Against natural selection
One of the earliest critics of the sufficiency of natural selection as an explanation of form in biology was D'Arcy Thompson On Growth and Form (1917). He was not a creationist: he granted that natural selection could weed out the unfit, but doubted the power of natural selection to explain why life took one form and not another. He preferred to explain the forms of organisms by mechanical and mathematical principles (13). In his spirit are books by Philip Ball and Brian Goodwin. About the same time geneticist and Nobelprize winner Thomas Hunt Morgan expressed similar doubts in Evolution and Adaptation (1903) (24). Swedish cytogeneticist Lima-de-Faria (1988) Evolution without Selection accepts that evolution has occurred, but natural selection is not the mechanism (the title says it clearly). He invokes self-assembly and is inspired by D'Arcy Thompson. The criticism of population geneticist Motoo Kimura is that all-powerful natural selection is not powerful enough to eliminate all mutations at the DNA level. He called these mutations neutral mutations, because they are not affected by selection, positive or negative. He was right.
Steven Rose (1997) attacks reductionism, determinism, ultra-Darwinism and the all-powerful natural selection in his Lifelines. Biology, Freedom and Determinism, showing affinity with D'Arcy Thompson and Brian Goodwin.
An alternative explanation for the peacock's tail turned into a new principle: The Handicap Principle. A missing piece of Darwin's puzzle by A & A Zahavi (1999); initially unanimously rejected, currently largely accepted by mainstream science. Gabriel Dover claims there is a third force in evolution.
An example of a palaeontologist who accepts evolution, but rejects the claim that palaeontology can determine missing links with certainty, is: Henry Gee. Although cladism is now widely accepted, I hesitate to place Gee in the category 'Orthodox Neo-Darwinism' because of his criticism of orthodox palaeontology.
The eminent but unorthodox astronomer sir Fred Hoyle wrote an attack on the fundamentals of neo-Darwinism using high level mathematics: Mathematics of Evolution. Years ago Hoyle introduced the much quoted analogy that the chance of life originating out of raw materials would be equal to the chance that a Boeing-747 resulted from a hurricane going over a junkyard. Hoyle believes life came from space (panspermia). The immunologist Edward J. Steele wrote what could be called the textbook of 'neo-Lamarckism'. He explains in molecular terms how acquired characteristics of the immune system can be inherited in: Lamarck's Signature: How Retrogenes Are Changing Darwin's Natural Selection Paradigm. The embryologist Brian Goodwin has interesting ideas about scientific alternatives for Darwinism. A critique of selectionism and the proposal of an alternate theory of emergent evolution is: Biological Emergences. Evolution by Natural Experiment by Robert G. B. Reid (2007) (info), emeritus Professor of Biology and author of 'Evolutionary Theory: The Unfinished Synthesis' (1985). Palaeontologist Niles Eldredge argues against the reductionism of the 'ultra-Darwinist'. Hubert Yockey is an expert in the information content of genomes, DNA and proteins. Yockey believes that there is too much information in the simplest organisms to have originated by chance, but unlike "intelligent design theorists", he does not infer design or a designer (at least in his book). He has no alternative theory.
    Palaeontologist Stephen Jay Gould is known by the public from his column in Natural History and the New York Review of Books and as a defender of evolution (that includes rejection of creationism). It is not so well known that he is also a critic of orthodox neo-Darwinism. Two criticisms are: not everything is adaptation, and evolution is not gradual but punctuated. This and much, much more in his voluminous The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (2002).
In The tinkerer's accomplice: how design emerges from life itself J. Scott Turner (2007) argues that "organisms are designed not so much because natural selection of particular genes has made them that way, but because agents of homeostasis build them that way" (Review).
Evolutionary biologist John Reiss (2009) Not by Design; Retiring Darwin's Watchmaker argues that we can't infer the past action of selection from the present adaptedness (apparent design) of organisms (25), Reviews: American Scientist (John Dupré).
Jerry Fodor and Piattelli-Palmarini (2010) wrote a philosophical critique of the theory of natural selection without doubting the reality of evolution: What Darwin Got Wrong (Reviews: Michael Ruse, Philip Kitcher, (continued), Philip Ball, Mary Midgley, interview, Nature). Genome biologist Eugene Koonin (2011) Logic of Chance, The: The Nature and Origin of Biological Evolution rejects natural selection and adaptation as the only or even the main mode of evolution. (see: #textbooks)

Against gradualism
Darwinism is a gradualist theory of evolution. Horizontal inheritance is the transfer of genes, sometimes genomes, across species borders in contrast to vertical inheritance which is inheritance from generation to generation. Horizontal inheritance is an extension of (some would say contradicts or is an alternative to) the branching tree-of-life, and it usually contradicts gradualism. Two advanced textbooks are: Syvanen and Kado (2002) Horizontal Gene Transfer and Frederic Bushman (2002) Lateral DNA Transfer. Mechanisms and consequences (review: American Scientist). An unusual form HGT (organisms captured genes from distantly related organisms) is expounded by D. Williamson The Origins of Larvae (2003) (info) and Larvae And Evolution (2009). The books are expensive, but Williamson published an overview of his theory in the American Scientist Nov-Dec 2007) and a chapter in: Syvanen and Kado (2002). Evolution through Genetic Exchange (pb: 2007) by evolutionary biologist Michael L. Arnold, also emphases horizontal genetic exchange. The most recent book of Lynn Margulis (2002) Acquiring Genomes. A Theory of the Origins of Species (review: Nature) is a fierce attack on neo-Darwinism. Margulis is an evolutionist but rejects mutation and natural selection as the mechanism for creating new species. Instead symbiosis (the incorporation of the whole genome of one species by an unrelated species), creates new species. Viruses take part in horizontal gene transfer as well, as is explained by physician-evolutionary biologist Frank Ryan in his Virolution (2009) (see: genomics). It seems that Compositional Evolution - The Impact of Sex, Symbiosis, and Modularity on the Gradualist Framework of Evolution (2006) of computational biologist Richard A. Watson is a critique of gradualism (info). James A. Shapiro (2011) Evolution: A View from the 21st Century is against gradualism, against random mutations, against natural selection as a creative force, against the Central Dogma, for rapid change (HGT, symbiosis, whole genome duplication, hybridization, natural genetic engineering) and for adaptive mutation (info), review; "Shapiro is returing to the older style of teleology that might have satisfied an Aristotelian". Eugene Koonin (2011) has much the same criticism (see below).

Sexual selection
An important distinction is: natural selection and sexual selection. According to population geneticist Joan Roughgarden (2004) Evolution's Rainbow, Darwin's theory of natural selection is correct overall, but his theory of sexual selection has so many exceptions that it cannot be fixed. It must be discarded and replaced by a completely new theory: Social Selection Theory. This is developed further in: Roughgarden (2009) The Genial Gene. Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness (see below)Nature). Bruce Bagemihl (1999) offers a very unusual and unexpected perspective on evolution: Biological Exuberance. Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity.

Group selection
Another pair is individual and group selection. Group selection is still seen as heretic by many evolutionary biologists, but is defended by Elliott Sober and David Sloan Wilson (1999) Unto Others. The Evolution and Psychology of Unselfish Behavior (info).

Extensions
A good example of an extension of the standard evolutionary theory is Niche Construction - The neglected process in evolution (website) by F. John Odling-Smee et al (2003). This is constructive criticism. Evolution depends not on one, but on two selective processes: natural selection and niche construction (reviews: Science, Nature, Evolution, Newscientist). Niche construction is what James Lovelock's Gaia theory is all about. Organisms construct the geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere of the earth: The Ages of Gaia. A biography of our Living Earth. Similar, but from a botanical point of view and without teleology, is David Beerling's (2007) excellent and concise The Emerald Planet: How Plants Changed Earth's History. Schlichting & Pigliucci (1998) argue in Phenotypic Evolution. A Reaction Norm Perspective that interactions between genotype and environment play a key, but overlooked, role in evolution (review: Science). A recent proposal for an extension of neo-Darwinism is Jablonka and Lamb (2005) Evolution in Four Dimensions. They claim that there are four inheritance systems (genetic, epigenetic, behavioural and symbolic) and consequently not all evolutionary adaptations can be attributed to the selection of blind genetic mutations. Induced and acquired changes play also a role in evolution. Marc Kirschner & John Gerhart (2005) (The Plausibility of Life) are dissatisfied with the idea that random small mutations produce evolutionary innovations and propose a new scientific theory: facilitated variation that deals with the means of producing useful variation.
A remarkable collection of essays about biological dissidents is: Rebels, Mavericks, and Heretics in Biology by Oren Harman and Michael R. Dietrich (2008). Included are: Kimura, S J Gould, Woese. However, there are Nobelprize winners in the collection and many real rebels (Stuart Kauffman, Ted Steele, Wallace Arthur), mavericks (Senapathy), heretics (Michael Denton, Christian Schwabe) are absent! (Review: Nature; info). The most recent example of an extension is: Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd B. Müller (2010) Evolution - the Extended Synthesis (info: MIT, including sample chapters, review). A courageous and ambitious work by one author, evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner (2011), The Origins of Evolutionary Innovations: A Theory of Transformative Change in Living Systems (info). The book we have been waiting for so long! Charles Darwin would have been enthralled! See also for a criticism and extension of the Modern Synthesis: Eugene Koonin (2011) below.

Creationism / Intelligent Design
Fine Tuning
Theistic Evolution
Buddhism & Hinduism
Jewish Tradition

Creationism / Intelligent Design
A critic of Dawkins is the physicist Lee Spetner. He uses facts from the textbooks and his own calculations to demonstrate that new species cannot evolve by random mutations. He proposes a scientific alternative theory of evolution (23). Similar is Genetic Entropy & the Mystery of the Genome by John Sanford (2005). Phillip Johnson's Darwin on Trial is the theistic answer to Dawkins. Johnson discusses nearly every aspect of evolution theory except biogeography (which was a very important subject for Darwin). He does not make a secret of being a defender of religion and his book is one big rhetorical battle against evolution and the evolutionists. He has no alternative for evolution. According to Walter Remine's The Biotic Message, life was intentionally created by a designer to look unlike evolution. Studying that idea gave me the most stunning and unexpected confirmation of common descent of all life I encountered so far. The biochemist and Intelligent Design proponent Michael Behe tried to refute Darwinism with 'Irreducible Complexity' in: Darwin's Black Box (1996). He focuses on the gradualness of the evolutionary process and ignores the rest of evolution theory. His second book is: The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism (June 2007). The mathematician William Dembski claims that he can detect 'designed objects' by invoking the mathematical theory of information. Information in DNA is designed and Darwinism is unable to explain the information content of life. A textbook-critic is Jonathan Wells (2000) Icons of Evolution. Science or Myth? Why much of what we teach about evolution is wrong (review: Science). Dembski, Behe and Johnson are 'Intelligent Design Theorists' (IDT). 'Young-Earth-Creationists' and other critics of the age of the earth (for example Richard Milton) are not discussed on this site. Geology (age of the earth) and cosmology (age of the universe) are background knowledge for the theory of evolution, and are not part of the biological theory of evolution per se. Fred Hoyle was one of the greatest scientists among the Darwin-critics. His The Intelligent Universe is out of print. I classified the book in the category 'Intelligent Design Theory', but it might as well be classified as 'Non-orthodox Evolution', because Hoyle gives an alternative theory called 'Panspermia'. An early and unknown Intelligent Design Theorist is physicist and computer scientist Mark A. Ludwig. In his Computer Viruses, Artificial Life and Evolution (1993) Ludwig applies methods and results form Artificial Life to biological evolution.

  Fine Tuning

The relevance of 'Fine Tuning' for evolution is that it is about the building blocks of life and the conditions for the origin of life. Since people in this group believe that the universe is fine-tuned for life, the natural origin of life comes as no surprise. However, since fine-tuning itself is not a natural process, I included fine-tuning in the Creationism/Intelligent Design category. Their kind of evolution comes in several flavours: guided/unguided evolution and detectable/undetectable guidance. It is not always clear what authors think. One of the classic works of Fine Tuning is The Anthropic Cosmological Principle of the physicists Barrow & Tipler. In 1997 Dean Overman published A Case Against Accident and Self-Organization in which he paradoxically combined a pro-fine tuning argument with an argument against the spontaneous origin of life. The former anti-evolutionist Michael Denton published summer 1998 his Nature's Destiny, which is a detailed defence of the Fine Tuning Argument. He argues that all the physical and chemical details of the cosmos were designed to produce life and humans. Because he also argues for 'directed evolution', one could also classify him in the category 'non-orthodox evolution'. The champion of fine-tuning is astronomer Hugh Ross (2001) 'The Creator and the Cosmos'. Ross's brand of fine tuning is an amazing mixture of Biblical literalism; belief in an old-earth/old-universe; fine tuning and the divine creation of life. The difference with Denton (1998) is that Denton never uses the Bible as evidence whereas Ross does it openly throughout his work. A recent example of fine-tuning is palaeontologist Simon Conway Morris (2003) Life's Solution. Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe (reviews: Nature, Science; website). The earth has the right size and has the right distance to the sun for the existence of life. This book is directed against the idea that humans are a chance end-product of evolution. He argues that human-like creatures are inevitable by pointing to a multitude of convergences in evolution, which show that the products of evolution are constrained. He accepts evolution, and rejects 'creation science'. As a scientist he allows no explanation beyond the natural, as a Christian he believes in the supernatural. A non-theistic overview of astronomical fine-tuning is Martin Rees (2001): Our Cosmic Habitat. Astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez and philosopher-theologian Jay Richards (2004) wrote The privileged planet: how our place in the cosmos is designed for discovery: "The distance and size of the Moon is designed for perfect solar eclipses". "We live in a universe with laws and initial conditions finely tuned for the existence of complex life". The book is based on the idea of intelligent design. It is mainly about the facts of the universe, not about mathematical abstractions (like Dembski) (17). "Physicist Paul Davies (2006) in the second half of The Goldilocks Enigma: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life? (US title: 'Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe Is Just Right for Life; ') faces head-on the question of why our universe is just right for us, and he covers all the main arguments thoroughly and shows up their shortcomings" (Review: Nature; summary, Nederlands review).

  Theistic Evolution

Includes all points of view that advocate compatibility between christian belief and the theory of evolution

Theologian Ted Peters & molecular biologist Martinez Hewlett published Evolution from Creation to New Creation: Conflict, Conversation, and Convergence (2003) in which they give an overview of all possible positions. An abridged version is: Can You Believe in God And Evolution?: A Guide for the Perplexed (2006). The theologian Richard Swinburne believes that the cosmos was fine-tuned to produce humans, but accepts evolution. He could be classified as 'theistic evolutionist', because he beliefs in God and in evolution. Other examples of the category theistic evolution are: the philosopher Del Ratzsch The Battle of Beginnings. Why Neither Side Is Winning the Creation-Evolution Debate, the biologist Kenneth Miller (1999) Finding Darwin's God. A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution (11) and the theologian John Haught (2000) God After Darwin. A Theology of Evolution. John Haught (2003) Deeper than Darwin - The prospect for religion in the age of evolution opposes both IDT and the Dawkins-Dennett version of Darwinism, but accepts the fundamental correctness of neo-Darwinism. Arthur Peacocke (2004) Evolution. The Disguised Friend of Faith? is a collection of essays about faith and evolution. Peacocke was a biochemist and priest. One of the earlier examples of theistic evolution is the French palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (9). Biophysicist Harold Morowitz (10) is inspired by the new science of emergence and Teilhard. He wrote a very useful book The Emergence of Everything (2004), in which he describes in outline (in 200 pages) 28 examples of emergence, which form a sequence in time from the earliest beginnings of the universe to the future of mankind. Morowitz is a theist, has no problem with the natural origin of life and natural evolution, and does not invoke supernatural intervention. Francis Collins, director of the Human Genome Research Institute, is a Theistic Evolutionist (TE) and argues in The Language of God (2006) that one need not choose between Darwin and God. He shows new compelling evidence for common descent. Furthermore, he rejects both creationism and Intelligent Design. Fine-Tuning is part of his definition of TE. (Reviews: Nature and other). Evolutionary biologist, and Christian, Joan Roughgarden (2006) Evolution and Christian Faith can also be included in the category 'Theistic Evolution', because she accepts God and evolution. I tentatively include evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala, trained for the Catholic priesthood, in the category theistic evolution (although he made no explicit statement about TE). He published: Darwin And Intelligent Design (2006); Darwin's Gift: To Science and Religion (2007) (21). He is an ID-critic, but also a religious person. Karl Willard Giberson (wiki) is a physicist, a Christian, vice-president of the BioLogos Foundation and the author of Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution (2008).

Michael Hawley (2010) Searching for Truth with a Broken Flashlight
"takes a theistic evolution position and even allows for the belief in biblical inerrancy and a literal interpretation of Genesis" (website).

Conor Cunningham (2010) Darwin's Pious Idea: Why the Ultra-Darwinists and Creationists Both Get It Wrong
Cunningham presented the acclaimed BBC documentary Did Darwin Kill God? (info).

  Buddhism & Hinduism

Forbidden Archeology by Michael A. Cremo (1994) could be an example of Hindu creationism according to paleoanthropologist Colin Groves.

Hindu Perspectives on Evolution. Darwin, Dharma, and Design, Routledge.
C. Mackenzie Brown (2011)
Info

The Origin of Human Nature. A Zen Buddhist Looks at Evolution
Albert Low (2008)
A religious but non-theistic critique of neo-Darwinian evolution. (info).

Buddhism and Science: A Guide for the Perplexed
Donald S. Lopez (2008) University of Chicago Press. 280 pp
"In the troubled relationship between science and religion, Buddhism represents something of a singularity, in which the usual rules do not apply. Sharing quests for the big truths about the Universe and the human condition, science and Buddhism seem strangely compatible. Buddhism is a study in human development. Unencumbered by a creator deity, it embraces empirical investigation rather than blind faith." from review in Nature.

  Jewish Tradition

textbooks Evolutionary Biology
introductions
Anti-Creationism/ID

The term '(neo-)Darwinism' is ambiguous and misleading. Furthermore, 'ism' suggests an ideology, therefore it should be replace with 'evolutionary biology' (26).
Nobody can study evolution without first-hand knowledge of what textbooks say about evolution. See subcategory textbooks. Yet, if anybody may be called an orthodox neo-Darwinist it is John Maynard Smith. His Theory of Evolution is a short but expert treatment of the theory of evolution (without atheism, without creationism). Another evolutionary giant is Ernst Mayr (1905 - 2005). For a popular account of the theory of evolution read Richard Dawkins' (the ultimate 'ultra-Darwinist') The Selfish Gene, and The extended phenotype. An up-to-date and well-illustrated introductory textbook is Monroe Strickberger's Evolution (2000 and 2008). It is my favourite textbook because it presents also the physical/cosmological context of evolution. A must for any serious student and critic of evolution. A good example of a textbook author who wrote a 'popular' book about problems in modern evolutionary biology is Mark Ridley: Mendel's Demon is unique in that it penetrates deep into certain puzzling properties of living organisms and is able to give enlightening Darwinian explanations. Mendel's Demon proves that evolutionary theory is not a superficial theory. Philosopher Daniel Dennett (Darwin's Dangerous Idea) certainly belongs to the (old) category 'orthodox Darwinism'.

2011

Carl T. Bergstrom, Lee Alan Dugatkin (2011) 'Evolution', W.W. Norton & Company, hardback, paperback (Feb 2012), ebook.
Evolution textbook. Info + free chapter. The StudySpace contains summaries, animations, flashcards, and quizzes for each of the 20 chapters. Very helpful for exploring the book. Additional: Evolution News from Science Daily.

Eugene V. Koonin (2011) 'The Logic of Chance. The Nature and Origin of Biological Evolution', Financial Times/ Prentice Hall. 528 pages. hardcover and ebook.
Important, fascinating but demanding book. Toward a postmodern synthesis of evolutionary biology on the basis of genomics and system biology. This is a semi-popular book, many concepts are not explained in the text. "For all its fundamental merits, Modern Synthesis is a rather dogmatic and woefuly incomplete theory. To name three of the most glaring probnlems, Modern Synthesis makes a huge leap of faith by extending the mechanisms and patterns established for microevolution to macroevolutionary processes; it has nothing to say about evolution of microbes, which are the most abundant and diverse life forms on Earth; and it does not even attempt to address the origin of life." (p.18,19). Claims to be a new, much more detailed, complex, and realistic picture of evolution: the inadequacy of natural selection and adaptation as the only or even the main mode of evolution; the key role of horizontal gene transfer in evolution and the consequent overhaul of the Tree of Life concept; the central, underappreciated evolutionary importance of viruses. Also opposes Darwinian gradualism. This is mainstream but still an extension of orthodox neoDarwinism. Info (free chapters). There are numerous black-and-white illustrations but mostly of poor quality.

