The Descent Of Man
By Charles Darwin
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The best books on human evolution and the human story
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Browse the best books on human evolution as recommended by authors, experts, and creators. Along with notes on why they recommend those books.
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By Charles Darwin
The best books on human evolution and the human story
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By Greg Bear
I guess this book is officially qualified as ‘science fiction’ but I think of it instead as great fiction that appreciates and then grabs the very edges of our current knowledge and extends them like a wild rubber band in ways that captivate. Bear takes some of the guesses and hints about what lies within the 95% of our DNA that at first seems to have no clear ‘purpose’ and imagines it is part of a sensor that is able to catalyze the creation of new versions of life in response to the kinds of dramatic stressors— climate change, etc—…
The best novels that integrate science in accurate, or at least plausible, and creative ways
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By Herman Pontzer
The best popular science books to make yourself health-fad proof
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By Loren Eiseley
This book is a revelation! The author (1907-1977) was a scientist (a naturalist, anthropologist, and paleontologist), and, boy, could he write. The title refers to the arc of time on this planet. There are chapters that describe and ponder fossils, evolution, so-called missing links, “the great deeps,” and so forth in the most captivating, poetic language. But the chapter to read is “How Flowers Changed the World.” I consider it the most important and insightful essay ever written on the dramatic arrival of angiosperms (flowering plants)—because he takes into account all context, and because he marvels. As we should.
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By Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was one of the best science fiction writers of all time. When I began writing, I told myself I would consider myself a success if I could produce even one story as good as any of his. More than Human is quite possibly his best work. It's a story of the next stage in human evolution, the creation of a gestalt being whose sum is greater than its individual parts. And unlike most stories about advanced beings, these don't come to a bad end, nor do they take over the world. Sturgeon loved his characters and treated them…
The best classic science fiction books that bear re-re-reading
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By Robert J. Richards
I often find well-researched histories of ideas invaluable as quarries for enhanced understanding and intellectual inspiration. This book is an exceptionally useful history of some key Darwinian ideas. Its principal focus is on evolutionary theories of mind, morality, and behavior, which have massive implications for the further development of the social sciences today. Richards sketches the intellectual background of Darwin’s thought in the nineteenth century, showing how he distanced himself from utilitarian approaches to moral and psychological analysis. The contrast with Herbert Spencer is particularly pertinent. But even more so, Darwin’s anti-utilitarianism remains highly relevant today, as much of social…
The best books on the seismic implications of Darwinism for social science
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