Books
Books written for a general audience from an evolutionary perspective comprise one of the fastest growing genres of non-fiction literature. Some have received the highest literary honors, such as Jonathan Weiner’s Beak of the Finch and Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel, which won the Pulitzer Prize. Some cover biological topics, while others cover the length and breadth of human affairs. Here is a very small sample to whet your appetite.
General books on evolution
Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives, by David Sloan Wilson.
What Evolution Is, by Ernst Mayr.
The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins
Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea, by Carl Zimmer
Charles Darwin: Voyaging (volume 1 of a biography), by Janet Browne
Charles Darwin: The Power of Place (volume 2 of a biography), by Janet Browne
Books by this semester’s EvoS Seminar speakers
Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy, by Barbara Ehrenreich
Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War, by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, by Jonathan Haidt
The Science of Self Control, by Howard Rachlin
War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires, by Peter Turchin
Graduate Students’ Choice!
Every year, students taking the introductory graduate course “Evolution and Human Affairs” (Biol 570) select a book to review. Their choices illustrate the range of human-related topics being explored from an evolutionary perspective.
The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins
Kindness in a Cruel World, by Nigel Barber
Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Characteristics, by David Geary
Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan
The Literary Animal, edited by Jonathan Gottschall and David Sloan Wilson
The Red Queen, by Matt Ridley
The Evolution Diet: What and How We Are Designed to Eat, by Joseph Morse
On Desire, by William B. Irvine
The Origins of Virtue, by Matt Ridley
The Dark Side of Man: Tracing the Origins of Male Violence, by Michael P. Ghiglieri
The Ancestress Hypothesis: Visual Art as Adaptation, by Kathryn Coe
Saxons, Vikings and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain and Ireland, by Brian Sykes
Freedom Evolves, by Daniel Dennett
The Scars of Evolution, by Elaine Morgan
Thought in a Hostile World, by Kim Sterelny
The Evolution of Morality, by Richard Joyce
The Talking Ape, by Robbins Burling
Enough about us. How about the rest of life?
Although it is fascinating to study our own species from an evolutionary perspective, let’s not forget evolutionary theory's amazing explanatory scope for all other creatures.
The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution, by Sean B. Carroll
Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom, by Sean B. Carroll
The Botany of Desire: A Plant’s Eye View of the World, by Michael Pollan
Terrible Lizard: The First Dinosaur Hunters and the Birth of a New Science, by Deborah Cadbury
The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow and Empathy—and Why They Matter, by Marc Bekoff
The Singing Life Of Birds: The Art And Science Of Listening To Birdsong, by Donald Kroodsma
Exploring Animal Behavior: Readings From the American Scientist, by Paul Sherman and John Alcock.
