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Edward O. Wilson

The Social Conquest of Earth Paperback – April 15, 2013

by Edward O. Wilson (Author)

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Book 1 of 3: The Anthropocene Epoch

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New York Times Bestseller and Notable Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Book of the Year (Nonfiction)
Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence (Nonfiction)

From the most celebrated heir to Darwin comes a groundbreaking book on evolution, the summa work of Edward O. Wilson's legendary career.

Sparking vigorous debate in the sciences, The Social Conquest of Earth upends “the famous theory that evolution naturally encourages creatures to put family first” (Discover). Refashioning the story of human evolution, Wilson draws on his remarkable knowledge of biology and social behavior to demonstrate that group selection, not kin selection, is the premier driving force of human evolution. In a work that James D. Watson calls “a monumental exploration of the biological origins of the human condition,” Wilson explains how our innate drive to belong to a group is both a “great blessing and a terrible curse” (Smithsonian). Demonstrating that the sources of morality, religion, and the creative arts are fundamentally biological in nature, the renowned Harvard University biologist presents us with the clearest explanation ever produced as to the origin of the human condition and why it resulted in our domination of the Earth’s biosphere. 90 illustrations

Print length

352 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Liveright
Publication date

April 15, 2013
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

0871403633
ISBN-13

978-0871403636
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Editorial Reviews

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"Wilson has done an impressive job of pulling all this evidence together and analyzing it. His interdisciplinary approach, his established scholarship, and his willingness to engage hot-button issues are all much in evidence in The Social Conquest of Earth…. His reflections on this subject are varied, original, and thought provoking―as is the rest of his book."
― Carl Coon, The Humanist

"I just finished The Social Conquest of Earth, a fabulous book."
― President Bill Clinton, New York Times

"Wilson offers a full explanation of his latest thinking on evolution. . . . The book is bound to stir controversy on these and other subjects for years to come."
― Sandra Upson and Anna Kuchment, Scientific American

"Once again, Ed Wilson has written a book combining the qualities that have brought his previous books Pulitzer Prizes and millions of readers: a big but simple question, powerful explanations, magisterial knowledge of the sciences and humanities, and beautiful writing understandable to a wide public."
― Jared Diamond, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs and Steel

"With his probing curiosity, his dazzling research, his elegant prose and his deep commitment to bio-diversity, Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist (The Ants) and novelist (The Anthill) Edward O. Wilson has spent his life searching for the evolutionary paths by which humans developed and passed along the social behaviors that best promote the survival of our species. His eloquent, magisterial and compelling new book offers a kind of summing-up of his magnificent career.... While not everyone will agree with Wilson’s provocative and challenging conclusions, everyone who engages with his ideas will discover sparkling gems of wisdom uncovered by the man who is our Darwin and our Thoreau."
― Henry L. Carrigan, Jr., BookPage.com

"A monumental exploration of the biological origins of the Human Condition!"
― James D. Watson

"A huge, deep, thrilling work, presenting a radically new but cautiously hopeful view of human evolution, human nature, and human society. No one but E. O. Wilson could bring together such a brilliant synthesis of biology and the humanities, to shed light on the origins of language, religion, art, and all of human culture."
― Oliver Sacks

"E. O. Wilson’s passionate curiosity―the hallmark of his remarkable career―has led him to these urgent reflections on the human condition. At the core of The Social Conquest of Earth is the unresolved, unresolvable tension in our species between selfishness and altruism. Wilson brilliantly analyzes the force, at once creative and destructive, of our biological inheritance and daringly advances a grand theory of the origins of human culture. This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in the intersection of science and the humanities."
― Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

"Wilson is a brilliant stylist, and his account of the rise of Homo sapiens and our species’ conquest of Earth is informative, thrilling, and utterly captivating."
― Rudy M. Baum, Chemical & Engineering News

About the Author

Edward O. Wilson (1929-2021) was the author of more than thirty books, including Anthill, Letters to a Young Scientist, and The Conquest of Nature. The winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, Wilson was a professor emeritus at Harvard University and lived with his wife in Lexington, Massachusetts.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Liveright; Reprint edition (April 15, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0871403633
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0871403636
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.3 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #200,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #338 in General Anthropology
- #515 in Anatomy (Books)
- #979 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)

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520 ratings

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Edward O. Wilson

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Regarded as one of the world’s preeminent biologists and naturalists, Edward O. Wilson grew up in south Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, where he spent his boyhood exploring the region’s forests and swamps, collecting snakes, butterflies, and ants—the latter to become his lifelong specialty. The author of more than twenty books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Ants" and "The Naturalist" as well as his first novel "Anthill," Wilson, a professor at Harvard, makes his home in Lexington, Massachusetts.

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Artyom

A must read book if you want to understand what makes us who we are

Reviewed in the United States on November 1, 2020

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What brought me to reading this book was Edward O. Wilson famous quote “We built a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions and godlike technology”

The book will tell you the complete story of what this quote represents in a concise format.

