at 9:03 AM on November 14, 2007

Wonderful Life (Amazon link) is a good book for the non-biologist by Gould.

...but he's definitely a particpant and a partisan, trying to steer the field in a certain direction...

True, but the same could be said of Dawkins, or Mayr, or anyone else authoritative enough in their field to write a book that doesn't dumb things down for the masses. All the more reason to read as many different authors as possible.
posted by TedW at 9:11 AM on November 14, 2007

What Evolution Is (Mayr) has a glossary, which is a great thing to have. I think Dawkin's "Climbing Mount Improbable" is a bit more general than his other books and I would recommend that one to read first. It's really wonderful. The Blind Watchmaker is another Dawkins book that is quite accessible. But if you really want to dig in, The Ancestor's Tale is really fabulous.
posted by MrFongGoesToLunch at 9:39 AM on November 14, 2007

Any of the collections of essays by the late Stephen Jay Gould will contain wonderful pieces about evolution. Highly readable.
posted by OlderThanTOS at 9:50 AM on November 14, 2007

True, but the same could be said of Dawkins, or Mayr, or anyone else authoritative enough in their field to write a book that doesn't dumb things down for the masses. All the more reason to read as many different authors as possible.

I just sprained something in my neck nodding in spastic agreement with all of this. My point was really only that Gould, of all the usual suspects, is least inclined to provide a straight-up comprehensive overview. He's generally too busy picking fights and elegantly digressing and questioning the foundations of the whole enterprise: the title of that magnum opus intentionally echoes Kuhn, and he's got more than a little Feyerabend in him. A fuddy-duddy like Mayr who cut his teeth back when scientists still smoked pipes and nodded sagely is more congenial to single-volume authoritative summaries, even if his agendas are merely tastefully obscured.
posted by dyoneo at 9:54 AM on November 14, 2007

dyoneo: I was prompted to query the hivemind specifically by leafing through a roommate's copy of The Structure of Evolutionary Theory and having two thoughts:

"Ah! This is not an overview, but an argument in favor of a certain point of view, and thus is not quite what I am seeking out."

"Jesus, this thing is dense."
posted by solistrato at 10:59 AM on November 14, 2007

Stay away from anything by Behe. He's a cdesign proponentist apologist.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 1:22 PM on November 14, 2007

The Darwin Wars by Metafilter's own alloneword. Excellent book, very accessible, could be exactly what you're looking for.
posted by verstegan at 4:01 PM on November 14, 2007