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The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature [Paperback]

Matt Ridley (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Why do we have sex? One of the main biological reasons, contends Ridley, is to combat disease. By constantly combining and recombining genes every generation, people "keep their genes one step ahead of their parasites," thereby strengthening resistance to bacteria and viruses that cause deadly diseases or epidemics. Called the "Red Queen Theory" by biologists after the chess piece in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass which runs but stays in the same place, this hypothesis is just one of the controversial ideas put forth in this witty, elegantly written inquiry. Ridley, a London-based science writer and a former editor of the Economist , argues that men are polygamous for the obvious reason that whichever gender has to spend the most time and energy creating and rearing offspring tends to avoid extra mating. Women, though far less interested in multiple partners, will commit adultery if stuck with a mediocre mate. In Ridley's not wholly convincing conclusion, even human intellect is chalked up to sex: virtuosity, individuality, inventiveness and related traits are what make people sexually attractive. Photos. BOMC and QPB alternates.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This is a fascinating book filled with lucid prose and seductive reasoning. Freelance science writer Ridley reaches into the literature of genetics; molecular, theoretical and evolutionary biology; ecology; sociology; and anthropology to weave an extraordinary tale of the evolution of human nature, beginning with the evolution of sex. Using Lewis Carroll's Red Queen (who runs as fast as she can to stay in the same place) as a metaphor for evolution, Ridley shows how sex was the result of an evolutionary arms race between hosts and their disease-causing parasites. Ridley covers so much ground that transitions may be abrupt or unclear, particularly in the last two chapters; also, his review of human homosexuality is thin. His occasionally pompous style (including his immediate dismissal of those who do not believe in evolution) may offend some readers. However, Ridley clearly explains many complex and remarkable concepts for a wide audience. Highly recommended.
- Constance Rinaldo, Dartmouth Coll., Hanover, N.H.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Perennial (April 29, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060556579
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060556570
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #7,074 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #76 in  Books > Science > Biological Sciences > Biology
    #39 in  Books > Science > Evolution
    #26 in  Books > Science > History & Philosophy > History of Science

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Matt Ridley
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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monogonont rotifers, lek paradox, asexual ones, male ornaments, organelle genes, concealed ovulation, sexual species, tail streamers
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The Red Queen, John Maynard Smith, Charles Darwin, Vicar of Bray, The Rtd Queen, Don Symons, Big Zag, Robert Trivers, The Red Quern, New Guinea, Santa Barbara, Wynne Edwards, Graham Bell, Bill Hamilton, Bruce Ellis, The Rtd Quttn, Van Valen, Stephen Jay Gould, New Zealand, Julius Caesar, United States, Adam Smith, Laura Betzig, Anders Moller, Nancy Burley
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Customer Reviews

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4.4 out of 5 stars (79 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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78 of 85 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth About Sex, March 29, 2006
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This review is from: The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (Paperback)

I read the celebrated "Moral Animal" some 10 years ago, re-read it and underlined it at least twice. Finally I had found a theory of human nature and psychology I could wholeheartedly believe in. Ten years later, I have now found "Red Queen" - more of the same, but specialized particularly in the huge role sexual selection played during our evolutionary history.

Experienced scientist and science journalist Matt Ridley compiled these findings of evolutionary psychology (EP) for the lay reader in 1993 - and "Red Queen" is still a timely treatise. Disclaimer: For those who are offended by the very suggestion that our behavior evolved from a pre-ape ancestor - and that our behavior is an elaborate, sophisticated manifestation of language and socialization which evolved by natural selection along with a huge brain - you won't like this book.

I realize the following assessments of mine are anecdotal, but here goes: I have seen how men and women preen, peacock-like, showing off their best (?) sides during courtships, and how they pair off in society according to commonly accepted determinants of status, differing depending on sex. I have seen how the competitive, power-seeking behavior of men is drastically tempered by marriage. I have seen how married men who are careful in all other endeavors will take uncharacteristic risks for a sexual fling. I have observed how women tend to choose (in a mate) financial success and stability over looks (if they have to choose), whereas men tend to choose beauty over all else. I have seen how men and women differ in their outlooks: Men (generally) want to be practical, shrewd, assertive, dominating, competitive, critical, and self-controlled. Women (usually) want to be loving, affectionate, impulsive, sympathetic, and generous. One in three men said they had fantasized about having sex with more than a thousand women in their lives. Women overwhelmingly fantasize about having sex with a familiar partner. I have read about and subsequently observed how people (unconsciously?) score each other during their social interactions, rating relationship values for the future. Finally, game theory concepts are widely known to be utilized by humans in sexual and social interactions. All these concepts are predicted by EP. I could go on with other examples, but in short, I'm a sucker for EP.

Recently, I have read about resistance in university humanities departments to EP - humans being so special and all. We are - in the sense that our intelligence has given us free reign over our world - but humans are still very imperfect. We are poorly designed in many ways (backs, knees, tendency to war, self-delusion) - exactly what one would expect from evolution. Cockroaches or certain scorpions, which can live without food and water for almost a year, are also impressive. There is every reason to believe that our (at times) unethical sexual behavior as well as our superior intelligence evolved in just as Rube-Goldberg a fashion as did our (very complicated and redundant) blood clotting mechanism.