Cameron M. Smith (2011) 'The Fact of Evolution' Prometheus, Paperback, 346 pages
He is the author of The Top Ten Myths about Evolution. info

Brett Calcott, Kim Sterelny (2011) 'The Major Transitions in Evolution Revisited', The MIT Press.
This is a revised edition of John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry (1995) The Major Transitions in Evolution, which appeared after the death of Maynard Smith in 2004. See also: Books of John Maynard Smith.

2010

Heinz Decker, Kensal E. van Holde (2010) 'Oxygen and the Evolution of Life', Springer, 183 pages.
The publisher has useful info about the book (Look inside, chapter summaries). Compare with Nick Lane's book Oxygen. I think chemical and physical constraints (such as the properties of oxygen) on organisms are as important as DNA to understand which life forms evolve.

Wallace Arthur (2010) 'Evolution: A Developmental Approach', Wiley-Blackwell, Paperback 416 pages
The core theme in this book is how evolution works by changing the course of embryonic and post-embryonic development ('evo-devo'). Info. See also this page.

Michael A. Bell, Douglas J. Futuyma, Walter F. Eanes, Jeffrey S. Levinton (eds) (2010) 'Evolution since Darwin: The First 150 Years', Sinauer Associates, paperback 350 pp.
Info. Emerged from a symposium held in November 2009 at Stony Brook University, USA. Review: Science: In 22 chapters and 8 commentaries, they trace the history of diverse subdisciplines of evolutionary biology since Darwin, with particular focus on the past 50 years." Partly textbook, partly history of evolutionary biology. Also reviewed in Evolution (30 MAR 2011): The first (Part I) provides an overview of the biology and history of evolution since Darwin. The second section (Parts II - V) explores progress and prospects in major research areas, including genetics and genomics (II), evolution of form (III), adaptation and speciation (IV), and diversity and phylogeny (V). The third main section includes special topics, including human evolution (Part VI) and applied aspects of evolution (VII). The final section (Part VIII) Prospects for the next 150 years. "Evolution Since Darwin presents a excellent survey and synthesis of where evolutionary biology stands in the early 21st century. Most of the chapters are well written, interesting, and up-to-date.".

Brian K. Hall (2010) "Evolution: Principles and Processes" Jones & Bartlett, Paperback 442 pages
Info + sample chapter. Website.

Lucio Vinicius (2010) "Modular Evolution: How Natural Selection Produces Biological Complexity", Cambridge University Press, 264 pages.
Info + excerpt. "Proposes a new explanation for one of the most challenging questions in evolution: why are organisms more complex now than in the past?".

Daniel W. McShea, Robert Brandon (2010) "Biology's First Law: The Tendency for Diversity and Complexity to Increase in Evolutionary Systems", University Of Chicago Press, 184 pages.
The definition: "In any evolutionary system in which there is variation and heredity, there is a tendency for diversity and complexity to increase, one that is always present but may be opposed or augmented by natural selection, other forces, or constraints acting on diversity and complexity." See Google books. Reviews: Nature, Science: "They insist that the ZFEL requires a gestalt shift in the way we think about evolutionary biology: Although we have believed that it is change that is in need of explanation, the ZFEL reveals that change is the default state. At every level of the biological hierarchy for which there is heritable variation (genes, organelles, organisms, species, etc.), it is stasis that requires explanation.".

Peter A Rosenbaum (2010) "Volpe's Understanding Evolution", McGraw-Hill Professional, paperback.
Info.

Bruce Lieberman, Roger Kaesler (2010) "Prehistoric Life", Wiley-Blackwell, Paperback, 400 pages.
Category: paleontology. This is more than a paleontology book: the interconnections between our planet, its climate system, and its varied life forms are shown. Please note chapter 8 about growth and form using 'Galileo's Principle' (based on S.J. Gould's chapter 'Size and Shape' in Ever since Darwin); and chapter 15 about Multicellularity and the vertebrate Brain. Info.

Martin Brasier (2010) "Darwin's Lost World. The hidden history of animal life", Oxford University Press, paperback.
Category: paleontology. Info.

2009

Peter Forbes (2009) "Dazzled and Deceived: Mimicry and Camouflage", Yale University Press: 2009. 304 pp.
Review: Nature: "The book highlights the interlinked nature of science. To understand the development of the theory of protective coloration, we must first understand how the theory of evolution progressed, as well as genetics, developmental biology and experimental science in general. In turn, Forbes illustrates how advances in protective coloration have affected evolutionary theory."

Russell Foster, Leon Kreitzman (2009) "The Seasons of Life: The Biological Rhythms that Living Things Need to Thrive and Survive", Profile Books/Yale University Press: 2009. 320 pp.
Field: chronobiology. Info (+excerpts). "The authors dedicate five chapters to the adaptation of animals and plants to the seasons, and six to human seasonality. Thousands of species across the globe, including those in the tropics, use seasonality to turn off reproduction at times of year when low food supply is expected". Reviews: Nature. See also: 'Rhythms of Life. The Biological Clocks that Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing' (2004) of the same authors.

Peter Godfrey-Smith (2009) "Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2009. 217 pp.
Godfrey-Smith is a philosopher at Harvard University. "Our standard models for understanding what evolution by natural selection is are just too simple. Godfrey-Smith's book fruitfully forces us to think in new ways about evolution and natural selection." from: Reviews: Science.

Richard Dawkins (2009) "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution", Bantam Press, hb 470 pp printed on FSC paper, and Free Press (2009).
"The evidence for evolution grows by the day, and has never been stronger". "This is a book about the positive evidence that evolution is a fact. It is not intended as an anti-religious book". Dawkins wrote about the theory of evolution, about stumbling blocks and obstacles for accepting evolution, but not a book about the evidence for evolution. This book fills the gap, but does not restrict itself to the evidence. There are anecdotes, digressions and still a lot of evolution-obstacles to overcome. Many color plates and b.w. illustrations. Compare with: Jerry A. Coyne (2009). Info. Review: Nature. See further: Dawkins page.

Douglas J. Futuyma (2009) "Evolution, Second Edition" Sinauer. 633 pages, 582 illustrations
Textbook. For mysterious reasons Sinauer published in 2009 the second edition after publishing the 4th edition in 2005. "Probably the best available undergraduate text on evolutionary biology" (E.V. Koonin). Book info. Companion Website with more info about the book. (Amazon.com: $87.16. Sep 09).

Douglas Palmer, Peter Barrett (Illustrator) (2009) "Evolution: The Story of Life", University of Califonria Press.
info, Info, preview. A visual guide to the history of life on earth.

"The Tangled Bank: An Introduction to Evolution"
Carl Zimmer (2009), Roberts and Company Publishers, Hardcover 385 pages.
This book is intended for non-biologists. It describes the key concepts in evolution. Richly illustrated with over 300 illustrations and photographs. A pleasure to browse. Look and feel like a popular science magazine such as Scientific American. Glossary, References, Index.
"Carl Zimmer's approach to explaining evolution in The Tangled Bank is rather different [than Dawkins]. In a non-confrontational way, he lays out the evidence for all to see. His prose, while authoritative and easy to read, is poised rather than animated. Dense with facts, the book is billed as the first textbook on evolution for the general reader, and in that framework it excels. Zimmer doesn't counterpoint the facts of evolution with creationist assertions but biblical literalism stalks the pages like the elephant in the room" (Laurence D. Hurst, Nature, 1 Oct 2009). See: blog, info, review.

"Why Evolution Is True"
Jerry A. Coyne (2009) Viking, 304 pp. / Oxford University Press, hb, 309 pp.
Unlike evolution textbooks, Why Evolution Is True mainly presents evidence for evolution: transitional fossils, remnants, biogeography, natural selection, sexual selection, the origin of species, human evolution and the evolution-creation controversy. Contains 55 Notes, Glossary, Suggestions for further reading, References per chapter, Index, many b&w illustrations.
Reviews: Science, Nature, PloS Biology (free), New York Review of Books (free), TEE (Trends in Ecology & Evolution), American Scientist, Reports NCSE. Info (including free Introduction). Why Evolution Is True Blog by Jerry Coyne. See also: An interview with Jerry Coyne.

'The Rough Guide to Evolution'. Rough Guide Science/Phenomena. Paperback 352 pages
Mark Pallen (2009)
Info. See also: Rap Guide to Evolution.

"Strickberger's Evolution, Fourth Edition"
by Brian K. Hall and Benedikt Hallgrímsson, 2008, Jones and Bartlett, 762 pages.
Textbook. Strickberger was able to produce 3 editions of Evolution (1990,1995,2000). The fourth edition has been thoroughly updated and reorganized by Hall and Hallgrímsson. Brain Hall is known for his work in the evo-devo field. The fourth edition contains 40 pages more than the third edition of 2000. Info (includes pdfs of chapter 1 and 3 ). The publishers produced a free companion website to accompany and expand the scope of the text, containing links to websites, exercises, etc. Google books has good search utility and it seems almost all pages can be previewed. Apart from the magnificent cover photo there are no full-color illustrations in the book (only bw images, and black-green illustrations, the same technique used in Mark Ridley's Evolution, third edition). Warning: prices vary more than 2x, so compare prices before you buy the book!

"Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body"
by Neil Shubin, 2008. 229 pp. Pantheon Books.
Reviews: American Scientist (free Access review): "the multidisciplinary approach that led to them, offer unique insights into human anatomical quirks". "The three tiny bones of the mammalian middle ear are the classic case of a radical anatomical makeover: They evolved from two separate ancestral gill arches and their muscles are served by two separate cranial nerves". Excerpt; review; review (free).

2008

"Demons in Eden: The Paradox of Plant Diversity"
by Jonathan Silvertown (2008) University of Chicago Press, paperback: 2008. 192 pp
Review: Nature: "one might predict that one supremely fit plant species, capable of photosynthesis, vegetative growth, pollination and seed dispersal in a way that outperformed all other plants, might ultimately prove the victor in the evolutionary struggle and would dominate the world's primary production. But this has not happened." Why not? info + excerpt, Info.

"Selection The Mechanism of Evolution". 2nd ed.
by Graham Bell, 2008, Oxford University Press, 2 edition 656 pages.
In the classical Fisherian model, weak selection acting on many genes of small effect over long periods of time is responsible for driving slow and gradual change. However, it is now clear that adaptation in laboratory populations often involves strong selection acting on a few genes of large effect, while in the wild selection is often strong and highly variable in space and time.

"How and Why Species Multiply. The Radiation of Darwin's Finches"
by Peter R. Grant and B. Rosemary Grant, 2008, Princeton University Press, hardback 218 pp. Many color and line illus.
Drawing on decades of research in the Galapagos (especially their own work), the Grant's offer a comprehensive introduction to Darwin's finches and to evolutionary radiations on islands. "Nothing in evolutionary biology makes sense except in the light of ecology." Reviewed in Science. Info.

2007

Evolution
by Nicholas Barton, Derek Briggs, Jonathan eisen, David Goldstein, Nipam Patel, 2007, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press hb 833 pages.
Evolution textbook. The book is accompanied by an extensive free website. Chapter 27 & 28 will be available online. The idea to integrate molecular and evolutionary biology was conceived by Jim Watson (according to the preface of the book). Substantial treatment of the origin of life. Review page on this site.

An Introduction to Biological Evolution
by Kenneth V. Kardong (2007) McGraw-Hill, 352 pages. Sec edition 2008.
The text departs from the standard treatment of evolution in other textbooks, wherein the arguments are reductionist, molecular, and overwhelmingly genetic in emphasis. info.

2006

Evolutionary Analysis (4th Edition)
by Scott Freeman, Jon C. Herron (2006) Benjamin Cummings hardback 800 pages. Also: a Pearson Prentice Hall 2007 edition 834 pages.
Evolution textbook. This edition has a 3-page discussion of Michael Behe and irreducible complexity (pp.100-102). Substantial treatment of the origin of life.
A useful webresource: Companion Website for Evolutionary Analysis.

On the Origin of Phyla
by James W. Valentine (2006) University Of Chicago Press, pb 608 pages.
Textbook. An encyclopedic work discussing bodyplans of all animal phyla plus background knowledge on systematics, classification, phylogenies, development, genetic regulation, fossil record, Cambrian Explosion, evolutionary relations. James Valentine managed to write about a subject which Darwin omitted from his On the Origin of Species. See Amazon [Look Inside] for a full Table of Contents (publisher has an illegible and incomplete listing on her website). A substantial part of the book can be read online at google books.

Population Genetics and Microevolutionary Theory
by Alan R. Templeton (2006), Wiley. Hardcover 720 pages
Textbook. Info.

Evolutionary Pathways in Nature: a Phylogenetic Approach
by John C Avise, 2006 Cambridge University Press, 298 pp., paperback
"The book is aimed at a scientifically literate -but nonspecialist- reader, and despite the vast range of topics it covers, it is an amazingly easy read. It will not only appeal to the amateur naturalist but could also serve as a textbook for an undergraduate evolution course." Review: Nature Genetics

The Making of the Fittest. DNA and the ultimate forensic record of evolution
by Sean B. Carroll, 2006 W. W. Norton, hb 301 pages.
"In this book I will tell the story of how the new science of genomics - the comprehensive and, most especially, the comparative study of species DNA - is profoundly expanding our knowledge of the evolution of life." Reviews: Nature, American Scientist; info, Luskin review (Discovery Institute).

The Evolving World. Evolution in Everyday Life
by David Mindell, 2006, HUP, hb 341 pages, bw illustrations.
The goal of this book is to show how the knowledge and methods of evolution are used in agriculture, medicine, health, environment, nature conservation, culture (language, books incl. Bible, history of Abrahamic religions), legal system and classroom. Consequently, it would be unwise to drop the teaching of evolution. Religion, creationism and Intelligent Design are discussed mainly in the Conclusions chapter. The book is similar in goal, but broader in scope than Stephen Palumbi (2001). Review: Nature.

2005

The Geographic Mosaic of Coevolution
by John N. Thompson, 2005, University of Chicago Press, 443 pages.
"The Geographic Mosaic of Coevolution is far more than a review of Thomson's own work or a discussion of how spatial variation alters the evolution of interacting species. It is a review of the majority of empirical and theoretical work on almost all facets of coevolution that has appeared over the past decade." Review: American Scientist, Science. Info.

Catastrophes and lesser calamities. The causes of mass extinctions
by Tony Hallam, 2005, Oxford University Press, 226 pages.
A popular account of mass extinctions and their causes in a small paperback by geologist Hallam. The causes are not only asteroids or comets but also sea-level changes, oxygen deficiency in the oceans, climatic change and volcanic activity. Extinctions reminds us of the reasons why natural selection is not all-powerfull!

From So Simple a Beginning: The Four Great Books of Charles Darwin
edited by Edward O. Wilson. W.W. Norton, 2005, 1504 pages.
Darwin: The Indelible Stamp edited by James D. Watson. Running Press, 2005, 1260 pp.
Both books contain The Voyage of the Beagle + On The Origin of Species + The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex + The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Both books are reviewed by Bruce H. Weber in Nature.

Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life
by Nick Lane, 2005, Oxford University Press.
"Power means the rate of doing work, or expending energy; sex refers to the odd, unexplained fact of maternal inheritance; and cell suicide is apotosis. But this book delivers vastly more. The central proposals of the book are clearly and forcefully propounded, are serious, have far-reaching consequences - and may even be correct." (John Allen). Reviews: Nature, Science. See also: Nick Lane (2002) "Oxygen".

"Evolution, an introduction" second edition
by Stephen Stearns & Rolf Hoekstra, 2005. paperback, Oxford University Press, 575 pages.
This is now the most up-to-date evolution textbook on the market (Sep 2005). Companion web site with free (!) online pdf version of chapter 6 (The importance of development in evolution) and chapter 13 (Phylogeny and systematics). Stephen Stearns is the author of Evolution in Health and Disease and The Evolution of Life Histories. Browsing through the book is enough to be impressed by the extremely wide range of research problems that are being investigated by evolutionary biologists.

"Evolution"
by Douglas J. Futuyma, 2005. hardback, Sinauer Associates, 543 pages, 508 illustrations.
The 4th edition appeared in May 2005. It is much shorter than the third edition and is exclusively directed toward an undergraduate audience. See for full table of contents website of the publisher. Two new chapters are Evolution of genes and genomes (reflecting the new field of genomics) and Development and Evolution (reflecting the new field evo-devo). Evo-devo has now become textbook orthodoxy? A final chapter about creationism and society. Review: Evolution.

"Handbook of Evolution: The Evolution of Human Societies and Cultures, Vol 1
by Franz M. Wuketits (Editor), Christoph Antweiler (Editor) Hardcover, 352 pages, 2004
info (for professionals)
"Handbook of Evolution: The Evolution of Living Systems (Including Hominids) Vol 2
by Franz M. Wuketits (Editor), Francisco J. Ayala (Editor), Hardcover, 291 pages, 2005
info (for professionals)

2004

"Speciation"
by Jerry A. Coyne and H. Allen Orr, 2004. Paperback, Sinauer Associates, 545 pages
Up-to-date overview of the literature on the origin of new species by two experts. See publisher's information. Reviews: A positive review has appeared in Nature by Axel Meyer: "Performing this demanding duet in masterly harmony, Coyne and Orr present an authoritative treatise on one of the most long-running debates in evolutionary biology. Speciation is an impressively up-to-date and enlightening synthesis - and an entertaining read. It deserves to join Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and Mayr's Systematics and the Origin of Species on the bookshelf of anyone who is interested in evolution"; American Scientist, Evolution.

"Evolution, third edition"
by Mark Ridley. 2004. 751 pages.
This is one of the most up-to-date evolution textbook available. New chapters on evolutionary genomics, and evo-devo. Anybody daring to say a word about evolution must consult this textbook first. There is a website associated with this book with sample chapters, tutorials, resources and 20 free classic texts on evolutionary biology. See Google Books for preview!

"Assembling the Tree of Life",
by Joel Cracraft, Michael J. Donoghue (2004) Oxford University Press, 576 pp. Review: Evolution.

2002

"Oxygen. The Molecule that made the World.", Oxford University Press
by Nick Lane (2002).
Oxygen: the molecule that made the living world. One cannot understand evolution by studying internal factors (genes) alone! Nick Lane shows how oxygen shapes life. Oxygen is more than just another environmental factor. Oxygen is a mixed blessing: we cannot live without it, but it kills us in the end. Oxygen is the elixir of life - and death. Nick Lane emphases the harmful effects of oxygen throughout his book. A new perspective on life, evolution, ageing, death, sex, longevity, and disease. Nick Lane's biophysical knowledge is a welcome ingredient of the evolutionary synthesis. The current 'free-radical theory of ageing' largely confirm Lane's views. Reviews: American Scientist, Nature. Read more about the importance of oxygen for the history of life: Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere.

'The Evolution of Plants'
by K. J. Willis and J. C. McElwain (2002) Oxofrd University Press. 392 pages
Info (links, powerpoint slides and free chapter available).

"The Structure of Evolutionary Theory"
by Stephen J Gould. 2002. 1433 pages.
A textbook for the advanced reader by the well-known palaeontologist Gould. Displays his personal views on the Evolutionary Synthesis. Interesting historical overview (including Paley). 300 pages Punctuated Equilibrium. Remarkably Gould completely omitted 'the revolution in palaeontology': cladistics. Gould is an evolutionist but also a critic of the Evolutionary Synthesis.
Reviews: this site, Science, Nature.

"Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach"
by John Alcock. 2001. 543 pages. Seventh edition.
Is animal behaviour part of neo-Darwinism? One answer comes from Alcock's distinction 'proximate/ultimate' causes of behaviour. Proximate causes of behaviour are located in the brain and the immediate environment; ultimate causes are evolutionary causes. Therefore, ultimate causes of behaviour are part of evolutionary theory. Another answer comes from Darwin's Origin of Species. Darwin devoted the chapter 'Instinct' to animal behaviour. So again the answer is yes. Apart from that, 'Animal Behavior' is an attractive book in its own right with a multitude of well-illustrated full colour examples. Fascinating chapters about reproductive, mating and human behaviour; does not avoid controversial subjects.
Here are some critical reviews from professionals, but in the end they admit that students love the book. Here is information from the publisher including a full table of contents of the book.

"The Evolution Explosion. How humans cause rapid evolutionary change"
by Stephen Palumbi. 2001. 277 pages.
The book is an easier introduction to evolutionary biology than the standard textbooks and contains examples not present in most textbooks such as antibiotic resistance, HIV, insecticides, herbicides. 'Evolution right before your eyes'; 'the engine of evolution'. This book typically deals with the mechanisms of evolution, not with the fossil record or the tree of life. Review: Nature.

2001

"What Evolution Is"
by Ernst Mayr. 2001. 318 pages.
See Books by Ernst Mayr.

