Evolution: The First Four Billion Years

Comprehensive and readable. This book is a great resource for those who, like me, find that evolution makes sense of the world without in any way diminishing its grandeur.

Got through the first half of the book, the long essays and I have to say that I am pleased with the material. I haven't gotten to the part on evolution and religion yet, but due to the 'political correctness' in the book, the two chapters covering that topic will most-likely not be too good. I'm a hard core scientist, evolution by natural selection, PERIOD! There is NO acceptable middle ground. I am so hard core that to be called a 'scientist' (the real kind), you MUST believe in evolution by natural selection, if you are a person of faith, YOU ARE NOT A SCIENTIST, you are a creationist, PERIOD! No middle ground here. I even go as far as stating that if you are persons of faith, you have NO BUSINESS CALLING YOURSELF SCIENTISTS and taking jobs away from us who are the real deal. That is not to say that there have not been successful creations doing science, there were, Einstein was a perfect example. However, DO NOT call yourself scientists, you are creationists and it is VERY offensive when you folk marginalize and usurp 'TRUE' scientists belief systems as your own. Religious folk and your war mongering beliefs, GO AWAY! Dr. Thomas Parker

There's a lot here in this book's almost 1000 pages. The first 400 pages are 16 chapters (about 25 pages each) by a variety of authors. You'll see chapters on "The History of Evolutionary Thought", "Molecular Evolution", "American Antievolutionism: Retrospect and Prospect", for example. The quality and style varies somewhat: some chapters are more technical than others. You will get some overlap. It's not quite as effective as if it were all written by the same person or pair of people, but it does cover, as it needs to, a broad ground, and does so very well. Following these 16 chapters you get a 500+ page Alphabetical Guide. This covers ideas, people, nature, etc. So you get about a page and a half on Richard Dawkins, 3 1/2 pages on Stephen Jay Gould, a page on Thomas Malthus, two pages on Bishop Wilberforce, etc. Nothing, curiously, on Lysenko, although he is mentioned at a number of points in the book. There are entries on Crustacea, Insects, Homology, Natural Theology, Piltdown Man, etc. This is a fine book both for detailed reading and also for browsing as well: a good and worthy book for you library shelves!

I came across this book recently by accident in the bookstore and was both surprised and very impressed at its coverage. Not only is this book a wonderful encyclopedia of both historical and current thinking in evolutionary biology, but it accomplishes this great depth and breadth in a single large but inexpensive volume. If you can only afford a small handful of books on life science, I suggest this should be one of them. Intended for the science educated but not neccessarily biological specialist reader. There are essays on concepts, controversies, applications, implications, links to other fields of science, links with the humanities and culture, just about everything that makes evolution such a dynamic and interesting field of study.

A compendium of fascinating essays on evolution followed by an alphabetical guide through the subject. An education in science, second only, in my view, to Christian de Duve's wonderful explanation of the subject in his book entitled "Life Evolving", published by Oxford a few years ago--not many years ago--it's worth reading today.