Anyway, this book is superb. I will close, since I could end up nattering on for more pages than most would want to read. Consider moving "Red Queen" closer to the top of your TBR list. A Best Buy.
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106 of 120 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Dramatic and surprising, September 30, 2000
By Catpeople "catpeople" (Aguascalientes, Mexico) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (Paperback)
"Men and women have different minds - says Matt Ridley in one of the central chapters of his book-. The differences are the direct result of evolution. Women's minds (and bodies, as he states in a previous pharagraph) evolved to suit the demands of beraring and rearing children and of gathering plant and food. Men's minds (and bodies) evolved to suit the demands of rising in a male hierarchy, fighting over women and providing meat to a family".

To arrive to this and other conclusions, Ridley goes a long and difficult way through biology, genetics and continents, starting with a basic question: why is there sex at all? After all, many species reproduce without it. The first three or four chapters of "The Red Queen" may be a little onerous, but apparently they are necessary to support the last ones.

This is a book about evolution with a focus on human sexuality and the human mind. Everything on humans - our bodies, our behavior towards the opposite sex, even our minds and social rules - is a direct result of a process called sexual selection that allows the reproduction of the fittest, therefore transmiting their genes to the next generations.

When answering why there is sex at all and how men and women's bodies and minds evolved in the last million years, we come to many uncomfortable truths about adultery, rape, incest and life. Why do more rich men marry beautiful women and not the other way around? Why have the attempts to sell pornogrphy to women and romantic novels to men failed? And above all this: why did evolution produce different minds in men a women?

Take all of the above and pack it with a red cover, and you have one of the most amazing readings of the year.

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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars If you're deciding whether to buy this book..., November 21, 2003
By David Relyea (Den of Ham, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (Paperback)
To summarize anything I might say below - this is an incredible book. Mind-blowing. If you're reading reviews (as I do) trying to find the few people who didn't love the book so you can have an "unbiased" view, very good for you. (that's how I choose books, usually) My unbiased view is this - I *very rarely* give out fives. This is one of the few books that deserves it.

Matt Ridley explains in the epilogue of The Red Queen that half of his ideas are probably wrong, just like those of Freud, Jung, and many others. But this common-sense attitude, projected onto the evolution of reproduction, is EXACTLY what about this book makes it so incredible.

Ridley is grounded in a reality unfettered by religion, social science, social mores, or really any sort of external "moral" influence. (Not that he's the antichrist or anything - he's just not letting standard social concepts influence his ideas.) A few people who don't usually want to accept reality (ultra-conservatives) will hate this book. Fine. If you believe in creationism, go elsewhere. Otherwise, read this book! This is not a political or an ideological work - this is a scientific text on human evolution, and how it has been influenced by sex.

I have been able to RIVET people with discussions of facts and theories from this book. It's the best money I've spent on a single book in quite a long while. And in case I sound like way too much of a suck-up - I haven't read any of Ridley's other works, not because I haven't bought them, but because I looked through them in bookstores, and every one I looked at seems either uninteresting, wrong, or awful. But this one is GREAT!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Fascinating Book
This is an excellent book. Every few paragraphs or so along the way, you are almost forced to stop reading so as to give yourself more time to think about and digest the truly... Read more
Published 5 days ago by Sean Fraser

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, if a bit slow
The title says it all. It's a really good book, but at times, it seems like the author introduces ideas merely so he can throw them out two paragraphs later. Read more
Published 10 days ago by Ian N. Gorham

3.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing title, rambling voice.
Used for my Human Sexual Behavior Class. Interesting ideas but ultimately drags on. I only had to read a few chapters for class so it wasn't extended suffering. Read more
Published 1 month ago by N. Adlman

4.0 out of 5 stars interesting
This was one of the more interesting books I've read, for sure. It is very detailed and ties in a lot, linking everything to...sex. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Ksig

5.0 out of 5 stars Red Queen.
I found this an absolutely facinating read. It's about the evolution of human nature and about sexual politics, in my opinion. Read more
Published 5 months ago by A. Wilson

5.0 out of 5 stars fun nonfiction
before i read this book, i preferred to read fiction. this book changed my mind, nonfiction can be just as fun. Read more
Published 8 months ago by R. Hoang

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, Creative, Concise
Whether you buy into the "Red Queen" theory or not, Matt Ridley perfectly describes evolution in terms anyone can understand, in an organized and metaphorical way. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Grace Defloreis

2.0 out of 5 stars very well-researched, but badly written and diluted
i find the title of the book disturbingly misleading. i expected a lot more discussion on what the title says (ie sex and the evolution of human nature) and on the possible links... Read more
Published 11 months ago by petIQe

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book.
just a short review, I've had this book for about 3 years and just not getting to do a review. If you like evolutionary stuff this is the book for you. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Oscar Sebastian Reyes

5.0 out of 5 stars Will change your concept of reality
If you are buying this book because it is on a PU reading list or on Style's recommended reading list, your reality of male and female interactions will change. Read more
Published 17 months ago by H. La

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