"This is Biology. The Science of The Living World", eighth printing 2001 (paperback).
by Ernst Mayr, 2001. 323 pages. (first printing 1997)
See Books by Ernst Mayr.

"Evolution. The Triumph of an Idea"
by Carl Zimmer. Harper Collins, 2001. 364 pages.
I dislike its title ('triumph' suggests propaganda), but the book is a good introduction to current evolutionary biology for the general public (non-biologists). It's easier to read then the textbooks. Chapter about religion. Well-illustrated, no footnotes, Further Reading, good index. Reviews: NewScientist, Science.

"Frogs, Flies and Dandelions: The making of Species"
by Menno Schilthuizen. 2001. 245 pages.
I highly recommend this book. It is small and very well written, accessible, to the point. This is about the origin of species in the field and is really useful to flesh out abstract ideas about speciation. (hint for insiders: it's a defence of sympatric speciation). Menno Schilthuizen is an evolutionary ecologist, field worker and science writer. Illustrated by the author. See his home page. Review: Nature

2000

"Evolution. An Introduction"
by Stephen Stearns and Rolf Hoekstra. 2000. Oxford University Press paperback, 381 pages.
Sex has spectacular consequences for the biology of organisms. To their embarrassment, however, evolutionary biologists have had great difficulties in finding a simple and general explanation for the widespread occurrence of sexual reproduction. Chapters 7-9 cover sex, life histories, and sexual selection in greater depth than they are dealt with in any other introductory textbook but without introducing advanced technical language. Textbook for undergraduate biology, anthropology, genetics, molecular biology, botany, zoology students. Stephen Stearns is Professor of Zoology, University of Basel, Switzerland and Rolf Hoekstra is Professor of Genetics, Wageningen Universtiy, The Netherlands. See above for second edition.

"What is Life?"
by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan. 2000. University of California Press paperback 288 pages.
A beautifully designed and artfully illustrated introduction into the question "What is life?" for the general reader. Lynn Margulis is well-known for her widely accepted symbiosis theory. Scientifically accurate and a masterpiece of popular science writing. Her love for all living creatures is obvious and often results in poetic metaphors. See also my Gánti review.

"Almost like a whale. The Origin of Species Updated."
by Steve Jones. 2000. 499 pages, paperback.
Jones wrote the latest edition of Darwin's Origin of Species including everything biologists have learned since then. Critics of evolution will be interested in the chapter 'Difficulties on theory' in which modern problems of Darwin's theory are discussed. Reviews: Peter Bowler in NewScientist 23 Oct 1999 p60, Nature, LRB.

"Evolution", Third Edition.
by Monroe Strickberger. Jones and Bartlett Publishers Int. 2000. 722 pages.
A basic introduction for biology students. (see: my review). review.

1999 - 1993

"Evolution", Second Edition.
by Colin Patterson. The Natural History Museum, London. 1999. 166 pages.
The shortest and most remarkable of the textbooks of evolution. Just completed before his death. Palaeontologist Colin Patterson had some controversial ideas on evolution. A good introduction for those who don't have the patience for the heavy introductions.

"Evolutionary Biology", Third Edition.
by Douglas Futuyma. Sinauer Associates. 1998. 763 pages.
Famous standard text for undergraduate and graduate biology students (see 4th edition above).

"The Theory of Evolution", Third edition.
by John Maynard Smith, 1997. 354 pages.
A textbook in paperback by an authority in the field of evolutionary biology. See short review on this site.

"Evolution. A Biological and Palaeontological Approach" , First Edition.
1993, reprinted 1994,1996. by Peter Skelton (editor). Addison-Wesley in association with The Open University. 1064 pages.
The core text for students of the Open University. Written with a student-centered approach. An undergraduate introductory course. Including a very useful chapter about the origin of life.

"Evolution", Second Edition.
by Mark Ridley. Blackwell Science. 1996. 719 pages.
This textbook book is intended as an introductory text. (contents). See also third editon (2004) above.

"Darwin's Dreampond. Drama in Lake Victoria".
by Tijs Goldschmidt. The MIT Press. 1996
"Darwin's Dreampond tells the evolutionary story of the extraordinary "furu" and the battlefield leading to extinction. Tijs Goldschmidt skillfully blends a masterful discussion of the principles of neo-Darwinian evolution and speciation with a history of Lake Victoria's ecosystem."

"The Red Queen. Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature"
by Matt Ridley. 1994. Penguin paperback, 404 pages.
First published in 1993, but still a good, 'popular' introduction into evolutionary biology. There is overlap with Mark Ridley's Mendel's Demon, but it is slightly more popular. (see also: category sex & evolution).

"The Adaptive Seascape: The Mechanism of Evolution"
by David J. Merrell. 1994. University of Minnesota Press, 259 pages.
"In this book, Merrell provides a lucid exposition and critique of the modern synthetic theory of evolution - its history, its present difficulties, and its future - from the perspectives of ecological genetics." Pluralistic approach to evolution: evolution takes place by many mechanisms. The case is made for rapid saltational evolution as well as gradual evolution. Importance of genes of major effect for evolutionary change. Special attention to criticism and controversies. David Merrell is the author of Ecological Genetics.

"Evolution"
by Alec Panchen. 1993. 183 pages.
Panchen is interested in the question: what is the theory of evolution for? what does it explain? His answer is the natural classification of species.

"The Origin of Species"
by Charles Darwin, John Murray, London, 24 Nov 1859. 477 pages.
Here is an on-line verson of the first edition of Darwin's revolutionary work. Each chapter can be downloaded separately. The on-line version makes full-text search (per chapter) possible.

'Am I a Monkey? Six Big Questions about Evolution',
by Francisco J. Ayala (2011) The John Hopkins University Press, 104 pp.
Am I a Monkey? Why Is Evolution a Theory? What Is DNA? Do All Scientists Accept Evolution? How Did Life Begin? Can One Believe in Evolution and God? Info.

'The Evidence for Evolution', The University of Chicago Press, 128 pages
by Alan R. Rogers (2011)
A very short introduction to the evidence for evolution. Do species change? Can evolution explain design? Has there been enough time? Did humans evolve? Info

'Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth', Hill and Wang, 160 pages
by Jay Hosler, Kevin Cannon, Zander Cannon (2011)
graphic primer on evolution

'How Science Works: Evolution', Springer, 100 pages.
by John Ellis (2010).
A Student Primer. A general reading book for those especially interested in Evolution and the philosophy of science: Evolution is just a theory, isn't it? What is a scientific theory anyway? Don't scientists prove things? What is the difference between a fact, a hypothesis and a theory in science? How does scientific thinking differ from religious thinking? Why are most leading scientists atheists? Info. Book website (useful). Review: Nature.

"The Theory of Evolution - Simple Guides" Publisher: Kuperard. Paperback. 168 pages.
by John Scotney (2009)
Simple Guides Science are user-friendly introductions to the great scientific discoveries of the world written by experts in the field. Info. Info.

"99% Ape: How Evolution Adds Up"
by Jonathan Silvertown (Editor) (2009), University Of Chicago. Paperback 224 pages.
Info. Silvertown is the author of Demons in Eden and the initiator of Evolution Megalab.

"The History of Life: A Very Short Introduction"
Michael J. Benton (2008) OUP Oxford, 144 pages.

"Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography."
by Janet Browne (2008) Grove Press Paperback, 192 pages.
Janet Browne is the author of the famous Darwin biography Charles Darwin: The Power of Place. Review: New York Review of Books.

"Charles Darwin", Very Interesting People Series, Paperback, Oxford University Press, 136 pages
by Adrian Desmond, James Moore, Janet Browne (2007).
The first volume in a planned two-volume biography. Info.

"When Fish Got Feet, Sharks Got Teeth, and Bugs Began to Swarm: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life Long Before Dinosaurs"
by Hannah Bonner (2007), National Geographic Children's Books, Hardcover, 48 pages.
Ages 9-12. Also from HB: "When Bugs Were Big, Plants Were Strange, and Tetrapods Stalked the Earth: A Cartoon Prehistory of Life before Dinosaurs".

"Evolution For Dummies"
by Greg Krukonis, 2007 For Dummies, Paperback: 384 pages
This is an amazing complete overview of evolutionary biology. Complicated subjects, concepts and important experiments are very well explained. I have only seen the Dutch translation. Nederlandse vertaling: 'Evolutieleer voor dummies', Pearson Addison Wesley, zie hier en hier.

"Darwin for Dummies"
by Consumer Dummies, Carole Ann Camp, John Wiley & Sons Inc (December 2006).

"How to Read Darwin"
by Mark Ridley Granta Books, 2005 119 pages (W. W. Norton, 2006)
Mark Ridley presents and explains excerpts from the most important works of Darwin. He doesn't ignore politically sensitive passages in The Descent of Man. info

"Evolution A Beginner's Guide"
by Burton Guttman, 2005. Oneworld Publications. 192 pages. info.

"Evolution"
by Paul Fleisher, 2005. Twenty-First Century Books, 80 pages.
Google Books: preview of the book.

"Introducing Evolution"
by Dylan Evans, Howard Selina, Icon Books, 2005. info

"The Theory of Evolution: What It Is, Where It Came From, and Why It Works"
by Cynthia Mills. 2004. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. paperback 218 pages
A short introduction, but it covers all aspects: Darwin and Wallace, the theory, reactions to the theory, the modern synthesis, impact on society (social darwinism, eugenics, creationism), modern developments (game theory, sociobiology, punc eek, Kauffman). Surprisingly complete for its 200 pages! Glossary, bibliography, index. Info.

"The Tree Of Life: The Wonders Of Evolution"
by Ellen Jackson, Prometheus Books, Paperback, 2004
Introduction for young children (Ages 4-8)

"Penguin Great Ideas : On Natural Selection"
by Charles Darwin, Penguin Books Ltd; Rev Ed edition (2 Sep 2004) Paperback 128 pages.
Contains four chapters from The Origin of Species: Struggle for Existence, Natural Selection, Difficulties on Theory, Conclusion.

"Darwin and Evolution for Kids: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities"
by Kristan Lawson (2003), Chicago Review Press, 160 pp.
Reading level: Ages 9-12. Google books.

"Darwin: A Very Short Introduction"
by Jonathan Howard, Oxford University Press. 2001. 144 pages.
I did not yet see the book, but it is obviously not a 'standard textbook' on evolution. But it is surely a short introduction. info.

"The Complete Idiot's Guide to Evolution"
by Leslie Horvitz, Leslie Alan Horvitz, 2001, Alpha; 1st edition 336 pages (Paperback)

"Discoveries: Darwin and the Science of Evolution"
by Patrick Tort, Harry N. Abrams; New Ed edition (2001), Paperback 159 pages.
Very well illustrated guide to Darwin and his theory.

"Evolution: A Very Short Introduction"
by Brian Charlesworth, 2003, Oxford University Press, USA, 168 pages. info

"Darwin in 90 Minutes
by John Gribbin, 1997, Constable and Robinson, 80 pages.
John Gribbin is a British science writer, see: wiki.

"Darwin for Beginners"
by Jonathan Miller and Borin Van Loon. Icon Books, 1992,1994. 175 pages.
The cartoon guide to evolution. Have fun and learn. See also "Introducing Darwin" (UK edition, 2006). Also a Pantheon paperback edition 176 pages (2003).

Historically, the origin of life is a not part of Darwinism, simply because Darwin did not discuss the origin of life. Evolution according to Darwin is the origin of species from the first forms of life. Indeed, there is no origin of life in a modern evolution textbook such as Mark Ridley (2004) 'Evolution'. However, there is excellent coverage in the evolution textbook Strickberger (2000). In the past two decades a number of popular science books on the origin of life have been published. Two short introductions (both under 125 pages) are Seven Clues to the Origin of Life by A.G. Cairns-Smith (1995). Although he wrote the book as a scientific detective story, he did not manage to make complex matters comprehensible for me. The second is by the physicist Freeman Dyson (1999) Origins of Life (second edition). It is an accessible book about the origin of life for the non-specialist. Dyson proposes the 'double-origin hypothesis': life began twice. One kind of 'life' capable of metabolism and the other capable of replication. I prefer this book of the two. A critical but non-creationist treatment of the origin of life is: Robert Shapiro (1986) Origins. A Skeptic's Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth. Whereas most authors in this category are optimists, Shapiro typically is a pessimist. A fascinating and sometimes bewildering book that covers both the origin and evolution of life is At Home in the Universe by Stuart Kauffman. A crystal clear analysis of the problem of the origin of life, with a fine balance between details and general overview of the subject is The Fifth Miracle. The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life (14) by the physicist and popular science writer Paul Davies (1999). Davies has a non-dogmatic, non-intelligent-design position, which could be described as a 'bio-friendly-' and 'mind-friendly-universe'. He is very good at describing the issues of life, information and complexity. The following three books are popular science books but contain all the biological details. Nobel Prize winner Christian de Duve (2002): Life Evolving. Molecules, Mind and Meaning (review: Science). This well written book is a completely updated version of his Vital Dust(1995). It is about the origin of life, the origin of eukaryotes, our brain and religion. De Duve believes in the inevitability of life. Life is no accident. He presents original ideas about the origin of life in a very readable way. Interesting for specialists and non-specialists. His latest book is Singularities: Landmarks On The Pathways Of Life (2005). ("A sophisticated consideration of the key steps or bottlenecks that constrain the path to the origin and evolution of life"; Duve wrote the book because his previous books were misinterpreted as reflecting the pursuit of an ideological agenda. review: Nature). Evolutionary biologists John Maynard Smith & Eörs Szathmáry (1999) wrote the influential and higly original book The Origins of Life. From the Birth of Life to the Origin of Language (see short review). I learned a lot of new things from Christopher Wills and Jeffrey Bada (2000) The Spark of Life. Darwin and the Primeval Soup. The title of this book is somewhat misleading, but the book is about the origin of life and is strong in education, science and the key figures in the history of biology (illustrated including colour plates). Recommended for beginners too. An admirable, very complete and academic overview of the origin of life question from Aristotle to Kauffman is The Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview by biochemist, philosopher, historian of science Iris Fry (2000). The balance between science (many details), history and philosophy can hardly be improved. The third theory of the origin of life (Senapathy and Schwabe) is missing (see also a short discussion here). A highly original and superior (but also expensive) book about the origin of life is Tibor Ganti (2003) The Principles of Life. Hungarian chemical engineer Gánti developed an extremely useful and stimulating set of defining properties of life; produced the best theoretical model of life ever produced, applied those principles to a novel attack on the problem of the origin of life and produced a very comprehensible account of all this. Very stimulating book. My review includes a comparison with 17 other books on the origin of life. Robert Hazen's Genesis - The Scientific Quest for Life's Origin (2005) provides the best overview of the origin of life field for the non-specialist reader sofar (reviews: Nature, Science, Orig Life Evol Biosph).
    All the above authors locate the origin of life on Earth. The alternative view is the panspermia theory. Life came from space and either was brought by comets to the Earth (Fred Hoyle The Intelligent Universe; Wickramasinghe: 12), or by a spaceship. This last option was defended (although not well elaborated) by the Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick (1981) in a short popular book Life Itself. Its Origin and Nature (8). An up-to-date, well argued, original, thought-provoking defence of the panspermia hypothesis is biologist Clive Trotman (2004) The Feathered Onion. Creation of Life in the Universe. Trotman uses irreducible complexity in a non-creationist way to argue for panspermia. This is a unique approach. As far as I know the only origin of life book from a biblical perspective that deals with modern scientific evidence is Fazala Rana & Hugh Ross (2004) Origins of Life. Biblical and Evolutionary models face off (review: Orig Life Evol Biosph).

David Deamer (2011) 'First Life. Discovering the Connections between Stars, Cells, and How Life Began', Univ. of California Press hb 272 pages.
info. "One of the main arguments I will make in this book is that structures resembling microscopic soap bubbles were an absolute requirement for life to begin, as essential to the process as the assembly of genes and proteins" (p.3). This is a useful book. No notes or references but useful links and websites. Frequently asked questions about Intelligent Design.
Reviews: Nature: Deamer's hypothesis depends on polymers, the reviewer, Robert Shapiro, suggests that life started without the presence of polymers; and instead, heredity and catalysis began with monomers!

Michael Yarus (2010) "Life From an RNA World: The Ancestor Within", Harvard University Press, 208 pp.
Review: Nature, Science, Info (excerpt), website. Aimed at the general reader. Well-written overview and defense of the RNA-world written by a researcher at the front of research uncovering evidence for the RNA world. About the arguments, data, experiments and discoveries that form that basis of the RNA-world hypothesis. Good chapter about the origin of the genetic code. A pleasure to read.

Robert Hazen (2005) "Genesis - The Scientific Quest for Life's Origin", hardback Joseph Henry Press.
Info. Includes chapters The RNA-World and The Pre-RNA-World. Very shortly the work of Albert Eschenmoser is mentioned, but a lot about the PAH world.

Astrobiology

To understand the origin of life one must understand its cosmological context. A popular mainstream introduction is: Astrobiology: A Brief Introduction by Kevin W. Plaxco & Michael Gross (2006). This is essential scientific background knowledge for those interested in 'fine-tuning' of the universe for life and the origin of life itself. Chapters: What is life? Origins of a habitable universe and planet, Primordial soup, Origin of life, Origin of cells, Evolution of life on earth, Life in extreme environments, Search for extraterrestrial life (amazon review)For a discussion of their definition of life see here. The emphasis is on the 'biology' part of 'astrobiology'. A short introduction is: Life in the Universe. A Beginner's Guide by Lewis Dartnell (2007). An astrobiology book with the emphasis on 'astro' is Chris Impey (2007) The Living Cosmos: Our Search for Life in the Universe, which is reviewed in Nature (updated edition 2011). A biogeochemistry book combining chemistry, geology, astrobiology and microbiology is: Echoes of Life: What Fossil Molecules Reveal about Earth History by Susan M. Gaine et al (2008). The most recent astrobiology book is: Lucas John Mix (2009) Life in Space. Astrobiology for Everyone (info). The central theme of Joseph Gale (2009) Astrobiology of Earth: the emergence, evolution and future of life on a planet in turmoil is the fortuitous combination of numerous cosmic factors that together produced the special environment which enabled the emergence, persistence and evolution of life on our own planet. A similar work is: How to Find a Habitable Planet by James Kasting (2010) (review: Nature: "For Kasting, finding both liquid water on the surface and oxygen in the atmosphere would be enough"). Biochemist David Deamer (2011) introduces astrobiology in his First Life: Discovering the Connections Between Stars, Cells, and How Life Began (info).

Tim Lenton, Andrew Watson (2011) 'Revolutions That Made the Earth', Oxford University Press. 448 pp.
Earth-systems scientists Tim Lenton and Andrew Watson describe the shaping of our planet by life, combining evolutionary biology and geochemistry. They focus on two major events that transformed Earth: the oxygen revolution and the complexity revolution. Review: Nature. Info.

Theunis Piersma, Jan A. van Gils (2010) 'The Flexible Phenotype. A Body-Centred Integration of Ecology, Physiology, and Behaviour', Oxford University Press, 248 pp.
With special attention to the ecology, physiology, and behaviour of migrating birds. Info and free chapter.

Dennis McCarthy (2009) 'Here Be Dragons: How the Study of Animal and Plant Distributions Revolutionized Our Views of Life and Earth', Oxford University Press, hb 214 pages, illustrated.
Info. "While, like most people, I had grasped the basic principles of evolution in middleschool biology, I never had a truly profound and complete view of how evolutionary processes operate in the real world until I also understood it biogeographically". (p.10). Recommended. A nice introduction to biogeography. Unfortunately, there is virtually no discussion of many relevant and important molecular phylogenetic investigations of biogeographical problems. Review: Science (25 Jun 2010).

John Kricher (2009) 'The Balance of Nature. Ecology's Enduring Myth', Princeton University Press hb 237 pp.
Ecologist Kricher discusses the development of ecology as a science (Before and After Darwin) and the relation between evolution and ecology. From the Preface: "Ecology is a branch of evolutionary biology. This is because any form of biology is, in reality, a branch of evolutionary biology." (p.x). "Charles Darwin got ecology launched. Ecologists then promptly forgot about him for something like a half a century. Ecologists were conspicuously absent from the grand synthesis of evolutionary theory" (p. 67).
Review.

Menno Schilthuizen (2008) "The Loom of Life: Unravelling Ecosystems"
Springer, Hardcover 220 pp. b&w illustrations.
Info. Review: Nature: "The Loom of Life is useful. Much of the public - and even some of the professional environmental movement - knows little about the rules ecologists have posited for creating and maintaining biodiversity. They might read this slender book for a bearing on how to tackle environmental problems."
The book discusses questions like: How many species are there? Why are there so many species? How are ecosystems assembled? Does each species have its unique niche or are species interchangeable? Why are some species rare and others common? How many species are going extinct and how many are newly introduced by people? How much tempering can our ecosystems tolerate before they collapse? The border between evolution (the origin of biodiversity) and ecology (maintenance of biodiversity and its role in ecosystems).
 

