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44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
priceless source for prompting thought, August 26, 1998
Most of us who have a professional or casual interest in evolution and the natural world gain our knowledge from popular articles, books and perhaps the dim recesses of our undergraduate textbook memory. While Dawkins' _The Selfish Gene_ or _Darwin's Dangerous Idea_ by Dennet may lay out the bones and flesh of our modern view of the natural world with wonderous analogies and often beautiful prose it's not until opening this volume that what's missing will be noticed: a sense of history, of excitement, of challenging thought. Evolution (and its sub-branches) have been controversial, not just on religious terms (the less said about that the better) but in the normal manner of grand scientific theories attempting to explain the world in which we live. The importance of claims, counter-claims and paradigm shifts are hard to grasp without having been present, if not in person then intellecutally. _This_, with joy and a very sensitive editor's pen, is what Mark Ridly (author of the popular undergraduate text _Evolution_) has managed to give us with his selection of seminal papers in the history of evolutionary thought. The articles, ranging from Darwin through to the present day) are superbly chosen and in many cases hard for students or professionals (let along lay readers) to obtain. An absence of maths from even the most statistical of papers (which still remain cogent) will be welcomed by those not up for weeks of scribbling. The papers themselves are clear and thoughtful, their importance is always obvious and, through their arrangement, lead the reader on a merry intellectual dance of claim, counter-claim and converging streams of thought. Reading this book is an intellectual adventure; no summaries of events long past, the papers (and the accompanying short essays by Ridley) give a sense of the issues, how thoughtful the responses and creative the science. In short - this book make me re-think about what and how we know about evolution. It stimulated my research. Higher praise I cannot give. May there be many more in this wonderful series.
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49 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent review of modern evolutionary thought, June 24, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: Evolution (Paperback)
I saw the 2 star review and decided I could not let it sit without challenge. I have just received my Phd in psychology and masters in statistics, and have decided to attempt to make a career out of behavioral genetics and evolutionary genetics. Mark Ridley's book was an absolute inspiration to me when I first read it, and it continues to be a must-have reference. The book is noteworthy because it explains the major debates in evolutionary thought in a balanced yet readable way. For example, Ridley gives an excellent introduction into the fundamental question about what maintains genetic variation in the face of selection, an issue that is given only cursory attention in other books of this kind. I first read this as an undergraduate, yet it continues to serve as my fundamental reference to evolutionary biology. This is truly a wonderful introduction to evolution.
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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you are serious about evolution, read this., June 28, 1999
I have the 1994 edition. It is a textbook, but it was no act of masochism to read it through. This is a compliment to any sizeable textbook, but do not think it reads like a novel. If you skim it, you will be missing a great deal. I liked the writing, which is clear, pleasant and efficient; no waffle. The book is carefully structured and the aim throughout is to convey the successive themes; there is not much stopping to sniff the flowers. Examples and illustrations are effectively chosen to illuminate specific points. The history of the subject and of views on the subject matter is carefully interwoven with the development of the themes, to give a powerful insight into the respective status of major current schools of thought. The book is exceptional in its dispassionate discussion of rival opinions. I should have liked a more comprehensive index. Several times when wanting to refer back to points, I was reduced to paging and searching. The CD version must be a real luxury. Strongly recommended to students, professionals and serious evolutionary dilletants. Creation scientists have no one but themselves to blame if they burn their fingers on it.
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