The Encyclopedia of Evolution: Humanity's Search for Its Origins

This book really is a treasure. Richard Milner's encyclopedia is both entertaining and educational. And it's fun. There is no reason the intellectual adventure can be fun. And Milner's book is wonderful. Richard Milner isn't delivering a book for technical specialists who know the theory anyway, he writing for the intelligent layman and uses wit, humour and sparkling ideas to home deliver one of the biggest ideas of all, Darwin's theory of evolution. Along the way Milner takes us on side trips to see how the theory of evolution itself evolved, to see how evolution has impacted both religion (and not just Christianity) and popular culture. He introduces us to some of the great characters who have played a role in the rise of evolution. Science is a human enterprise, not a pursuit for robots, and humans like to have fun.

Danger: This encyclopedia is habit-forming. I try to stop at just one entry, but each one is so very interesting that it leads me to more cross-referenced entries and then still more. All in all it seems very even-handed in its tone and treatment of the various contentious theories and theorists. It is indispensable for anyone working with evolution, no matter how versant in evolutionary history, and eminently readable for nonspecialists. The only negative criticism I have of the book is that it lacks an index in the back so that one could track a thread. The cross-references at the end of each article are not as exhaustive as I'd like, so a word index to find every mention of a concept should definitely be considered for subsequent editions.

If you're interested in biological evolution, this is a book you've got to have. A huge collection of articles, arranged alphabetically, but each one interesting in itself. And many are fascinating. It's written for common folks, like me, but few compromises are made with scientific precision. Of special interest to many will be the biographical sketches (of "losers" like Lysenko as well as "winners" up to an including both Charles and Erasmus Darwin). Also covers a lot of frauds and hoaxes (e.g., Piltdown Man). You'll have fun. And even professional evolutionary biologists can expect to learn a lot.