Peter J. Mayhew (2006) "Discovering Evolutionary Ecology: Bringing Together Ecology and Evolution" Oxford University Press Paperback 232 pages.
Info.

Lynn J. Rothschild, Adrian M. Lister (2003) "Evolution on Planet Earth. The Impact of the Physical Environment". Elsevier.
Info.

K. D. Bennett (1996) "Evolution and Ecology: The Pace of Life ", Cambridge University Press
Macroevolutionary trends are not predictable, cannot be derived from changes in climate.

          History of biology & evolution       [ in descending chronological order ]

Steve Jones (2011) 'The Darwin Archipelago: The Naturalists's Career Beyond Origin of Species (published in Britain as Darwin's Island) Yale University Press. 248 pp
Review: Nature: an entertaining and thoughtful treatment of Darwin's other books.

Krishna Dronamraju (2011) 'Haldane, Mayr, and Beanbag Genetics', OUP
In the mid-twentieth century, two great biologists - J. B. S. Haldane and Ernst Mayr - clashed about the value of mathematical theories to evolution. info.

Erika Lorraine Milam (2010) 'Looking for a Few Good Males. Female Choice in Evolutionary Biology, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2010. 246 pp
Info. Review: Science: "Milam provides an invaluable synthesis for historians of biology, scientists, and those with a popular interest in animal studies."; American Scientist: "Milam's book is an accessible and important contribution to the history of an active topic of biological research today".

Charles H. Smith, George Beccaloni Eds. (2010) 'Natural Selection and Beyond. The Intellectual Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace', Oxford University Press paperback.
Info.

David N. Reznick (2009) 'The Origin Then and Now. An Interpretive Guide to the Origin of Species, Princeton University Press, hardback 423 pages. Paperback (2011).
Info (Free 22 page Introduction by Michael Ruse). David Reznick is an evolutionary biologist. From the Preface: "... some details that were critical to Darwin's theory were not yet known. The Origin ... highlighted these gaps in our knowledge ..." (page ix). "This book is about the Origin and not about the current state of evolutionary biology" (p.383). This is the best study of The Origin I know.
Review: BioScience.

John S. Wilkins (2009) 'Species. A History of the Idea', University of California Press, hb 320 pp.
Info. John S. Wilkins's Blog. Wilkins is known for Darwin's Precursors and Influences.

Jan Sapp (2009) 'The New Foundations of Evolution: On the Tree of Life', Oxford University Press, Paperback & hardback, 448 pages.
This book is about the history of microbial evolutionary biology from the 1600s to the middle of the 20th century and the history of the discovery of the universal tree. Info. See also google books. Reviews: American Scientist, Science.

Adrian Desmond & James Moore (2009) "Darwin's Sacred Cause: Race, Slavery and the Quest for Human Origins", Allen Lane, 485 pages.
Reviews: Nature (free), Nature editorial, New Scientist. It was common at the time to believe that the different races of men had been created separate and unequal. The ability to see that all men were united in shared ancestry, Desmond and Moore argue, was one of the things that allowed Darwin to perceive something similar in the natural world as a whole. American Scientist (very important review): "The authors, however, have laid out no explicit evidence that Darwin supposed his theory might subvert slavery.". Steven Shapin: "The causal argument leading from bred-in-the-bone abolitionism to Darwin's general evolutionary theory is a huge stretch. There are all sorts of problems with evidence and inference. Professed intentions are lacking. The timing isn't right in the notebooks: Darwin's apparent recognition of organic common descent came before any analogy between 'family likeness' in human beings and 'the classification of animals'." (London Review of Books).

"The Tragic Sense Of Life: Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought
by Robert J. Richards (2008) University of Chicago Press, 551 pp. Paperback: 2009.
Review: American Scientist: "The Tragic Sense of Life, by Robert J. Richards, provides not only a biography of the controversial German evolutionist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), but also an important piece of the emerging picture of the Darwinian Revolution in its international and intergenerational dimensions. Creationists, who still love to hate Haeckel, perpetuate misinformation about him, which Richards easily corrects." Haeckel's evolutionary ethics is discussed. "This book marks a major rehabilitation of Haeckel as a mainstream Darwinian". Info. Other books.

"In Pursuit of the Gene: From Darwin to DNA"
by James Schwartz (2008), Harvard University Press. 384 pp.
"Many histories of genetics cover the same ground. What distinguishes Schwartz's account is his impeccable scholarship. The book's apogee is its tale of the "Mendel Wars" around the beginning of the twentieth century, the struggle to bring together Mendel's ideas on heredity and Darwin's theory of evolution.": from review in Nature. From the review in Nature Genetics: "In Pursuit of the Gene is a solidly researched, well-written book that does not shy away from explaining the science. The dispute about the significance of Mendel's work became entangled with different positions about evolution, natural selection and eugenics".

"Creationism and its Critics in Antiquity"
by David Sedley, University of California Press: 2008. 296 pp.
Review: Nature: "David Sedley argues that, for the philosophers of ancient Greece, the central cosmological question was this: is the world, and all that it contains, the handiwork of an intelligent designer?". (good book, good review). Epicurus was opposed to creationism and advanced a non-creationist explanation of adaptation. Paley argued against this Epicurean explanation. Darwin argued against Paley and strongly improved the Epicurean argument.
Important book. Review in Dutch: hier [20 mei 08]; my review on this website.

"Charles Darwin, Geologist"
by Sandra Herbert (2005) Cornell University Press. 512 pages.
Info.

"Pendulum. Léon Foucault and the triumph of Science"
by Amir D. Aczel. 2003. Washington Square Press paperback edition: Sep 2004, 275 pages.
Exceptionally well written book about Foucault's pendulum experiment. The pendulum experiment was the final and decisive proof of the earth's rotation after a period of 200 years of accumulating (indirect) evidence. This book is relevant for all interested in the conflicts between science and the church and the evolution-creation controversy, because it shows how gradual indirect evidence was accumulating for the earth's rotation in a period in which the church kept opposing that view on biblical grounds. Foucault delivered the definitive proof of the earth's rotation after which nobody could deny it anymore. Note: regrettably, it seems that no final proof of evolution is possible because evolution involves million of (unique) species and many more (unique) individuals. Compared with the rotation of the earth (one object), evolution is much too complex to be proven by one decisive experiment. We will have to accept the accumulation of many indirect evidence as proof, which is not as convincing for the public as one clear and visually attractive experiment such as the pendulum experiment. Has evolution theory to wait until the year 2059 (200 years after Darwin's Origin) to be considered proven? Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of science, and the way science is done in practice. The book is inherently valuable for many reasons.

"Genesis. The Evolution of Biology"
by Jan Sapp. 2003, Oxford University Press, paperback, 364 pages.
A very up-to-date history of biology with special emphasis on non-Darwinian and non-Mendelian theories (cytoplasmic inheritance), neo-Lamarckism, mutualism (cooperation) and endosymbiosis (Lynn Margulis). Obviously, this is a history of biology especially interesting for the critics of evolution and neo-Darwinism. Sapp himself is a critic of Neo-Darwinism. The book is organised around non-historical themes: evolution, the cell, genetics, molecular biology. Many modern sources and issues. Endnotes: 72 pages. No separate bibliography. Jan Sapp is also the author of Evolution by Association: A History of Symbiosis.

"Evolution. The History of an Idea."
by Peter J. Bowler. 2003, University of California Press. Third edition (revised and expanded), paperback, 464 pages. The 2009 25th Anniversary Edition has a new preface (april 2009).
About the origins, reception and development of Darwinism and the religious, moral and social implications of Darwinism. Completely rewritten edition. Contains a new chapter about "The Pre-evolutionary Worldview" and one about "The reception of Darwin's theory". Recommended. Info.

"Knowledge is Power. How Magic, the Government and an Apocalyptic Vision inspired Francis Bacon to create Modern Science"
by John Henry , 2002. Icon Books (UK), Totem Books (USA)
A lovely little 177-page booklet, which is a pleasure to read. I like the format and the size of the series.

"Eureka! The Birth of Science"
by Andrew Gregory , 2001. Icon Books (UK), Totem Books (USA)
Important and readable book about the origin of modern science from Greek philosophy. The birth of science begins with the awareness of the distinction between the natural and the supernatural. Science is the study of the natural world. This book is not about evolution/creationism but strongly suggests that evolutionists did not invent atheistic science. Greek philosophers lead the way in defining science. Scientists, biologists, evolutionists followed the track. Obligatory reading for evolutionists and creationists. A lovely little 177-page booklet of the Icon Books series (illustrated).

"The Darwinian Revolution. Science Red in Tooth and Claw"
second edition by Michael Ruse, 1999. Univ. of Chicago Press, paperback, 346 pages.
On the conversion of the British scientific community to belief in evolution in the years 1830 to 1875. With 'Afterword: Two Decades Later'. See: books by Michael Ruse.

David Depew, Bruce Weber (1995) "Darwinism evolving. Systems Dynamics and the Genealogy of Natural Selection", MIT Press, 588 pp.
How theories in physics, probability theory and economics influenced Darwin and subsequent theories in evolutionary biology. Darwin's Darwinism embodies Newtonian models, while genetic Darwinism uses models taken from thermodynamics.

"The Ant and the Peacock. Altruism and sexual selection form Darwin to today"
by Helena Cronin, 1991,1994. Cambridge University Press.
The 'ant' stands for the problem of altruism (6 chapers) and the 'peacock' stands for sexual selection (6 chapters): two long-standing puzzles in Darwinism. Unexpectedly, Part I (pp7-35) is a splendid and original historical-philosophical overview of pre-Darwinian thinking about adaptation and diversity in biology and in Natural Theology. Packed with insights that illuminate current Creation-Evolution debates. According to the Foreword of John Maynard Smith "She has told me much that I did not know about the ideas of Darwin and Wallace, and the disagreements between them." The book was written before the rise of 'intelligent design theory' and before Steele's Lamarck's Signature. Helena Cronin has degrees in philosophy, logic and scientific method.

Robert Chambers (1994) 'Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation and Other Evolutionary Writings', The University of Chicago Press
Originally published anonymously in 1844, it was the first attempt to connect the natural sciences to a history of creation. This book had a profound effect on British society and Darwin. Info.

Ernst Mayr (1991) "One Long Argument. Charles Darwin and the Genesis of Modern Evolutionary Thought"
For a list of books by Ernst Mayr: Books by Ernst Mayr.

Alvar Ellegård (1990) 'Darwin and the General Reader. The Reception of Darwin's Theory of Evolution in the British Periodical Press, 1859-1872'
Science and Religion: A Mid-Victorian Conflict. The Argument of Design. Miracles. Mid-Victorian Philosophy of Science. The Immutable Essence of Species. Missing Links. The Battle against Natural Selection. Info.

T. F.Glick (1988) 'The Comparative Reception of Darwinism', University Of Chicago Press, Paperback: 534 pages.
Google books.

"Evolution Without Evidence"
by Barry Gale, 1982 University of New Mexico Press 238 pages.
This is not a creationist book, but a serious work of a historian of science. Gale argues that Darwin published his Origin too soon, forced by Wallace. The Origin was 'the least objectionable theory' at the moment, an interium product, an abstract of a future long work. As a consequence there was no space in the book to describe all the evidence in support of evolution. His theory went beyond available evidence. Gale focusses on Darwin's doubts in his notebooks. Gale's most extreme statement is that Darwin had 'no more evidence in support of his theory than the creationists, whose view he was attempting to overthrow'. This contradicts the appendix in his own book which lists 12 kinds of evidence that makes sense in the light of Darwin's theory and does not make sense in the creationist point of view. Furthermore, Gale also mentions that the Origin contains "brilliant argumentation" and Darwin "was able to put together a coherent, cohesive, and forceful argument".

"Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution"
by Gertrude Himmelfarb, 1959,1962, Elephant paperbacks:1996.
"What Darwin intended his theory to mean, what his readers took it to mean, and what it has in fact meant." Noteworthy chapter 18 "Darwinism, Religion, and Morality". Himmelfarb is the author of Marriage and Morals among the Victorians and other essays (1989), which contains the essay "Social Darwinism, Sociobiology, and the Two Cultures".

"The scientific basis of evolution"
by Thomas Hunt Morgan, 1935, W.W. Norton & company, inc; 2d ed edition (1935)
See Amazon Customer Review

"A Critique of the Theory of Evolution"
by Thomas Hunt Morgan, 1916, Princeton University Press, 197 pages, many illustr.
Reprinted by Cornell University Library in 2009. "Occasionally one hears today the statement that we have come to realize that we know nothing about evolution. This point of view is a healthy reaction to the over-confident belief that we knew everything about evolution". (Preface).
Also reprinted: 'Evolution and Adaptation' (1908); What is Darwinism? (1929); Evolution and Genetics (1932).

Randall C. Moore, Mark Decker, Sehoya H. Cotner (2009) 'Chronology of the Evolution-Creationism Controversy' Greenwood Hardcover 454 pages
The main focus of the book is on the long-standing evolution-creationist conflict in the U.S. Review.

Richard Milner (2009) "Darwin's Universe. Evolution from A to Z", University of California, hardback 488 pages.
This alphabetically arranged reference offers an overview of Charles Darwin, Darwinism, Evolution and the people who contributed to it. Well illustrated. A pleasure to browse, entertaining, and unexpected entries. info.

"Charles Darwin: An Anthology", Transaction Publishers, U.S. Paperback
by Marston Bates (Editor), Philip S. Humphrey (Editor) (2009)

"Evolution. The First Four Billion Years"
Michael Ruse (ed), Joseph Travis (ed), 2009, Harvard University Press, hardback 979 pp., paperback 2011.
Info. This is a unique combination of 16 essays discussing (almost) all aspects of evolutionary biology and an encyclopedic part of 531 pages of alphabetically ordered topics and persons. Contributions by more than 100 experts. Review: American Scientific.

Stanley A. Rice, Massimo Pigliucci (2007) 'Encyclopedia of Evolution' (Science Encyclopedia) Checkmark Books Paperback. Paperback 496 pages.
Info.

Mark Pagel (2002) "Encyclopedia of Evolution: 2 volume set", Oxford University Press, Hardcover 1326 pages
The Encyclopedia of Evolution covers the essentials of evolutionary biology in 370 original articles written by leading experts. Info.

Philip Appleman (Editor) (2001) "Darwin (Norton Critical Editions)", W. W. Norton, 3rd Edition, Paperback, 695 pages.
This is an anthology: a collection of excerpts from the most important books and articles about the Darwinian revolution. Scientific thought before Darwin, Selections from Darwin's Work, Darwin's influence on science and social thought, philosophy and ethics, religious theory, literature.

James L. Hayward (1998) The Creation/Evolution Controversy. An Annotated Bibliography

Tom McIver (1992) Anti-Evolution. A Reader's Guide to Writings before and after Darwin. There is a new 2008 edition of Anti-Evolution (info).

"Science and Religion Are They Compatible?", Oxford University Press, 96 pages.
Daniel C. Dennett, Alvin Plantinga (2011).
Info. Expand upon the arguments that they presented in an exciting live debate held at the 2009 American Philosophical Association Central Division conference.

"Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life. How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Thought You Knew", Cambridge University Press hb, 376 pp. Steve Stewart-Williams (2010)
Info: "Drawing on biology, psychology and philosophy, he argues that Darwinian science supports a view of a godless universe devoid of ultimate purpose or moral structure, but that we can still live a good life and a happy life within the confines of this view."

"Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Biology" Wiley-Blackwell, pb 440pp.
Francisco J. Ayala, Robert Arp (Editors) (2009)
Please note format: claim by one author, counterclaim by another author for each topic. Original choice of authors. No discussion of topic Are there natural laws in biology? Info.

"The Selfish Genius: How Richard Dawkins Rewrote Darwin's Legacy", Icon Books (Paperback) 288 pages.
Fern Elsdon-Baker (2009)
Info. (history and philosophy of evolutionary theory)

"Philosophy after Darwin: Classic and Contemporary Readings", Princeton.
Michael Ruse (Editor), 2009.
Info (including free introduction).

"Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction", Oxford University Press, 168 pages.
Thomas Dixon (2008)
Info.

"The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Biology", Oxford University Press, hb 656 pages.
Michael Ruse (Editor) (2008) Price: $150.00
Paperback edition 2010: 656 pp. $49.95

"Doubting Darwin: Creationist Designs on Evolution", Wiley-Blackwell 232 pages
Sahotra Sarkar (2007) A philosophical critique of Intelligent desigin and fine tuning. Info. Google preview available.

"Re-Engineering Philosophy for Limited Beings. Piecewise Approximations to Reality", Harvard University Press, 468 pp.
William C. Wimsatt (2007).
"Wimsatt is among the most creative, original, and empirically informed philosophers of our day." Review: Science.

"Philosophy of Biology: A Contemporary Introduction", Routledge, 256 pp.
Alex Rosenberg, Daniel W McShea (2007)
Alex Rosenberg is a philosopher (author of 'Darwinian Reductionism') and Daniel W McShea is a biologist. Info. Review.

"Evidence and Evolution. The logic behind the science", Cambridge University Press, paperback, 392 pp.
Elliott Sober (2008)
This book is aimed at philosophers of science and evolutionary biologists. The goal is not to pile up facts that support evolution, rather to describe the tools that ought to be used to assess the evidence. In chapter 2 the Intelligent Design theory is analysed. New reasons are given why ID is not a scientific theory. Reviews: American Scientist, Trends in Ecology & Evolution, Volume 23, Issue 12, December 2008, Pages 662-663. Info, toc, excerpt. Home page Sober.

"Evolution and the Big Questions. Sex, Race, Religion, and Other Matters", Blackwell
David N. Stamos (2008)
Examines topics of race, sex, gender, feminism, language, religion, ethics, knowledge, consciousness and the meaning of life. Info

"A Companion to the Philosophy of Biology", Blackwell
Sahotra Sarkar (2008)
Chapters: Molecular Biology and Genetics, Evolution, Developmental Biology, Medicine, Ecology, Mind and Behavior, Experimentation, Theory, and Themes (including: What is Life?: Mark A. Bedau).

"The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Biology" (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) (Paperback)
David L. Hull, Michael Ruse (Editors) (2008)
Info and Excerpt. Review.

"Render Unto Darwin. Philosophical Aspects of the Christian Right's Crusade against Science", Open Court, 288 pages.
James H. Fetzer 2006
info

"Conceptual Issues in Evolutionary Biology, 3rd Edition"
Edited by Elliott Sober, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2006 Paperback: 640 pp.
info. New chapters in this edition: The Two Faces of Fitness, Women in the Evolutionary Process, Evolutionary Psychology, Laws in Evolutionary Theory, Race. There is no chapter about the definition of life (the famous question What is life?).

"Darwinian Reductionism: Or, How to Stop Worrying and Love Molecular Biology"
Alex Rosenberg University of Chicago Press: 2006. 272 pp.
Reviews: Nature, American Scientist, ISIS, Info. There are (almost) no exact laws in biology, and no inexact laws either. The only laws in biology are Darwin's. Biological explanation is historical, all the way down to the molecules. Biology is history, but unlike human history, it is history for which the 'iron laws' of historical change have been found, and codified in Darwin's theory of natural selection. And natural selection is not reducible to any physical theory ...
"Rosenberg's reductionist project is that of demonstrating that ultimate explanations in biology are unavoidably inadequate. It proceeds in two stages. In the first he argues that all biological explanations, proximate and ultimate alike, reduce to molecular explanations; in the second he claims that all ultimate explanations can be supplemented by proximate molecular explanations" (ISIS).

"Making Sense of Evolution: The Conceptual Foundations of Evolutionary Biology"
Massimo Pigliucci and Jonathan Kaplan. The University of Chicago Press 2006 236 pp.
A critique of the limitations of the so-called Modern Synthesis. A critical examination of the logic, consistency and applicability of some of the fundamental concepts used by evolutionary biologists. Info, info.

"Darwinism and its Discontents"
Michael Ruse. Cambridge University Press 2006 328 pp.
About the critics of evolution: students of literature, social scientists (sociology, cultural anthropology), physicists, computer scientists, (evolutionary) biologists, and philosphers. "All of the critics of Darwinism are deeply mistaken". Reviews: Nature, American Scientist.

"Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief"
Lewis Wolpert. 2006 Faber and Faber 243 pp.
"This is an admirable short guide to an immensely complex subject. It is unfortunate that this book should have come out at the same time as Daniel Dennett's Breaking The Spell on broadly the same subject. But Wolpert's book is more succinct and much better argued, and I would go for it every time": Review: Nature.