It’s definitely meant for an average reader, doesn’t require deep scientific knowledge but certain level of scientific literacy for sure.

You’ll love the book. Enjoy.

13 people found this helpful

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Phillip Skaga

We are the conquerors, now what?

Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2016

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This book is a logical prelude to, and continuation of thoughts in "The Meaning of Human Existence". In this one, written in 2007, can be seen much of the detail leading to Wilson's concern about human eusociality and our tech threatened future. The two together constitute one very lucid argument about concern humans should have about earth's future. This book is much more detailed and therefore more difficult to simply summarize. Chapter titles are one means of understanding a close relationship between the two as an argument from science about life now and in future. Coincidentally I read the second first and vice versa but from page one the commonality of an underlying argument is very clear. Our 'first conquest of earth' was a unique 'event' in the past 4+ billion years of earth's existence. That little summary alone makes this book worth the read even if not followed by 'meaning of human existence'.
The problem with books of this sort is that they do not have a much, much broader reader appeal. To ultimately stimulate broad human concern, let alone action, the messages must be almost universally understood by the billions of human now on earth and the millions more to come perhaps sooner than for which humanity can usefully plan. Change portrayed in both books fits an exponential curve covering billions of years with an asymptote not far away from the present. Kurzweil and others suggest that to be in or around 2050 CE, about three decades from 2016.

7 people found this helpful

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Jane K from Athens, GA

a most important book to read

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2013

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This is one of the most important books I've read in a long time. It lays out the fundamentals of humanity's biological and social evolution on this planet. Wilson states that humans are "by any conceivable standard...life's greatest achievement...are the mind of the biosphere, the solar system, and--who can say?--perhaps the galaxy." But we are creatures who have at once "...created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and god-like technology. We thrash about. We are terribly confused by the mere fact of our existence, and a danger to ourselves and to the rest of life."

In the beginning of the book, Wilson discusses eusociality, a stage of social evolution in which "group members are made up of multiple generations and are prone to perform altruistic acts as part of their division of labor." Humans are among the relatively few species on the planet ever to have evolved to a level of eusociality. (So are ants and bees, which are not given short shrift in the book.)

The main argument Wilson proposes is that eusociality has evolved by "group selection" and NOT by "inclusive fitness" (kin selection). Inclusive fitness was the accepted wisdom from around the 60s to the 90s. It says that, "kinship plays a central role in the origin of social behavior. In essence, it says that the more closely related individuals in a group are, the more likely they are to be altruistic and cooperative, hence the more likely are the species that formed such groups to evolve into eusociality." Inclusive fitness has "powerful intuitive appeal" but does not hold up to scientific scrutiny and mathematical evaluation, he argues.

Group selection, on the other hand, proposes that it is hereditary altruists forming "groups so cooperative and well-organized as to outcompete nonaltruist groups."

In the end, Wilson argues that human eusociality is a product of multilevel natural selection. "At the higher level of the two relevant levels of biological organization, groups compete with groups, favoring cooperative social traits among members of the same group. A the lower level, members of the same group compete with one another in a manner that leads to self-serving behavior. The opposition between the two levels of natural selection has resulted in a chimeric genotype in each person. It renders each of us part saint and part sinner." (p. 289)

The other important concept that is covered is that of "gene-culture coevolution," which deals with the causal relation between the evolution of genes and the evolution of culture--briefly, that "many properties of human social behavior are affected by heredity... and that the innate properties of human nature must have evolved as adaptations."

I've used mostly quotes from the book in writing this review because I didn't want to get it wrong. A couple of the chapters were difficult reading for me, so I read and re-read and looked stuff up on the Web to get a better understanding. It was definitely worth the effort.

This book should be one of the basic starting points for everyone who is interested in how humanity might understand itself better in order to leave aside some of the beliefs that are causing us to do so much damage.

10 people found this helpful

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Jody

Gotta read it!

Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2017

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This one is as fascinating as all his books are; although parts are a slug to get through because of the scientific names and detail. Probably a little much for younger readers.
Explains the concept of eusociality - meaning the caste organization of certain species (like the bee and the ant) and how that relates to us humans. Contains insights on how we homo sapiens have become social creatures and why other species haven't. Points out in so many ways how we developed from simplistic creatures to the complex order that we find ourselves now. So many surprising facts about human development as well as development of other life forms.
Stick with it and you'll be rewarded with a great fascinating look at humanity; even some facts that might apply to you personally!