"The changing role of the embryo in evolutionary thought: Roots of Evo-Devo"
Ron Amundson, & Michael Ruse. Cambridge University Press, 2005. 296 pages.
This book examines the philosophical and historical aspects of the relation between mainstream evolutionary theory and developmental biology.

'Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science'
Moti Ben-Ari (2005) Prometheus
info

"What makes biology unique? Considerations on the autonomy of a scientific discipline"
Ernst Mayr. Cambridge University Press, 2004. 232 pages.
See Books by Ernst Mayr.

"What Genes Can't Do"
Lenny Moss, 2004. MIT Press, pb 228 pages.
A philosophical critique of genetic determinism. The development of the gene concept. More on this book in the future.

"Darwin and Design. Does Evolution have a Purpose?"
Michael Ruse, 2003. Harvard University Press. 371 pages.
This book is about design, complexity, purpose and adaptation in the biological world with special emphasis on the long history of the problem (Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Bergson, Paley). The historical treatment makes it useful for those who want to know where the problem comes from, and how it developed into the current Creation/Evolution controversy and how adaptation got its central place in evolutionary biology. Although Ruse is an evolutionist, he discusses his opponents with respect. "Organisms, produced by natural selection, have adaptations, and these give the appearance of being designed. If organisms did not seem to be designed, they would not work".
Reviews: Nature by evolutionary biologist Mark Ridley. Contrary to what Ridley says, there is a unifying theme in the book: function, design, purpose and adaptation in biology, philosophy and theology. A second review is from Robert Pennock in Science Ruse was one of seven recipients of the Templeton Foundation award, which has resulted in this book according to Pennock. "This has to be the best of Ruse's many books, and it is hard to imagine how a better one could be written on this subject". The third review is by evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci (2005) Evolution.

"Who wrote the Book of Life? A History of the Genetic Code"
Lily Kay, 2000. Stanford University Press 470 pp.
A philosophical and historical analysis of the use and influence of the concepts "information" (genetic information), "code" (genetic code), "language" (genetic language) in genetic research in the 1950s and 1960s. Reviews: Science.

"Can a Darwinian Be a Christian? The Relationship between Science and Religion"
Michael Ruse, 2001. Cambridge University Press 242 pages.
An insightful and authoritative summary of how different people think about origins can be found in Chapter 3 (Origins). Michael Ruse is a professional philosopher, evolutionist and Darwinist. Review: London Review of Books.

"Sex and Death. An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology."
by Kim Sterelny and Paul Griffiths, 1999. The University of Chicago Press
An analysis of all fundamental concepts in biology: genes, molecules, organisms, species, reductionism, evolution, adaptation, development, genetics, sociobiology, what is life? Reviews: Science.

"Mystery of Mysteries. Is Evolution a Social Construction?"
Michael Ruse, 1999. Harvard University Press.
Using evolutionary theory as a case study, Michael Ruse, answers the question: is science objective as Karl Popper believed, or a social construction as Thomas Kuhn maintained? Reviews: Science, J . EVOL. BIOL. 13 (2000) 348-351.

"The Darwin Wars: How Stupid Genes Became Selfish Gods".
Andrew Brown. Simon & Schuster, London. 1999. xi + 241 pp. (hardback).
"Brown's book focuses on several recent debates in evolution: genic vs. organismic selection, punctuated equilibria, memes, and the biological bases of altruism, morality and spirituality. The book is aimed much more at the popular market": Review: J . EVOL. BIOL. 13 (2000) 348-351.

"Philosophy of Biology"
Edited by David L. Hull and Michael Ruse. Oxford University Press. 1998.
Contains a chapter Creationism with contributions of Alvin Plantinga and Ernan McMullin (p671-754).

"Philosophy and the Darwinian Legacy"
Suzanne Cunningham. University of Rochester Press, 1996
"Professor Cunningham criticises purely cognitivist theories of perception and Machine Functionalist theories of mind, and offers proposals on how these theories should be amended to take account of the adaptive role that perception and mind play on behalf of a living organism's struggle for survival and well-being." (publisher's info).

"Philosophy of Biology"
Elliott Sober. Westview Press, paperback, 1993, 231 pages.
Chapters: What is Evolutionary Theory? Creationism, Fitness, The units of selection problem, Adaptionism, Systematics, Sociobiology and the extension of evolutionary theory. Review by Reilly Jones.

Jonathan C. K. Wells (2010) 'The Evolutionary Biology of Human Body Fatness', Cambridge University Press
About the role body fat plays in human biology. Info.

Michael L. Power, Jay Schulkin (2009) 'The Evolution of Obesity', Johns Hopkins University Press. Hardcover 408 pages.
"In an environment of abundant food, we are anatomically, physiologically, metabolically, and behaviorally programmed in a way that makes it difficult for us to avoid gaining weight". info. Review: Nature: "The ingredients in The Evolution of Obesity are somewhat unbalanced, favouring proximate over evolutionary causes. Yet the book goes far beyond anything else that is available on obesity. Power and Schulkin deserve much credit for their bold attempt to combine evolutionary and reductionist explanations, and for their unflinching acknowledgement of complexity".

Peter Gluckman et al (2009) 'Principles of Evolutionary Medicine', Oxford University Press, pb 312 pages.
Info. Review: Science: "This is the first specifically designed as a textbook appropriate for medical students and medical schools, and it succeeds brilliantly".

Sarah Elton, Paul O'Higgins (editors) (2008) 'Medicine and Evolution: Current Applications, Future Prospects', CRC Press, 320 pages
The book introduces evolutionary viewpoints on nutrition, diabetes, fertility, pediatrics, immune response, and psychiatry. info.

Greg Gibson (2008) 'It Takes a Genome: How a Clash Between Our Genes and Modern Life Is Making Us Sick', FT Press, 208 pages.
Info (with sample Chapter). Review: New York Review of Books.

Tessa Pollard (2008) 'Western Diseases: An Evolutionary Perspective', Cambridge University Press.
Review: American Scientist: "Western Diseases persuades us that we can only understand health and disease in an evolutionary context."

Caleb E. Finch (2007) "The Biology of Human Longevity. Inflammation, Nutrition, and Aging in the Evolution of Life-spans", Academic (Elsevier), Amsterdam, 2007. 640 pp.
"The book provides an unparalleled synthesis of the burgeoning literature addressing the roles played by oxidative damage and inflammation in diseases of aging. ... and a short primer of evolutionary aging theory ... he summarizes an exhaustive body of clinical literature, showcasing nutritional and pharmaceutical approaches that have potential for intervening in aging disease states by curtailing inflammation-induced damage. With the coupling of his expertise in neuroscience and clinical medicine to his keen interests in demography and comparative zoology, Finch arguably remains our most potent synthesizer of biology and gerontology.". Reviews: Science, American Scientist. Info: Chapter 5, summaries.

Steven A. Frank (2007) "Dynamics of Cancer. Incidence, Inheritance, and Evolution". Princeton University Press.
Steven Frank is an evolutionary biologist. Evolutionary theory is the right framework to adopt. He is the author of Immunology and Evolution of Infectious Disease and Foundations of Social Evolution (both Princeton). Review: Science. Info, chapter 1.

Ethne Barnes (2007) "Diseases and Human Evolution" (Paperback)
Barnes, a paleopathologist, offers general overviews of specific diseases (West Nile virus, Lyme disease, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, cholera, etc.) and their carriers.

Jan Vijg (2007) "Aging of the Genome: The Dual Role of DNA in Life and Death", Oxford University Press: 2007. 372 pp.
Jan Vijg's excellent book critically examines the case for somatic mutation as the cause of aging.
Reviews: Nature, Nature Genetics.

Sharon Moalem (2006) "Survival of the Sickest. A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease"
Publishers: William Morrow, and HarperCollins, 2007. Dutch: Het Nut van Ziekte.
New edition: Survival of the Sickest: The Surprising Connections Between Disease and Longevity, Harper Perennial Paperback 2008.
Info: publishers website.

Peter Gluckman, Mark Hanson (2006) "Mismatch: Why Our World No Longer Fits Our Bodies", Oxford University Press: 2006. 304 pp.
Review: Nature: "The bodies we have now are the product of evolution. Peter Gluckman and Mark Hanson argue that they are mismatched to our needs in society today, and that this divide has increased the rate of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and obesity."

André Klarsfeld, Frédéric Revah (2003) The Biology of Death: Origins of Mortality, Cornell University, 240 pages.
"The book's style and level of explanation are highly suitable for a general audience. The broad overview of gerontological fact, fiction and theory is basically sound and provides a useful introduction to the perplexities of biological ageing." (review: Nature 428, 125, 11 March 2004). info. "A rare meld of evolution and medicine" (Nick Lane).

Steven A. Frank (2002) "Immunology and Evolution of Infectious Disease".
Frank bridges the gap between immunology and evolutionary biology. Review: Science.

Gianni Belcaro (2001) 'Once We Were Hunters. A Study of the Evolution of Vascular Disease', World Scientific Books, 136pp.
Info.

Mel Greaves (2000) "Cancer. The evolutionary legacy" Oxford University Press, 276 pp.
"It is my personal view that the perspective that best explains the puzzle of cancer is an evolutionary or Darwinian one." Why does cancer exist at all? Why doesn't a healthy body deal with it? Why is it so common? Why do unmarried women have a higher risk of breast cancer then married women? With a very illuminating illustration of the number of ovulatory cycles and pregnancies of early hunter-gatherer versus modern women and the relation with breast cancer.

Tom Kirkwood (1999) Time of Our Lives: The Science of Human Aging, Oxford University Press, Paperback.
"One of the best introductions to the biology of ageing by a pioneer in the field." (Nick Lane).
Google books.

Wenda R. Trevathan, E. O. Smith and James McKenna (1999) "Evolutionary Medicine", Oxford University Press, $54.
Remarkably, in 1999 OUF published two textbooks on evolutionary medicine: this one and one by Stephen Stearns (see below). Evolutionary medicine is about the evolutionary origins of medical problems.

Stephen Stearns (1999) "Evolution in Health and Disease", Oxford University Press. 2e edition (2008) with Jacob C. Koella.
info. Evolutionary adaptations in humans which proved beneficial in our past may prove less so now, causing disease. This book "challenges the notion that the body is a Platonic ideal designed for health and happiness". Stephen Stearns is the author of the textbooks Evolution: An Introduction and The Evolution of Life Histories. Review: Trends in Ecology & Evolution Volume 23, Issue 8, August 2008, Pages 422-423.

Michael McGuire, Alfonso Troisi (1998) "Darwinian Psychiatry", Oxford University Press, hardcover, 360 pages.
McGuire and Troisi provide a Darwinian conceptual framework for integrating many features of prevailing models (biomedical, psychoanalytic, behavioral, and sociocultural) in psychiatry.

Randolph Nesse, George Williams (1996) "Why we get sick. The new science of Darwinian medicine", Vintage Books, paperback 290 pages. Also published as "Evolution and Healing: Darwinian Medicine: Why and How Does Disease Still Exist?" by Phoenix.
In this book physician Nesse and evolutionary biologist Williams explore the evolutionary meaning of infectious diseases, ageing, allergy, cancer, sex and mental disorders. The emphasis is on humans, contrary to Evolutionary Epidemiology (see below). The authors argue that many or most diseases have or had somehow evolutionary benefits. If not, it is the modern environment (never modern medicine itself). "We are not interested here in whether the human gene pool is getting better or worse, and we are emphatically not advocating actions to improve the species. (...) The goal of medicine has always been (...) to help the sick, not the species. (...) We are by no means advocating that medicine should assist natural selection." (p.11) "When a gene acts against the interests of the patient, the physician should act against the gene." (p.106). So, they are clearly against eugenics, but are blind to the degeneration of the human genome and the possible role of modern medicine in that process.
See also: The dawn of Darwinian medicine (1991), Does Medicine without Evolution Make Sense?, Evolution & Medicine Network

Paul W. Ewald (1996) "Evolution of Infectious Disease", Oxford University Press, paperback 290 pages.
This is a book about Evolutionary Epidemiology. The focus of this discipline is on the spread of disease, whereas Darwinian medicine (see above) focuses more on individual patients. Evolutionary epidemiology spans a broader spectrum of host-parasite relationships, it extends beyond medical settings to encompass parasitism in nature and agriculture involving both plant and animal hosts. The emphasis is on the parasites' point of view rather than from the hosts' point of view (humans).

Robert E. Ricklefs, Caleb E. Finch (1995) Aging: A Natural History, Scientific American Library, Hardcover - April 1995.
Patterns of aging, theories of aging, aging and sex, genes and aging, evolution of aging. Popular and educational account of aging in humans and animals with many scientific details and many splendid colour illustrations (as can be expected from Scientific American!).

Michael R. Rose (1994) Evolutionary Biology of Aging, (Pb - Dec 1994, $49,50).
This is the standard textbook by an expert in the field of aging. It needs a new (and cheaper!) edition. A popular account of aging is his The Long Tomorrow: How Advances in Evolutionary Biology Can Help Us Postpone Aging (OUP, Hardcover, September, 2005, 174 pages)

James Graham (1992) Cancer Selection. The new theory of evolution, (Hb 213 pages).
This work was initially ignored or dismissed, but is now referenced several times in peer-reviewed journals. Info.

Robert H. Frank (2011) "The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good", Princeton University Press.
Info: "within the next century Darwin will unseat Adam Smith as the intellectual founder of economics."

Tim Harford (2011) "Adapt. Why Success Always Starts with Failure", Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Info. Youtube. Review: Science: "Tim Harford argues that much can be gained from taking an evolutionary view of economics. (...) shows why the flexibility to fail should be a key criterion for crafting successful businesses. He argues that allowing for different competing ideas, products, and business strategies will eventually lead to those that are best able to survive in a complex world. Crucial to this claim are two fundamental requirements of biological evolution: variation and selection on that variation. (...) However, it is essential to be able to survive the failure of the ideas that don't work out."

J. Stanley Metcalfe (ed) (2006) Evolutionary Economics and Creative Destruction, Routledge.
info.

Paul Ormerod (2006) "Why Most Things Fail. Evolution, Extinction and Economics", Pantheon 269 pages.
"Ormerod (an economic forecaster and founder of the British consulting firm Volterra) touts the book as an explanation of failure, saying that scientists (including economists) spend too much time studying success. Failure, after all, is much more common." Review: Science. Info + Excerpt.

Herbert Gintis, Samuel Bowles, Robert Boyd & Ernst Fehr (ed) 2005 "Moral Sentiments and Material Interests: The Foundations of Cooperation in Economic Life", MIT. 404 pp.
"The most important unanswered question in evolutionary biology, and more generally in the social sciences, is how cooperative behaviour evolved and can be maintained in human or other animal groups and societies". This book is devoted to explaining 'the puzzle of cooperation' and shows it is common to evolutionary biology, anthropology, economy, sociology and psychology. Review: Nature.

Frans de Waal (2005) "How Animals Do Business" Scientific American Apr 2005, 55-61
"Human and other animals share a heritage of economic tendencies - including cooperation, repayment of favors and resentment at being shortchanged." - the discipline of behavioral economics.

Geerat J. Vermeij (2004) "Nature: An Economic History" Princeton University Press, 445 pages.
"Economic principles applicable to humans are the same as those that govern all other forms of life. (...) In spite of all unique qualities and institutions, our species and the economic and social system we have created follow all the same fundamental rules that govern other life and their economic structures. Like other living things, we too are ruled by conflicts of interest, cooperative behavior, adaptation, unequal outcomes of trade, the disproportionate influence of the rich and powerful." Vermeij is geologist, palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist. [ 10 dec 04 ]
A very detailed and positive review by paleontologist Richard Bambach has appeared in the American Scientist March-April 2005 (free): "I regard his main argument as convincing".

Arthur Gandolfi, Anna Gandolfi, David Barash (2002) "Economics As an Evolutionary Science: From Utility to Fitness", Transaction Publishers, 273 pages.
Info.

Ronald Noë, Jan van Hooff, Peter Hammerstein (Editors) (2002) "Economics in Nature: Social Dilemmas, Mate Choice and Biological Markets" (Hardcover) In this volume scientists from different disciplines combine insights from economics, evolutionary biology, and the social sciences to look at comparative aspects of economic behavior in humans and other animals. Info.

Haim Ofek (2001) "Second Nature: Economic Origins of Human Evolution".
"Ofek makes several interesting connections between economics and biology, but fails to demonstrate clearly how economic pressures might have contributed to the evolutionary process itself". Review: Nature.

Patricia S. Churchland (2011) "Braintrust What Neuroscience Tells Us About Morality", Princeton University Press.
Info (Chapter 1). Review: Science: "Rather than advancing a naturalistically or scientifically based moral code, she sees science as deepening our understanding of the 'nature of our sociality' and shedding light on our practices and institutions so that we think more wisely about them. She is less interested in specifying moral rules or principles." Morality does not have a supernatural basis.

Sam Harris (2010) "The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values ", Free Press.
Reviewed by evolutionary biologist H. Allen Orr for the New York Review of Books: "The first half of The Moral Landscape is concerned with the possibility of a science of morality" ("how science can determine human values"); "It seems clear that what really angers and animates him is moral relativism, not those who question the possibility of a scientific morality"; "I certainly share his vision of the well-being of conscious creatures as a sensible end for ethics. And I agree that science can and should help us to attain this end. And I certainly agree that religion has no monopoly on morals. The problem -and it's one that Harris never faces up to- is that one can agree with all these things and yet not think that morality should be "considered an undeveloped branch of science."

Richard Weikart (2009) "Hitler's Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress", Palgrave Macmillan, 268 pages.
Bio. Expelled. Book recommended by William Dembski.

David Livingstone Smith (2009) "The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War", St. Martin's Griffin, Paperback.

Frans de Waal (2009) 'The Age of Empathy. Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society', Harmony Books
Reviews: Science: "The Age of Empathy is essentially a moral pamphlet -and a very eloquent and entertaining one at that"); important review in American Scientist. Interview: "There are many animals that survive through cooperation".

William F. Loomis (2008) 'Life As It Is: Biology for the Public Sphere', University of California Press: 2008. 272 pp.
Review: Nature: "But if his intention is less ambitious, namely that a realistic appreciation of biology ought to inform ethical decision-making, then that is incontrovertible."

Frans de Waal (2006) "Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved", Princeton University Press, hb 209 pages.
Review: Biology and Philosophy; Info; Chapter 1 ( Full text ),

Marc D. Hauser (2006) "Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong", Ecco: 2006. 512 pp. (Also by HarperCollins paperback 2007; info and sample chapters)
"For Hauser, moral intuition is not the product of culture and education, nor is it the result of rational and deliberative thought, nor does it reduce to the workings of the emotions. Instead, it is human nature to unconsciously and automatically evaluate the moral status of human actions" from review: Nature and "Moral Minds makes a grand stab at synthesizing existing work in philosophy, psychology, neurobiology and evolutionary theory in an effort to explain our moral capacities" from: American Scientist. Review. Tinbergen lecture (20-9-2009).

Richard Joyce (2006) "The Evolution of Morality (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology)", Hardcover, The MIT Press.
"This book attempts to accomplish two tasks. The first is to address the question 'Is human morality innate?' (chapters 1-4). We will arrive at a positive answer. If we suppose that morality is innate, does this in some manner vindicate morality, staving off the threat of moral skepticism? Or, if morality is ultimately just something that helped our ancestors make babies, might the correct implication instead be that the authority of morality is undermined? (chapters 5 and 6)." (publisher's info and sample chapters). See also: Evolutionary Psychology.

Frans de Waal (2005) "Our Inner Ape. A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are", Riverhead Books paperback 285 pages (with photographs by the author).
We share more with primates than power and sex. Fellow-feeling and empathy are equally important, but they are rarely mentioned as part of our biological heritage. See also his Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals and Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved.

Larry Arnhart (2005) "Darwinian Conservatism" Imprint Academic, paperback 162 pages.
"The fear of Darwinian immorality is evident in Richard Weikart's book. A big part of my book is the attempt to dispel this fear by showing how Darwinian biology actually supports traditional morality as rooted in a natural moral sense (...) shaped by natural selection in human evolutionary history". (Arnhart) (info from author). Larry Arnhart is a professor of political science and the author of Darwinian Natural Right: The Biological Ethics of Human Nature (1998) which could be described as a very interesting attempt to show that traditional ethics is compatible with and based on natural, evolutionary desires.

Michael S. Gazzaniga (2005) "The Ethical Brain". 201 pp. Dana Press.
Review: American Scientist: "Because it is brief, compelling and free of technical jargon, the whole book can be easily read during a transcontinental flight. At a time when intellectuals may feel cowed by the heavy hand of the fervently religious, it is a relief to see that Gazzaniga neither shies away from controversial opinions nor waters them down so as to offend nobody. At the same time, he is respectful of moral convictions that do not line up with his own. His opinions are delivered not as dogma but as part of an ongoing reflection and conversation, in which seeing all sides of a moral problem is itself regarded as a moral achievement."

Richard Weikart (2004) "From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany". hardback Palgrave Macmillan.
Richard Weikart, a historian in the Dept. of History, California State University, claims that many leading Darwinian biologists and social thinkers in Germany believed that Darwinism had overturned traditional Judeo-Christian and Enlightenment ethics. Weikart claims that Darwinism played a key role not only in the rise of eugenics, but also in euthanasia, infanticide, abortion, and racial extermination, all ultimately embraced by the Nazis. The title 'From Darwin to Hitler' is rather misleading since Weikart does not claim that Darwinism does inevitably and logically lead to Nazism. The title is just as misleading as the hypothetical title 'From Einstein to Hiroshima'. A more accurate description of the book would be 'From Haeckel to Hitler'. review, review.

Dieter Kuntz (editor) (2004) "Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race", University of North Carolina Press, hardcover 226 pp.
Review: Nature Genetics.

Frans de Waal (2000) "Chimpanzee Politics : Power and Sex among Apes, The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2 edition, 256 pages.
Frans de Waal reminds us again that the roots of politics are older than humanity.

Leonard D Katz (Editor) (2000) "Evolutionary Origins of Morality : Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives", Imprint Academic
This book contains essays and critical comments by many authors. How, When and Why Did the Unique Aspects of Human Morality Arise? Are We Really Altruists? Can Fairness Evolve? Info, Introduction by Katz.

Peter Singer (2000) "A Darwinian Left: Politics, Evolution, and Cooperation", Yale University Press, Hardcover 64 pages.
Info. "Singer explains why the left originally rejected Darwinian thought and why these reasons are no longer viable".

Jane Maienschein, Michael Ruse (eds) 1999. "Biology and the foundation of ethics" Cambridge University Press.
Historical perspective on the relation of biology and ethics. Contains chapter 'The case against Evolutionary Ethics today'. Info.

Matt Ridley (1998) "The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation", Penguin Paperback 304 pages
This book is described by Richard Dawkins: "as well as being a lucid account of the whole field of Darwinian morality, is especially good on reputation" (TGD, p.218).

Paul Rubin (1998) "Darwinian Politics: The Evolutionary Origin of Freedom", Rutgers University Press, paperback 223 pages.
Darwinian Politics is the first book to examine political behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. Paul H. Rubin is a professor of economics and law at Emory University.

David Loye (1998) "Darwin's Lost Theory of Love. A Healing Vision For the New Century". toExcel paperback 336 pages.
"Darwin's Lost Theory of Love is the story of the discovery of a major theory of Darwin's that has been ignored for over 100 years. Focusing on the impact on our evolution of love, sex and moral sensitivity rather than selfishness and survival of the fittest, this theory wholly contradicts both the scientific and the popular portrait of Darwin prevailing over the 20th century. Based on page after page of Darwin's own long ignored writings, it includes his overlooked uncovering of a third major process of evolution that offers new hope for humanity during the 21st century." (publisher). "The prominent feature article in the August 3 2000 issue of Christian Science Monitor is a good sign" (amazon). David Loye is editor of "The Great Adventure: Toward a Fully Human Theory of Evolution (Suny Series in Transpersonal and Humanistic Psychology)", 2004.

Adrian Bejan and J. Peder Zane (2012) "Design in Nature: How the Constructal Law Governs Evolution in Biology, Physics, Technology, and Social Organization", Doubleday 288 pp
Mechanical engineer Adrian Bejan and writer J. Peder Zane make a fascinating case for how a single law of physics governs shape and structure in everything, animate or inanimate. Info. Review. Review.

Mark Denny, Alan McFadzean (2011) "Engineering Animals. How Life Works", Harvard University Press.
Denny and McFadzean offer an expert look at animals as works of engineering, each exquisitely adapted to a specific manner of survival. (info). Review: Science: "Mark Denny and Alan McFadzean's Engineering Animals: How Life Works provides a generally engaging engineer's perspective on how animals are built and how they function. The authors, who trained as physicists and worked in the aerospace industry on sonar and remote sensing, seek to provide a readable romp through a diverse range of topics that include animal energetics, metabolism, and ecology; structural and circulatory mechanics; locomotion; sensory signal processing and control; and communication. ... Not surprisingly, Denny and McFadzean spend a great deal of attention on echolocation. High-lighting the abilities of bats to locate and catch prey, they also cover dolphins, whales, oilbirds, and cave swiftlets. ... The authors' discussions of remote sensing culminate in a delightful chapter on animal migration."

Agnès Guillot & Jean-Arcady Meyer (2010) "How to Catch a Robot Rat: When Biology Inspires Innovation", MIT Press
Nature review: "In a wide overview of biology-influenced design, Guillot and Meyer describe how natural structures, materials and behaviours are being adapted for nanotechnology and electronics."

Robert Allen (ed) 2010 "Bulletproof Feathers. How Science Uses Nature's Secrets to Design Cutting-Edge Technology", The University of Chicago Press, 192 pp.
Info. "Based on the realization that natural selection has for countless eons been conducting trial-and-error experiments with the laws of physics, chemistry, material science, and engineering, biomimetics takes nature as its laboratory, looking to the most successful developments and strategies of an array of plants and animals as a source of technological innovation and ideas."
Review: Science: "the six image-stuffed chapters (each written by a top researcher in the field) offer nonspecialists an intriguing sampler of bioinspiration. How do underwater creatures communicate when sound travels only limited distances, how do they see when sunlight only provides minimal lighting, and how do they avoid being crushed by the high hydrostatic pressures?"

David Dusenbery (2009) 'Living at Micro Scale: The Unexpected Physics of Being Small, Harvard University Press.
What are the physical consequences of life at this scale? How do such organisms move, identify prey and predators and (if they're so inclined) mates, signal to one another, and orient themselves? Review.

W. Brian Arthur (2009) 'The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves', Free Press/Allen Lane, 256 pp.
Arthur's argument will gain notoriety because of the analogy between biological and technological evolution. The notion that technology evolves is older still, going back at least to Charles Darwin's contemporaries, such as the author Samuel Butler and the archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers. All technologies are made up of pre-existing components, so technological change involves assembling new combinations of old and refined technologies - Arthur calls this process 'combinatorial evolution': Review Nature.

Steven Vogel (2009) 'Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds', Princeton University Press, Paperback 328 pp.
The biological word seen through the eyes of a physicist-engineer. Info (+free chapter).

David E. Alexander (2009) Why Don't Jumbo Jets Flap Their Wings?: Flying Animals, Flying Machines, and How They Are Different, Rutgers University Press, Hardcover.
Comparative aerodynamics of winged animals (birds, bats, insects) and aircrafts. Info. Easy reading.

Alejandro Bahamón, Patricia Pérez, Alex Campello (2008) Inspired by Nature: Plants. The Building/Botany Connection, W. W. Norton, New York, 2008. Paper, 192 pp.
Nature has always furnished stimulating ideas for the design of architecture. Info. Review: Science.

Ed Regis (2008) What Is Life? Investigating the Nature of Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology, Farrar, Straus & Giroux: 2008. 208 pp.
Review: Nature.

Yoseph Bar-Cohen (ed) "Biomimetics: Biologically Inspired Technologies"
CRC Press: 2006. 527 pp.
"There are two unusual but interesting chapters devoted to design and optimization procedures that imitate the processes of biological evolution. One of these chapters, on 'genetic algorithms', contains some intriguing examples of this procedure, one of which even incorporates an ingenious analogue of sexual reproduction." Reviews: Nature.

Henry Petroski (2005) "Success Through Failure: The Paradox of Design"
Princeton University Press: 2006. 240 pp.
"there is a clear flavour of evolution - in terms of success riding on the back of failure - to the theme of this design-centred book". Review: Nature.

Peter Forbes (2005) "The Gecko's Foot. Bio-inspiration: Engineered from Nature."
Fourth Estate: 2005. 272 pp.
Biomimetics is the application of ideas from nature in engineering. According to reviewer R. McNeill Alexander "evolution by natural selection is extremely effective, and designers can surely learn from its solutions". My favourite example is the 'lotus effect'. Lotus leaves stay clean even in the muddiest water. On the basis of the microscopic structure of the leaves (discovered by botanist Wilhlm Barthlott) a paint was developed with the always stay clean property. Reviews: Nature.

Andreas Wagner (2005) "Robustness and Evolvability in Living Systems".
Princeton University Press, 383 pp. Publisher's info.
"In the first half of the book, Wagner (a computational and theoretical evolutionary biologist) provides a masterful survey of the literature on robustness at all levels of biological organization. Biologists and engineers alike will find snippets of interest. In the second half of the book Wagner reviews the theory of robustness." The author states that the focus of the book is on robustness against mutation, but there are many other issues of robustness that are outside the scope of the book. Review: Science, Nature, Evolution, Nature Genetics.

John Avery (2003) "Information Theory and Evolution", World Scientific Books, 232pp
Info.

Steven Vogel (1998) "Cats' Paws and Catapults. Mechanical Worlds of Nature and People", W. W. Norton & Company, paperback, 382 pages.
Steven Vogel compares the natural and human mechanical worlds, introduces the reader to his field of biomechanics, and explains how the nexus of physical law, size, and convenience of construction determine the designs of both people and nature. - The larger point is our recurrent theme that looking at both natural and human technologies forces us to think about each in novel ways. info.

Erika L. Milam (2010) 'Looking for a Few Good Males: Female Choice in Evolutionary Biology (Animals, History, Culture)' Johns Hopkins University Press, Hardcover
See: 'History of biology & evolution'.

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy (2009) 'Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origin of Mutual Understanding', Belknap/Harvard University Press: 2009. 432 pp.
Reviews: Nature, American Scientist, Science "Hrdy presents a well-argued case for human evolutionary history being characterized by cooperative offspring care". This could by integrated with Wranghams 'Cooking Made Us Human' hypothesis.

Joan Roughgarden (2009) 'The Genial Gene. Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness', University of California Press, 272 pages.
info: "This scientifically rigorous, model-based challenge to an important tenet of neo-Darwinian theory emphasizes cooperation, and vigorously demonstrates that to identify Darwinism with selfishness and individuality misrepresents the facts of life as we now know them".
Reviews: Nature.
Biology & Philosophy: "To conclude, The Genial Gene is a provocative and thought-provoking book. Roughgarden's attempts to overthrow the scientific orthodoxy, and her attempt to develop an alternative paradigm, are nothing if not courageous."
BioOne: "Even though I disagree with the author on some points, and though in some cases Roughgarden does her ideas a disservice by discounting well-documented observations of sexual conflict, I applaud her for shaking things up. I believe she is correct in some of her criticisms, and we should remember that competition in sexual interactions is an assumption that should be tested, rather than a factual starting point". review.

Jill B. Becker et al (eds) (2008) "Sex Differences in the Brain. From Genes to Behavior", Oxford University Press, New York, 2008. 504 pp.
Review: Science: "delves deeply and critically into sex dimorphisms in an evolutionary context", "The organizers of Sex Differences in the Brain would perform an enormous public service if they prepared a version of the material for popular consumption.".

Elisabeth A. Lloyd (2005) "The case of the female orgasm - Bias in the Science of Evolution". Harvard Univ. Press hb 311 pages.
Review on this site.

Joan Roughgarden (2004) "Evolution's Rainbow. Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People". Univ. of California Press, hb 474 pages.
Part 1 reviews the body plans, genders, sexualities of animals, leading to the conclusion that Darwin's theory of sexual selection is false (according to Roughgarden). Part 2 is about humans and Part 3 about gender and sexuality variation across cultures and through history. Professor Roughgarden published about ecology, evolution and population genetics. There is a positive review of the book in Nature by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, however she is less impressed by her critiques and alternative theory. Alison Jolly (Science) wrote: "What Darwinian theory needs is not so much radical revision as a simple expansion to take sexual diversity much more seriously." Roughgarden published in the New Scientist, January 17, 2004 an article with the same name as her book and in Science. Reviews: Nature, Science, American Scientist, Evolution and more.
 

Louis A. Berman (2003) "The Puzzle. Exploring the Evolutionary Puzzle of Male Homosexuality". Godot Press, 2003, 583 pp.
Review on this site.

Marlene Zuk (2002) "Sexual Selections. What We Can and Can't Learn about Sex from Animals"
University of California Press, 250 pages.
"I am both a feminist and an evolutionary biologist interested in animal behavior". info

Tim Birkhead (2000) "Promiscuity: An Evolutionary History of Sperm Competition" Harvard University Press. review, review, review.

Randy Thornhill & Craig Palmer (2000) "A Natural History of Rape: Biological Bases of Sexual Coercion" MIT Press, 2000, 272 pp.
Rape is about sex and reproduction, so ultimately about evolution. A devastating & hostile review by evolutionary biologists Jerry A. Coyne and Andrew Berry has been published in Nature.

Lionel Tiger (2000) 'The Decline of Males: The First Look at an Unexpected New World for Men and Women', St. Martin's Press; 1st edition Paperback.
Lionel Tiger is an anthropologist. Info. He is also the author of The Imperial Animal (1971).

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy (1999) "Mother Nature. Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species." The Ballantine Publishing Group, paperback 723 pages.
This book made a deep impression on me and had a lasting influence on my view on the role of females/mothers in evolution. Mainstream evolutionary biology of sex is preoccupied with how many times and with how many females a male copulates. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy convincingly demonstrates that all those male activities are evolutionary inconsequential unless a mother invests in rearing a child to reproductive age. Integrating cultural, historical, anthropological and biological data, the book is certainly not exclusively about the human species. Often examples from the animal world are given. It is anthropology in an evolutionary context. There are some passages where Hrdy writes about her personal interests as a mother; but this contributes to the impact of the book and never harms the high scientific value of the book. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is well-known for her studies of infanticide (the killing of infants) in natural populations of the langur monkey in India starting in 1971. Also by Hrdy (1999) "The Woman That Never Evolved", Revised Edition (info)

Patricia A. Gowaty (1996) (editor) "Feminism And Evolutionary Biology", Kluwer Academic Pub 623 pp. [Alternative classification: Politics & evolution]
Have evolutionary biologists worked largely or strictly within a masculine paradigm? Go to your library or Google Books and read it online. Contains Commentary (Chapter 23) by John Maynard Smith.

Matt Ridley (1994) "The Red Queen. Sex and the evolution of human nature". Penguin Books, paperback, 404 pages.
Being a more successful reproducer is not an absolute property, but a relative, temporary advantage. "This concept, that all progress is relative, has come to be known in biology by the name of the Red Queen, after a chess piece that Alice meets in Through the Looking Glass, who perpetually runs without getting very far because the landscape moves with her. It is an increasingly influential idea in evolutionary theory, and one that will recur throughout the book." "I mean why do Earthlings have sex? Why don't they just clone themselves like we do?" Popular description of the 3 theories biologists proposed to explain sex. Recommended reading. Matt Ridley is a zoologist and a journalist.

Michael Ruse (1981) "Is Science Sexist?". Reidel Publishing Company, paperback, 300 pages.
Starts with introductory chapters about the structure of evolutionary theory, evidence for evolution, Popper and sociobiology. The book title is misleading because there is only one chapter about sexism: "Is science sexist? The case of sociobiolgy". The final chapter is: "Are homosexuals sick?".

Timothy Taylor (2010) "The Artificial Ape: How Technology Changed the Course of Human Evolution", Palgrave Macmillan.
TT is an archaeologist. Potentially interesting book.

Michael P. Muehlenbein (ed) (2010) "Human Evolutionary Biology", Cambridge University Press, 634 pages.
Info + view inside.

Clive Finlayson (2009) 'The Humans Who Went Extinct: Why Neanderthals died out and we survived', OUP Oxford

Richard Wrangham (2009) "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human", Basic Books. 320 pp.
"Wrangham's thinking about the effect of food choices on society is interesting, but his attempt to superimpose his hypothesis on to the early fossil and archaeological record is unconvincing." Reviews: Nature (free); Science ("offers a convincing argument that cooking allowed us to do the work of chewing and digesting outside of our bodies"). Review: "Wrangham argues that the advent of fire, and cooking (as a result), gave rise to the genus Homo". Info.

Bernard Chapais (2008) "Primeval Kinship: How Pair-Bonding Gave Birth To Human Society", Harvard University Press.
"The root of humanity lies in pair bonding (the strong affinity that can develop in a breeding couple), the brother-sister tie, and the transfer of females between groups." from review: Nature. info & excerpt .

Robert Boyd, Joan B. Silk (2006) "How Humans Evolved. Fourth Edition", W.W.Norton & Company, paper, 550 pages
Well illustrated textbook for undergraduates. Starts with introductory chapters about the modern theory of evolution. Focus on primatology, behaviour, ecology, fossils. Info. Comes with CD-ROM and website. Fifth edition (2009) (website). Small complaint: no Boskop skull, no comparative cytogenetics of apes and humans.

Steven Mithen (2006) "The Singing Neanderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body", Harvard University Press.
Did music evolve before language? Info & excerpt.

Stephen Cunnane (2005) "Survival of the Fattest. The Key to Human Brain Evolution". World Scientific, 343 pages
The book title Survival of the Fattest is a beautiful variation on Darwin's Survival of the Fittest. It means that the fattest infants stood the best chance of becoming the smartest adults. To evolve fat babies, one is obliged to look to the shores because compared to all other sources of food the shored-based food supply was rich in nutrients necessary for brain development. The shore-based scenario to explain human origins is the middle ground between the Aquatic Ape and the Savannah Theory.

Steven Pinker (2003) "The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature", Penguin paperback. Review

Matt Ridley (2003) "Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human", HarperCollins (Hardcover) "A splendid, very well written book on the nature-versus-nurture debate in human brain development. Ridley takes the reasonable middle path. A page turner, actually." (David J. Linden). Review

David Horrobin (2001) "The Madness of Adam and Eve. How schizophrenia shaped humanity". Bantam Press, 2001, 275 pages
The crucial difference between humans and chimpanzees is the way we accumulate fat beneath the skin (buttocks and breasts) and in the brain. The richness of brain connectivity, and thus intelligence is entirely dependent on phospholipids (fats). Aquatic food sources are very rich brain fatty acids. The author is unaware of the aquatic ape hypothesis, but gives a different interpretation of the fact that humans are fat and love water so much. A simple mutation in Phospholipase A₂ is linked to schizophrenia and super-intelligence in humans.

Jared Diamond (1999) "Guns, Germs, and Steel. The fates of human societies". W.W. Norton & Company, 494 pages.
To summarize a long book in one sentence: "History followed different courses for different peoples because of differences among people's environments, not because of biological differences among the peoples themselves." In this influential book Diamond establishes a new paradigm in the historical sciences. On the origin of civilizations.

• David Buss (1999, 2008) Evolutionary psychology: The New Science of the Mind. The founding paradigm textbook of 'Evolutionary Psychology'. Info.
• Barrett, Dunbar, Lycett (2002) Human Evolutionary Psychology (info + table of contents + sample chapter). A textbook devoted to humans.
• Steven M. Platek, Todd K. Shackelford (2009) Foundations in Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience, Cambridge. (Info)

• Robert Wright (1994,1995) The Moral Animal: Evolutionary Psychology and Everyday Life (Info)
• Steven Pinker (2004) How The Mind Works (review) and The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Pinker is perhaps the most popular popularizer of evolutionary psychology);
• David Buss (1995) The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating, and (2001) The Dangerous Passion: Why Jealousy is as necessary as Love and Sex.

• Lance Workman, Will Reader (2008) Evolutionary Psychology. An Introduction 2nd Edition (Info).
• Dylan Evans (2006) Introducing Evolutionary Psychology, 2nd Ed. (pb) is a cartoon guide
• Robin Dunbar (2005) Evolutionary Psychology: A Beginner's Guide (info)
• David P. Barash (2003) Revolutionary Biology. The New, Gene-Centered View of Life (about altruism, reciprocity, parenting).

• Martin Daly, Margo Wilson (1999) The Truth about Cinderella: A Darwinian View of Parental Love (Darwinism Today series, 80 pages)
• David P. Barash (2003) The Survival Game. How Game Theory explains the biology of cooperation and competition
• David Barash and Judith Lipton (2002) The Myth of Monogamy. Fidelity and infidelity in animals and people
• David Barash and Judith Lipton (2009) How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-So Stories (about menstruation, ovulation, breasts, female organism, menopause; bw illustrations. Info)
• Geoffrey Miller (2000) The mating mind: how sexual choice shaped the evolution of human nature (review).
• David F. Bjorklund, Anthony D. Pellegrini (2001) Origins of Human Nature: Evolutionary Developmental Psychology (see Gintis review).
• Deirdre Barrett (2010) Supernormal Stimuli. How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose (Info).