2 people found this helpful

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Lindosland

Interesting, but Wilson has stolen the major ideas - from Keith (1948)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2015

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This is a good book, with many interesting facts presented. What I dislike about it is that Wilson is not contrite enough about his change of mind regarding group selection - I feel I want an apology for the the fact that he, a figure of authority in the field, got it wrong, and is as responsible as anyone for holding back correct ideas for half a century (that goes for Dawkins too, who still denies group selection)! He would argue that he and his team now have the mathematical proof that group selection can work, but I doubt that proof; just as I doubt Ronald Fisher's proof regarding gene pools which has been trotted out as the basis for the 'Modern Synthesis', even though the modern synthesis was an idea propagated by a book of that title by Julian Huxley, and most of the major figures behind the modern synthesis have said either that they never read Fisher's book or that they never understood it! In both cases, my argument is not with the maths, but with the assumptions that it is based on - there are just too many cultural factors involved in sustaining groups and societies, like laws, and policing, and shaming - it isn't about just 'genes for altruism'.

Wilson should not only apologise, but he should also give full credit to those who gave us the idea of group selection long ago, in particular the Scotsman Sir Arthur Keith, who very expertly laid out the theory of group selection in his book 'A New Theory of Evolution' in 1948! Keith went on to justify war, and describe man as having a dual code which he called the 'Amity Enmity complex'. Keith saw war between tribes and cultures as essential . Wilson has stolen these ideas wholesale, and even uses the terms in-group and out-group, which Keith invented - without even a mention of Keith! I hurts to see Wilson being credited with a new idea! Wilson is bad crediting earlier workers in general, and non of the key names in sociology, psychology, or ethology appear in the index. No mention of Konrad Lorenz, famous founder of Ethology who wrote many books on human behaviour; or his famous disciples Nicolaas Tinbergen and Eibl Eibesfeldt (mentor of David Attenborough), or the key phenomenon of 'imprinting' studied by these workers (not to be confused with the unfortunate use of the term imprinting in epigenetics which though possibly part of the mechanism is not the phenomenon). Wilson talks of 'prepared learning' but with no mention of the imprinting concept or of the 'critical periods' involved (Lorenz famously realised that geese took the first thing they saw to be their mother, no matter how ridiculous, and later took it as their object of sexual attraction too.) John Bowlby, psychologist and Mary Ainsley identified what is known as 'attachment' in babies which involves a similar critical period.)

Wilson still talks of a 'gene for altruism', but since the reading of the human genome in 2000, everything in the world of genetics has changed. There are only 22,000 'genes' and half of those code for 'structural proteins' - the basic building blocks common to most creatures, and most of the rest are shared with other life forms - there are just non left to code for all the complexity of human life. Geneticists now talk of gene expression, and a whole new science of epigenetics has grown up over the last fifteen years, as has a whole new science of RNA - micro RNA's, long non-coding RNA and so on and on. Experts I have spoken to have said to me "ten years ago I thought I understood how genes work - now I haven't a clue". That's the general view; that it's much much more complicated than we ever dreamt! The idea of a 'gene for a characteristic' however you define 'gene', is dead! Wilson also talks of alternative 'alleles', but most genes only have at most a few alleles, and where they affect development it is generally for simple things determined by a change of protein, like eye colour, not subtle optimisation for survival.

What Wilson is good at is comparing humans to ants - he is of course the acknowledged expert on hymenoptera. I like the way he points out that an extraterrestrial landing on earth three million years ago would have been amazed by leaf-cutter ants, but considered australopith man to have little future (I paraphrase). He has brought us a very good understanding of how ant societies do not function as human ones do because of a big difference - selection does not occur between workers, who therefore do not compete among themselves; they are a function of the queen's genes. His idea that sociality requires a 'nest', which was initially the fire around which people gathered, is interesting, as is the fact that an ant could never start or carry fire - a matter of scale and getting burnt - and could therefore never build a technology.

34 people found this helpful

Mark Hayward

Intellectual charm

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 4, 2016

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I have most of Wilson's books. His style is elegant, and he writes in a way that is intellectually challenging to the non-specialist, but in a stimulating and charming way - I can almost hear his Alabama drawl. How can human social behaviour be discussed in relation to that of his favourite beasts, the ants? Read to find out. I return to Wilson's wisdom from time to time, keeping a short row of his books.

3 people found this helpful

Dr. G. Kennedy

Edward O. Wilson: from controversial scientist to sensible mainstream

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 4, 2014

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I remember the stir Wilson caused with Consilience way back and some of the disreputable incidents promoted by fellow professors urging their students to disrupt his lectures (at a University!).
Reading his mature work just now I feel his activist detractors (Profs Rose, etc.) should be ashamed of their conduct.
Social Conquest is a triumph of dogged research work and enlightening to scientists in other fields, as well as young entrants in gis own field.
Prof G.Kennedy

6 people found this helpful

fred

Science to the uninitiated. Why man and not the Ant?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 5, 2015

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Since the dawn of this earth, what has made man the winner against all odds. Science brought into everyone's living room. A human adventure in simple terms. Science spoken to the uninitiated scientist.

One person found this helpful

MR MICHAEL G EVERETT

A concise and thorough explanation

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 19, 2014

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Brilliant, I could not put it down.The information covereed the subject thoroughly, and helped me comprehend such an important issue.

3 people found this helpful

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