• Hilary Rose, Steven Rose (2000) (eds) Alas, Poor Darwin: Arguments Against Evolutionary Psychology. review.
• Harmon R. Holcomb III (2001) Conceptual Challenges in Evolutionary Psychology: Innovative Research Strategies, which is an advanced text for students and scholars that critiques the dominating work of Buss, Cosmides and Tooby, Dennett, and Pinker
• Kevin N. Laland and Gillian R. Brown (2002) Sense and Nonsense: Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behaviour is a general examination of the usefulness of evolution in studying human behavior, and also an analysis and comparison of five approaches to this study (review).
• philosopher David Buller (2005) Adapting Minds. Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature (review: Science; book is difficult to read)
• philosopher Robert C. Richardson (2007) Evolutionary Psychology as Maladapted Psychology (review: Science; "Richardson joins this literature using the standards of biological explanation as the ground for his attack" from: review, review).

An evolutionary approach to animal behaviour is John Alcock (2001) (see here). The classic work about the evolutionary study of social behaviour of animals is Edward O. Wilson (1975) Sociobiology. The New Synthesis (2000: paperback edition). A splendid and readable comparison of human and ape behaviour is Frans de Waal (2005) Our Inner Ape (see politics). A history of the altruism problem and Darwinian solutions is Lee Alan Dugatkin (2006) The Altruism Equation. Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness (reviews: Nature, Science, Evolutionary Psychology, American Scientist ). The Price of Altruism. George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness by Oren Harman (2010) "is the most extensive treatment of the history of altruism that exists in the literature. Additionally it tells George Price's story" (reviews: Science, Nature, American Scientist).
An introductory level book covering evolutionary psychology is: John H Cartwright (2001) Evolutionary Explanations of Human Behaviour. Dugatkin (2000) The imitation factor. Evolution beyond the gene examines the origins of culture in humans and animals and proposes that behaviour imitation is an important but overlooked factor. Darwin's remark about the mind of a baboon inspired an empirical study of baboons: Cheney and Seyfarth (2007) Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind (review: Science, info, excerpt). The following three books are about social behaviour we share with our primate relatives: Alexander H. Harcourt & Kelly J. Stewart (2007) Gorilla Society: Conflict, Compromise and Cooperation Between the Sexes; Dario Maestripieri (2007) Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World ("Maestripieri's slimmer volume will appeal to a general audience with its fast pace, references to popular culture and wide-ranging discussion of human behaviour"); Frans de Waal (2007) Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes (25th Anniversary Edition). (Review: Nature). For professioals: Oxford handbook of evolutionary psychology edited by Dunbar and Barrett. An antidote for the books of Frans de Waal is: Malcolm Potts and Thomas Hayden (2008) Sex and War. How Biology Explains Warfare and Terrorism and Offers a Path to a Safer World (review: Science).

Robert Trivers (2011) "Deceit and Self-Deception: Fooling Yourself the Better to Fool Others", (US title: The Folly of Fools), Basic Books/Allen Lane: 2011. 352 pp
Reviews: Nature: Trivers' theory is that individuals mislead themselves because it helps them to deceive others more convincingly. Review and Profile in Science: "Jerry Coyne says the book suffers from a lack of tangible zoological examples. "But Trivers's forte has never been to show what has happened but what could happen," he says. He calls Trivers "one of those thinkers whose importance rests on inspiring a generation of researchers." "Only once, during his second breakdown, did he feel the disease actually spurred some creative thinking."
Johan Bolhuis (Science): "Readers will find a version of evolutionary psychology conducted by an eminent evolutionary biologist."

Martin A. Nowak, Roger Highfield (2011) "SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed" Free Press: 2011. 352 pp.
See: Theoretical & Mathematical biology.

Sara J. Shettleworth (2010) Cognition, Evolution, and Behavior, Oxford University Press, 720 pp.
Comparative cognition, comparative psychology. New chapters on evolution and the brain. Info. Review.

David Westneat, Charles Fox (editors) (2010) "Evolutionary Behavioral Ecology", Oxford University Press, pp 664 pages .
Info.

Gregory Radick (2008) "The Simian Tongue: The Long Debate about Animal Language", University Of Chicago Press, hb 544 pages
"The Simian Tongue charts the scientific controversies over the evolution of language from Darwin's day to our own, resurrecting the forgotten debts of psychology, anthropology, and other behavioral sciences to the Victorian debate about the animal roots of human language."

John Price, Anthony Stevens (2000) Evolutionary Psychiatry: A New Beginning (Paperback) Routledge; 2 edition.
About: affective disorders, borderline states and schizophrenia, as well as offering solutions for puzzles such as sadomasochism and the function of dreams. info.

John S. Allen (2009) 'The Lives of the Brain. Human Evolution and the Organ of Mind', Harvard University Press, 352 pages.
Focus on brain evolution rather than the evolution of consciousness, intelligence, behavior, evolutionary psychology or cognition. Based on recent research in paleoanthropology, brain anatomy and neuroimaging, molecular genetics, life history theory. Do the models of brain evolution created by ecologists match those put forth by geneticists or paleoneurologists? My approach is 'bottom up' rather than 'top down'. The molecular evolution of the brain. Info (+free introduction). See also google books.

Michael S. Gazzaniga (2008) "Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique", 447 pp., HarperCollins/Ecco
If you want to find out what we know today about how human brains and minds transcend those of other species, and particularly if you take pleasure in contemplating our superiority, you can't do better than reading this book. It makes you feel superior to all other species. Review. Info. browse.

Gary Lynch and Richard Granger (2008) "Big Brain. The Origins and future of Human Intelligence", Palgrave hardback, 259 pages.
Evolution of the brain in evolutionary time and the lifetime of an individual. Differences in individual brains. Differences of human and animal brains. The big brains of Boskop humans. Info. Review.

Daniel Lord Smail (2008) "On Deep History and the Brain", University of California Press, Berkeley, 2008. 286 pp.
"On Deep History and the Brain is a small book with big ideas: that human history is linked in deep time by the physiological mechanisms that we share with our vertebrate ancestors and that the historical "progress" and "acceleration" we detect are in fact directionless series of ongoing culturally specific experiments with psychotropic mechanisms. Smail deftly and impressively pulls together information from the disparate fields of cultural history, evolutionary biology, and neuroscience": from Science.

Gary Marcus (2008) "Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind", Houghton Mifflin Co.
Home page. Review: Nature: "psychologist Gary Marcus presents a lively tour of the shortcomings of human minds and concludes that evolution has left us with something of a mess. Marcus makes his case by describing cognitive difficulties, including false beliefs, linguistic ambiguity, impulsiveness and mental illness." See also: Gary Marcus (2004).

David J. Linden (2007) "The Accidental Mind. How Brain Evolution Has Given Us Love, Memory, Dreams, and God", Harvard University Press.
"The brain is not an optimized, general-purpose problem-solving machine, but rather a weird agglomeration of ad-hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history." "The things we hold highest in our human experience (love, memory, dreams, and a predisposition for religious thought) result from a particular agglomeration of ad hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history." "The mouse brain is basically the lizard brain with some extra stuff thrown on top. Likewise, the human brain is basically the mouse brain with still more stuff piled on top." Review: Nature. Info (+Prologue, Ch.1). Blog with free chapter 7. [Alternative classification of the book: Anti-Creationism/ID ].

Ralph Greenspan (2007) "An Introduction to Nervous Systems", Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press: 2007. 200 pp.
"Ralph Greenspan's An Introduction to Nervous Systems will similarly enlighten many of its readers on the wonders to be found through the study of invertebrate nervous systems and the behaviours they control. Furthermore, it is an eloquent mixture of fundamental neuroscience and evolutionary biology. Greenspan uses a variety of invertebrate animals to describe the fundamental processes of nervous-system function and by placing the basics of neuronal signalling in their functional contexts, he casts this information in evolutionary terms." from: Nature. Review: dannyreviews.

Georg F. Striedter (2005) "Principles of Brain Evolution, Sinauer, 363 pages, $67.95
info.

Gary Marcus (2004) "The Birth of the Mind: How a Tiny Number of Genes Creates The Complexities of Human Thought", Basic Books, paperback, 278 pages (including appendix, glossary, notes, references, subject index, name index).
Despite its offputting subtitle, this book is a magnificent overview of what scientists know of the biological, neurological and genetic basis of the human mind. Genes produce the brain, the brain produces the mind. Genes are created by evolution. Although not its primary goal, the book appears to be one of the first attempts to integrate neuroscience and cognitive science into neo-Darwinism. In other words: how the human mind with language and thought evolved from a chimp-like brain. Chapter 7 is about the evolution of mental genes. Psychologist Gary Marcus appears to be an excellent and humorous educator. Accessible to the non-specialist. Reviewed in: Biology and Philosophy.

John Allman (2000) "Evolving Brains", Scientific American Library, pb 224 pp.
Very good book about the evolution and genetics of the brain. info.

James Darnell (2011) "RNA Life's Indispensable Molecule", Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. bw + color illustr.
Info + excerpt. Review: Science: "Darnell's book is not only a bible but a lexicon. It really does say it all." "DNA may encode a cell's potential, but the RNA molecules present dictate the activities that define a cell's state at any particular moment."

Donald R. Forsdyke (2011) "Evolutionary bioinformatics" Springer; 2nd Edition.
His research includes bioinformatic analyses of DNA sequences relating to introns and speciation. Info and sample chapter. See also: Forsdyke Evolution Academy on Youtube. See also: The Origin of Species Revisited by the author.

Brian and Deborah Charlesworth (2010) "Elements of Evolutionary Genetics". Roberts and Company, 2010. 768 pp
review: "Wherever the study of evolution intersects with the study of inheritance we have evolutionary genetics. Evolutionary genetics thus covers a huge chunk of evolutionary biology, as without inheritance there can be no cumulative change. Elements of Evolutionary Genetics is a superb introduction to evolutionary genetics for the serious and motivated student of evolution".

Frank Ryan (2009) "Virolution", Collins paperback, 390 pp
"The majority of the molecular biologists and geneticists who are screening the genome are completely unaware of the concept of viral symbiosis. The reason is they were taught evolution on the exclusive basis of mutation-plus-selection. This inclines them to think that the viral elements in the genome can only be seen as selfish genetic parasites, and so it comes as a surprise when they accidently discover a "beneficial" viral contribution." (p.163).
Popular account of the role of viruses in evolution. In particualr Chapter 6 about retroviruses in the human genome is very interesting. Info, Info.

J. V. Chamary and Laurence D. Hurst (2009) 'The price of silent mutations', Scientific American, June 2009, pp34-41.
This is a very readable overview of 'silent' mutations. It appears that bases in protein coding exons can at the same time function as intron splicing recognition sites, and that a synonymous mutation can prevent intron splicing, resulting in mutated proteins. Important for evolution.

Stewart Scherer (2008) "Short Guide to the Human Genome"
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Paperback 150 pp.
A short but useful guide in Q&A form. Chapter 10 'Comparative genomics' is relevant to evolution. The book gives an enormous amount of data. However, the data frequenlty present puzzles which are not addressed in this book. A genomics handbook is required to find explanations for the puzzling data. Contents.

Michael Lynch (2007) "The Origins of Genome Architecture", Sinauer, 389 pages
Evolution is a change in genotype frequencies. There are 4 causes of evolution: natural selection, and 3 non-adapative forces: mutation, recombination, genetic drift. Lynch claims that a lot of (genome) complexity is random, non-adaptive, not produced by natural selection. "By magnifying the role of chance, genetic drift indirectly imposes directionality on evolution by encouraging the fixation of mildly deleterious mutations and discouraging the promotion of beneficial mutations." Info. "The role null models play in testing hypotheses in evolution is a central focus of this book." (Review).

Mark Pagel, Andrew Pomiankowski (2007) "Evolutionary Genomics and Proteomics, Sinauer, 295 pages, 90 illustrations.
Info. Chapters include: Evolutionary Systems Biology, The Origin of New Genes, Human Evolutionary Genomics.

Catherine Brady (2007) "Elizabeth Blackburn and the Story of Telomeres. Deciphering the Ends of DNA", MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2007. 412 pp
Review: Science (14 March 2008): "Blackburn's groundbreaking work in telomere biology is a remarkable story worth telling.".

James D. Watson (2007) "Avoid Boring People. Lessons from a Life in Science / And Other Lessons from a Life in Science", Knopf, New York, 2007. hardback 365 pp
"But after reading the book, I quickly changed my mind. It is interesting because it fills out the parts of Jim's life missing from his previous books." according to Sydney Brenner in his review in Science. It is an autobiographical book. Chapter 6 is about the famous period 1951 - 1953 (pp 94 - 117), (contains a rare photograph of beautiful Rosalind Franklin, and some nice story about Pauling). The special thing about the book is that each chapter ends with lessons and advice to young scientists. However, too much boring details of his life for the general reader. No index, but there is a dictionary style who-is-who. Review: Nature (2007): "Sadly, and without explanation, the book ends too soon, at the point where Watson leaves Harvard in 1976". Watson's previous autobiographic books: The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA (1968), and Genes, Girls and Gamow (2001).

J. Craig Venter (2007) "A Life Decoded. My Genome: My Life", Viking, New York, 2007. 416 pp.
This is an autobiography of Venter. Venter, leader of the private company Celera, made his own attempt to decode the human genome, while the public Human Genome Project -headed by James Watson, later by Francis Collins- was up and running for some time. My impression is that Venter's book is more about politics of science than science itself, but I may be wrong. Review: Science.

Norman Johnson (2007) "Darwinian Detectives. Revealing the natural history of genes and genomes", Oxford University Press, hb 220 pp.
Introducing negative and positive selection, human roots, Are we the third chimpanzee?, culminating in chapters 'What are the genetic differences that made us human?', and 'Size matters: toward understanding the natural history of genomes' with interesting issues: variation in genomes, how and why does genome size matter?, did big genomes cause salamanders to evolve simple brains, genome size and extinction. Info.

Austin Burt and Robert Trivers (2007) "Genes in Conflict: the Biology of Selfish Genetic Elements", Harvard University Press: 2006 632 pp.
Viruses are selfish entities. By the same token, 'transposable elements' (chapter 7), 'homing endonucleases' (chapter 6) and similar genetic elements belong in this category, because of their ability to increase their copy number within the genome. 'Selfish cell lineages' (chapter 11), such as cancer cells. Review: Nature Genetics.

Michael Lynch (2007) "The Origins of Genome Architecture", Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA, 2007. 510 pp.
"the book's first 12 chapters are a mustread for anyone interested in the evolution of genomes. This Origins represents a serious, valiant, and highly scholarly attempt at making sense of the new data provided by the genomic revolution. (...) One of the central theses of the book is that natural selection is not necessarily the central evolutionary mechanism, as quite a bit of the details of genomic structures and evolution can be accounted for by invoking the neutral mechanisms of mutation, recombination, and drift." from: Science. Nature: "Lynch goes a step further by combining molecular mechanisms and evolutionary theory into a coherent evolutionary genomics framework and claiming it as the next phase of evolutionary biology. (...) It is the best, most up-to-date and thorough summary of genome evolution published. (...) Not every evolutionary biologist, genome researcher or 'evo-devo-ist' will agree with Lynch's strong opinions that largely non-adaptive forces shaped genomes".

Joram Piatigorsky (2007) "Gene Sharing and Evolution. The Diversity of Protein Functions", Harvard University Press hb 336 pp 2007
"In the 1980s and early 1990s, Joram Piatigorsky and colleagues coined the term "gene sharing" to describe the use of multifunctional proteins as crystallins in the eye lens. In Gene Sharing and Evolution Piatigorsky explores the generality and implications of gene sharing throughout evolution and argues that most if not all proteins perform a variety of functions in the same and in different species, and that this is a fundamental necessity for evolution." info. Review: Nature Genetics.

Jean-Michel Claverie, Cedric Notredame (2006) "Bioinformatics For Dummies"
Info.

Matt Ridley (2006) "Francis Crick - Discoverer of the Genetic Code", Atlas Books.
Ridley makes a concise account of the factors that made the discovery of the 3D structure of DNA possible. "Ridley rightly emphasizes the key role Crick has played in working out the genetic code. Ridley has written a very readable book. He describes Crick's scientific achievements with remarkable clarity." Reviews: Science, Nature, Nature, Nature Genetics. . Please note this author is not the same person as the evolutionary biologist Mark Ridley.

Lisa Seachrist Chiu (2006) "When a Gene Makes You Smell Like a Fish ... and Other Tales about the Genes in Your Body" Oxford University Press, hardback 219 pages.
If you want to be educated about human genetics and how mutations in your DNA affect your health, read this book! Illustrated, friendly style, but also interesting for advanced students because details about genes are included plus a detailed References section at the end of the book.

Denis Noble (2006) "The Music of Life. Biology beyond the Genome" Oxford University Press, hardback 153 pages.
Important book, especially the first 4 chapters are deconstructing the gene and genome-centered view of life. This little book explains why expressions such as 'the genome is a program' and 'the book of life' are inadequate. If we want to make progress we must go beyond the genome as the privileged cause of life. We must move away from the gene-centred view of evolution. We must replace gene-networks by gene-protein networks. Progress is the view that genes are controlled by proteins and various higher-levels such as cells and organs. Keywords: reductionism, anti-reductionism, downward causation, systems biology. Interesting and original analysis of Dawkins' selfish gene point of view (page 11-22). The book is written in a friendly style (no arrogance or too many technical terms), runs smoothly and has good educational value. Website of the book including youtube interview with author, Info. Review: Science (the reviewer seems to have a genome-centered view of development, but also points out that a multicellular organism has millions of genomes!). Although Noble does not know Senapathy, he delivers exceptionally forceful ammunition against independent origin: here.

Paul G. Higgs and Teresa K. Attwood. (2005) "Bioinformatics and Molecular Evolution" Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. 365 pp.
This book is written for people who want to understand bioinformatics methods. The book can also be used by evolutionists to learn bioinformatics. Review: Evolution.

Rob DeSalle and Michael Yudell (2004) "Welcome to the Genome: A User's Guide to the Genetic Past, Present and Future" Wiley & Sons, hardcover 215 pages.
DeSalle and Yudell should be applauded for their ambition. They've produced a timely and readable book that packs an extraordinary amount of information into less than 170 pages of text. Review: Nature. Info.

  John S. Mattick (2004) The Hidden Genetic Program of Complex Organisms in: Scientifc American October 2004 pp 30-37.
"Biologists assumed that proteins alone regulate the genes of humans and other complex organisms. But an overlooked regulatory system based on RNA may hold the keys to development and evolution."
Mattick argues that the number of genes is not important for creating complex organisms, but in stead nonprotein-coding RNA's are important. Most of the 98.5% 'junk'-DNA (introns) is transcribed into RNA, not protein. In mammals thousands of RNA's never get translated into proteins. This is absent in prokaryotes. Probably these RNA's regulate the expression of genes, which is important in multicellular organisms (hundreds of different cell types). Furthermore, thousands of non-coding DNA are much more conserved than protein coding DNA, which suggests a role for natural selection.

Bryan Sykes (2004) "Adam's Curse" W.W. Norton, hb 316 pp
About the chromosome and the gene that makes a human body a male body: the Y-chromosome and SRY gene. The path to the discovery was littered with false leads and false conclusions. I especially liked Sykes' description of how the correct human chromosome number was established (I worked in the field of cytogenetics). Accessible to the non-specialist reader. Info.

Jonathan Marks (2003) "What it means to be 98% chimpanzee. - Apes, people, and their genes." University of California Press. paperback 312 pages.
Human genetics viewed through the eyes of an anthropologist. Criticism of naive claims of human geneticists, but biased against genetic/evolutionary explanations of human behavior. The first two chapters are about what DNA differences between humans and chimpanzees are and what they mean (good and educational). Other chapters are about behavioral genetics, human diversity and human 'races', human nature, Kennewick man, and closing with a provocative chapter about Science, Religion and Worldview. Marvellous quote: "The scientist says: Science has explained many things about the universe. Your life has no meaning. Have a nice day." Review: American Scientist, July-August 2002; Nature Medicine.

Maurice Wilkins (2003) "The Third Man of the Double Helix". Oxford University Press, Hardback 274 pages.
The discovery of the double helix as told by the man who shared the Nobel Prize with Francis Crick and James Watson, but who was also a competitor in the race to solve the structure of DNA, because he worked in another research institute in the UK. Wilkins was offered co-authorship of the now famous 1953 Nature publication, but he refused because he was not involved in the discussions in the final month before the publication. The fourth scientist was Rosalind Franklin who worked in the same lab as Wilkins, but died before the Nobel Prize was awarded. Alternative single and triple helix models were considered in 1951 and 1952. Rosalind Franklin even worked on a non-helical model for quite some time and the famous Linus Pauling produced a wrong model too. Anne Sayre's book Rosalind Franklin and DNA was "so grossly inaccurate that it did not require a response" and James Watson's The Double Helix contains "seriously misleading descriptions".
The book is reviewed by Raymond Gosling (at the time research student of Rosalind Franklin) 'Completing the helix trilogy', Nature.

www Double helix: 50 years of DNA (23 January 2003) index of articles.
Nature website, 24 Jan 2003. (All content is free).
This is a collection of articles around the publication of the structure of DNA by James Watson and Francis Crick in April 1953, and the revolution in biology it caused. Among the articles is the original publication of Watson and Crick (pdf) and Crick's interesting retrospective view (4MB pdf) 21 years after the publication (1974). Please note the minimal information both had available and the huge unsolved problems the model faced: for example the unwinding problem. If the genetic information was buried inside the double helix, and if the DNA molecule was millions of bases long, how could it be replicated and read? They had not the slightest idea, nonetheless they were convinced that their DNA model was fit for carrying the hereditary information. The only article about DNA and evolution is from Svante Pääbo. There are some revolutionary ideas in it! Leroy Hood, the inventor of the first DNA sequencing machine, wrote an article about DNA and genomics "The digital code of DNA". There are two types of biological information in the genome: protein encoding genes and regulatory DNA. Important additional information about the discovery of the helix is given by Watson Fuller in Who said 'helix'? Nature 424, 876-878 (21 Aug 2003).

www A Conversation with James D. Watson.
Scientific American website, April 2003 issue. (free access)
An impressive interview with the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.

www Exploring the Crick papers
A showcase of the Crick archive, including early drafts of the 1953 Watson and Crick papers, and a full copy of Crick's 'most influential unpublished paper'.

James D. Watson (2003) "DNA: The Secret of Life", A Knopf, 416 pp.
James D. Watson discovered the structure of DNA 50 years ago (together with Francis Crick). Included are all the famous discoveries that made the field of genetics. Reviews: Nature (favourable), Science 18 Apr 2003, p.432 (unfavourable), New Scientist.

David Bainbridge (2003) "The X in Sex. How the X chromosome controls our lives", Harvard University Press, 205 pp.
How the X chromosome (and Y chromosome) make females and males and the implications of the XY-system for health and disease. Several unexpected complications, far-reaching consequences and serious disadvantages of the XY sex determining system are explained. The embryological construction of sex organs is clumsy and weird. The female body is a genetic mosaic. This book has more scientific depth than its counterpart "Y: The Descent of Man" by Steve Jones (reviews: Nature, Science).

Lynn Helena Caporale (2003) "Darwin in the Genome. Molecular strategies in biological evolution." McGraw-Hill, hb 246 pp.
Accesible, to the point, factual. Mutations are not always random. There are hot spots of mutations. 'Mutation strategies'. Review: BioEssays, (pdf). Here is a website about the book with the online article "Dr. Caporale's 2003 update of evolutionary theory". See also: New Scientist 6 March 2004, pp.42-45: 'Genomes don't play dice' by Lynn H. Caporale. Caporale published also: The Implicit Genome (2006).

Spencer Wells (2002) "The Journey of Man. A Genetic Odyssey", Allan Lane, hb 224 pp.
Info PenguinBooks. See also: The Genographic Project (see the maps!).

Carina Dennis and Richard Gallagher (2001) "The Human Genome." Nature Publishing Group, hardback 140 pp.
The original Nature article of 15 Feb 2001 reporting the draft of the Human Genome. Including many introductory articles with many colour illustrations.

Kevin Devies (2001) "Cracking the Genome. Inside the Race to Unlock Human DNA". released in the UK as: "The Sequence. Inside the Race for the Human Genome".
Reviews: Science.

Matt Ridley (2000) "Genome. The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters." Fourth Estate, paperback 344 pp.
This book was published before the publication of the draft human genome sequence. It is based on traditional genetics: finding genes responsible for specific phenotypic effects. Describes the most interesting gene on each chromosome and connects it with themes such as Intelligence, Instinct, Personality, Sex, Memory and Free Will. Reviews: Nature.

Horace Freeland Judson (1996) "The Eighth Day of Creation: The Makers of the Revolution in Biology" (25th Anniversary Edition) CSHL Press paperback 714 pp.
Info. Famous history of the origin of molecular biology starting with the discovery of the structure of DNA. With new Afterword.

Francis Crick (1990) "What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery", Basic Books Paperback 182 pages. illustrated.
This book was written 37 years after the discovery of the double helix. The advantage is that he also describes his work after 1953, including the gradual unravelment of the genetic code and his later years when he studied of vision and consciousness. It is not a very detailed account of the discovery of DNA. The details have been described by Robert Olby: The Path to the Double Helix, and Horace Freeland Judson: The Eight Day of Creation. Easy to follow. It reads like a summary. Surprise: "The most important theme of the book is natural selection."! Includes index, but no literature list. See also: James D. Watson (1968) The Double Helix, Maurice Wilkins (2003) The Third Man of the Double Helix and Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox. See also: Francis Crick (1995) The Astonishing Hypothesis.

James D. Watson (1968) "The Double Helix. A personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA", Penguin, 175 pages. With bw illustrations.
The famous book. Absolutely recommended. Shows how Watson and Crick struggled to fit all they knew about the details of DNA in a 3-dimensional model including a number of wrong models such as a single, two, three and four strand model, the bases on the outside, AA, TT, CC and GG pairing. This not an objective history but a personal view. To have a more balanced view one has to read: Aaron Klug (2004) 'The Discovery of the DNA Double Helix', J. Mol. Biol. (2004) 335, 3–26. or watch his story about the role of Rosalind Franklin on the web of stories. See also Rosalind Franklin on wiki. There is a nice site about the involvement of Linus Pauling containing videos were Watson and Crick are explaining the discovery on tv: Linus Pauling and the Race for DNA.

Gregory Chaitin (2012) "Proving Darwin. Making Biology Mathematical", Random House
Info.

Ian Stewart (2011) 'The Mathematics of Life', Basic Books.
Info. Review: Nature.

Martin A. Nowak, Roger Highfield (2011) "SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed" Free Press: 2011. 352 pp.
Martin Nowak is the author of "Evolutionary Dynamics. Exploring the Equations of Life" (2006). SuperCooperators could be viewed as a popular version of Evolutionary Dynamics without mathematical formulas.
Review: Nature: "Leading evolutionary theorist Martin Nowak sees cooperation as the master architect of evolution. He believes that next to mutation and selection, cooperation is the driving force at every level, from the primordial soup to cells, organisms, societies and even galaxies. Without cooperation, he says, our predecessors would still be RNA molecules. A pleasure to read, SuperCooperators offers an explanation of the evolution of cooperation and shows where the experts disagree."
Science: "Nowak's essential (and rather simple) claim is that all forms of cooperation can be understood in terms of individual-level selection operating in hierarchically structured populations".
See also: Karl Sigmund.

Len Fisher (2010) 'The Perfect Swarm: The Science of Complexity in Everyday Life', Basic Books: 2009. 288 pp.
Review: Nature: "Based on a profusion of examples, mainly biological, Fisher draws up rules for living in a complex world."

Karl Sigmund (2010) 'The Calculus of Selfishness', Princeton University Press.
Info: "The book analyzes to what extent one key facet of human nature -selfishness- can lead to cooperation". Reviews: Nature: "Sigmund has pioneered the development of evolutionary game dynamics", Science: "I consider the three chapters on reputation, fairness and trust, and public goods the richest in new insights. These chapters provide the strongest evidence for the ability of simple mathematical ideas to illuminate complex psychological and social phenomena."; American Scientist: "Sigmund, like everyone else in the field is trying to explain how ethics could arise from selfishness".
See also: Martin Nowak.

Anatoly Ruvinsky (2009) Genetics and Randomness, CRC Press, 160 pages.
Info. How do random molecular events like mutations become facts of life? Quantum uncertainty and unpredictability of life; Meiotic recombination generates randomness; Stochastic nature of gene activity; Random X chromosome inactivation; Random genetic drift and "deterministic" selection; Randomness: nuisance or essence?

Fred C. Boogerd et al (2007) Systems Biology. Philosophical Foundations, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 360 pp.
"is a collection of papers arising from a 2005 symposium convened by the Department of Molecular Cell Physiology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, and the first book on the philosophy of systems biology. (...) the editors explicitly exclude one discipline: evolutionary biology. (...) Systems biology is functional and mechanistic rather than evolutionary biology." From: review in Science.

Richard McElreath and Robert Boyd (2007) Mathematical Models of Social Evolution. A Guide for the Perplexed, University of Chicago Press, 2007. 428 pp.
"This book will no doubt reward psychologists, sociologists, and economists interested in evolutionary theory. Anyone desiring a thorough, yet down-to-Earth, introduction to modeling in social evolution couldn't do much better than to read this book. Using little more than high school mathematics, McElreath and Boyd show how one can take a big step toward understanding many perplexing evolutionary processes." from review in: Science.

See on this page: Denis Noble (2006) "The Music of Life. Biology beyond the Genome" is about systems biology.

A useful review of 3 books about systems biology appeared in Nature:
Kunihiko Kaneko (2006) "Life: An Introduction to Complex Systems Biology"
Uri Alon (2006) "An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits"
"Alon (a physicist turned molecular biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science) aims to provide a mathematical framework, to illustrate select design principles, and thus to foster understanding of biological networks. (..) Alon's approach is technical, not intrinsically functional nor necessarily evolutionary" from review in: Science.
Bernhard Palsson (2006) "Systems Biology: Properties of Reconstructed Networks"
My impression is: the success or failure of system biology depends on the right amount and the right kind of abstraction.

John Tyler Bonner (2006) "Why Size Matters: From Bacteria to Blue Whales", Princeton University Press: 2006. 171 pp.
Covers partly the same topics as John Whitfield's book, but Bonner mainly discusses the topic from the point of view of a biologist, including evolution and division of labor. Most stunning insight: 'there is always room at the top'. The difference with Whitfield's approach is that Whitfield describes predictive mathematical universal laws (the physicist point of view). Info. Review: Nature

John Whitfield (2006) "In the beat of a heart. Life, energy, and the unity of life".
I recommend this book to every evolutionary biologist as well as non-biologist seeking a deep and broad understanding of universal regularities of life independent of evolutionary accident and history. Far from criticising evolutionary theory, Whitfield's theorizing takes over where evolutionary theory reaches its boundaries of explanatory domain. Whitfield is not only a skilful populariser of science, but has also a thorough command of this extraordinary fascinating subject. I hope to write a review of this important book soon. Review: Nature. Info.

Martin A. Nowak (2006) "Evolutionary Dynamics. Exploring the Equations of Life"
"I have concentrated on evolution because it is the one unifying principle of all of biology.". "Uniquely compelling introduction to mathematical biology. Nowak aims to demonstrate the power of simple mathematics to illuminate diverse aspects of evolutionary analysis". Reviews: Science, American Scientist. Info.

Philip Ball (2001) "The self-made tapestry. Pattern formation in nature", Oxford University Press, paperback 287 pp
Info. Relevant chapters: chapter 4: Bodies, chapter 5: Branches. In the spirit of D'Arcy Thompson. Tends to deemphasize natural selection. In search of the laws of form. Review: American Scientist.

Stuart Kauffman (1995) "At home in the universe"
This book could be included in the category ALife because his autocatalytic model is a computer simulation of the origin of life, although Kauffman does not claim having created 'artificial life'. He certainly stimulates thinking about the nature of life and evolution. He can be characterised as a theoretical or mathematical biologist, not an Alife-researcher. See also review.

Prezemyslaw Prusinkiewicz and Aristid Lindenmayer (1990) "The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants".
The Bible of L-sytems. L-systems (Lindenmayer systems) are algorithms to produce graphic representations of plants and trees. L-systems are mathematical models of the morphology and development of plants. Although a goal of L-systems is to produce realistic visualisations, and they display growth & development, there is no claim that L-systems are 'artificial life'. Illustrated with 150 illustrations (48 in colour).

Daniel R. Brooks, E. O. Wiley (1988) "Evolution As Entropy. Toward a Unified Theory of Biology", Second Edition, The University of Chicago Press. 429 pages.
Info. It seems that Koonin (2011) was wrong when claiming that Michael Lynch and Conery (2003) proposed a new theory of the evolution of complexity. Brooks and Wiley did it first.
"...outlining, albeit incompletely, what we perceive as the current state of evolutionary theory, (...) and what we think is missing." (Prelude). They give 4 shortcomings of neo-Darwinism! (see: google books)

Artificial Life
As the name of the field suggests, 'artificial life' makes the strong claim that what they have produced is 'life', albeit artificial. Is the concept 'artificial life' an oxymoron? Is a plane an artificial bird? Maybe a more important claim of AL is the creativity of blind unguided processes. How successful is ALife in elucidating the nature of life and evolution?

Stefano Nolfi, Dario Floreano (2004) "Evolutionary Robotics: The Biology, Intelligence, and Technology of Self-Organizing Machines", The MIT Press Paperback 332 pp.
Robots bring embodiment and behaviour to the equations of theoretical evolutionary models. Info.

Nancy Forbes (2004) "Imitation of life. How biology is inspiring computing"
Forbes concisely describes evolutionary algorithms, cellular automata, artificial life (and more) and reports different views on the status of alife without forcing her own opinion upon the reader.

Mark Ward (1999) "Artificial Life. The Startling World of Artificial Life"
A good popular introduction to Alife. Written for the non-specialist, accessible, conversational style, anecdotes and historical introductions of subjects. Discusses ALife, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, 'artificial evolution' (Tierra, Echo, Avida, Cosmos), genetic algorithms. It is doubtful whether Alife models can tell us something about real-life biological evolution at all.

Steve Grand (1999) "Creation. Life and how to make it"
From the inventor of the groundbreaking computer game 'Creatures'. Some nice insights, but disappointing from the point of view of understanding the essence of life and evolution.

Christoph Adami (1997,1998) "Introduction to Artificial Life"
Textbook. Good, but too expensive. Review: Science: "In short, the book is an interesting and worthwhile contribution of a physicist who is intrigued by special features of living and evolving systems". The reviewer is not sure whether the results can be extended to real organisms. He leaves the big question unanswered.

Claus Emmeche (1994) "The Garden in the Machine. - The Emerging Science of Artificial Life". Princeton University Press.
Emmeche is a theoretical biologist. This book first appeared in 1991 in Danisch. There is ample discussion of the question whether a-life is real life and related questions. Deserves a separate review.

Mark A. Ludwig (1993) "Computer viruses, Artificial Life and Evolution". American Eagle Publications, paperback
Mark Ludwig is a physicist. Compares computer viruses and biological viruses. Careful discussion of the question whether artificial life creatures are alive. Also: are viruses alive? Profound and clear discussion of What is life? (defining life), emergence, self-reproduction, autonomy, information, cellular automata. Additionally, Ludwig is an Intelligent Design Theorist. See review on this site.

Christopher Langton (1989) (editor) "Artificial Life" VI.
This book contains the proceedings of a workshop on the synthesis and simulation of living systems, held September 1987. Includes lengthy introductory chapter about Alife by Langton, in which two different definitions of Alife occur: (1) 'synthesize life-like behaviors', (2) 'life made by man' (this is also reflected in the subtitle of the book: 'the synthesis and simulation of living systems'). With (1) I have no problem, with (2) I have problems because everything made by man is an artefact. I would agree with 'life-like artefacts', but not with 'life'. All chapters are written for specialists. It is difficult to extract insights about the nature of life and evolution. So this is not a book for beginners.

Peter J. Richerson, Robert Boyd (2005) "Not By Genes Alone. How Culture Transformed Human Evolution, The University of Chicago Press
Info. "Our societies are larger, more complex, and more cooperative than any other mammal's."

Brian Boyd (2009) On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction
info .

1. Lenski recommends this book, but cautions readers about the deprecating way in which Conway Morris refers to evolutionists whose view he opposes. SCM suggests "that intelligence might never have evolved here had not a cataclysmic impact jettisoned the Moon into its orbit". [it seems that accident plays a major role in SCM's wordlview and means that the universe is not fine tuned for the origin of earth-like planets.]
2. Michael Ruse: Monad to Man, 1996, page 140.
3. Stephen Jay Gould: Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, 1983, page 257.
4. Douglas J. Futuyma: Science on Trial, page 222.
5. Stuart Kauffman: At home in the universe, 1995 (review).
6. John Maynard Smith: The Limitations of Evolution Theory in: Did Darwin Get It Right?, 1992, page 181 (review).
7. TalkOrigins provides mainstream scientific responses to the many frequently asked questions about the evolution/creation controversy. The following website has been awarded by the Scientific Amercian: Understanding Evoluton: learning and teaching evolution.
8. Francis Crick (1981) Life Itself. Its Origin and Nature, hardback, Simon and Schuster, 192 pages. It is out of date in some respects (catalytic RNA was not known), but it contains splendid descriptions of the origin of life problem.
9. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1956) Le Phénomène humain translated as: The Human Phenomenon.
10. Harold J. Morowitz (1992) Beginnings of Cellular Life: Metabolism Recapitulates Biogenesis. See also this review for some details. A summary of the 28 examples of emergence appeared in From Complexity to Life (ed. Gregersen) as chapter 9. See also: article by Morowitz.
11. Kenneth Miller review by Jason Rosenhouse). Miller believes that God can influence mutations in a way scientifically undetectable to us! (p.241).
12. Chandra Wickramasinghe (2001): Cosmic Dragons. Life and Death on our Planet, but he is not interested in neo-Darwinism (how life evolved). He is not interested in how life originated either. He is only interested in how life was transported to the Earth (by comets).
13. This is story is told in John Whitfield (2006) In the beat of a heart. Life, energy and the unity of nature, chapter 1. Review: Nature
14. also published as: "The Origin of Life" (Penguin Science paperback, 2003).
15. Sean B. Carroll works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Carroll is reviewed in Scientific Amercian (Apr 2005) by Brian Hall. Jerry Coyne wrote an important review for Nature, 435, 1029-1030, 23 June 2005. Lewis Wolpert wrote a review Clever Tinkering in American Scientist Sept-Oct 2005. "This is a beautiful and very important book", but Wolpert also points out unsolved problems in evo-devo. Another review is by Adam Wilkins Evo-devo for the general reader (positive but also criticism).
16. "We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged." (source). [2 May 2005]
17. Review of The Privileged Planet by William H Jefferys, June 7, 2005.
18. please check your copy immediately, some copies have defects
19. These magazines require subscription, but every University library has subscriptions. Contrary to wikipedia, I prefer links to these authoritative sources. Wikipedia has a foolish policy to ban references to Nature and Science because the full contents is not freely available. Tip: get free email notification of weekly table of contents from Nature: this gives free access to a significant part of the articles. I discovered that despite the warning "To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment" a bookreview was complete and free. Also there is a free video archiv. All Abstracts of Science articles are free! (start with free Contents page of current issue and click on 'Abstract'). Furthermore, Science Express provides electronic publication of selected Science papers in advance of print. Finally, both magazines have weekly podcasts.
20. Evolution Through Natural Selection is a free online course of the Open University.
21. Darwin's Gift (2006) is a much expanded version of Darwin and Intelligent Design (2007).
22. According to John C. Waller, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne (source).
23. Spetner is one of the rare creationists who started a serious email discussion (posted as an addendum of the review).
24. Thomas Hunt Morgan had published Evolution and Adaptation (1903); like many biologists at that time, he saw clear evidence for biological evolution (as in the common descent of similar species) but rejected Darwin's proposed mechanism of natural selection acting on small, constantly-produced variations. (wiki). See: section history & evolution.
25. From an email of John Reiss: "What I am attacking is the use of the design metaphor in biology, with the analogy being made between natural selection and God the designer (as in Dawkins, "The Blind Watchmaker"). I had originally wanted to call it "Beyond the Design Metaphor: Natural Selection and the Conditions for Existence" ... I think "What Darwin got Wrong" would have worked for me too! I do not want to discount natural selection as a mechanism of evolution, but do try to isolate what we can legitimately claim for its role in evolution from uses that are based on assumption and analogy. Many folks will say that life "appears designed" and that this "apparent design" can only be explained by past natural selection. I argue instead that "apparent design" is better explained as a necessary condition for the existence of life - if organisms were not complex, adapted, etc., they would not exist. Hence a historical explanation of adaptedness is not necessary. This is not to say that natural selection (and I spend some time examining just what we might mean by natural selection) is not important in evolution, only that we can't infer the past action of selection from the present adaptedness of organisms."
26. Eugenie C. Scott and Glenn Branch (2009) Don't Call it "Darwinism", Evolution: Education and Outreach, Volume 2, Number 1, 90-94, 2009

Contact: use guestbook to contact me
and include whether it is a private or public message.
The guestbook is moderated and no message will be published automatically.

top