Evolution

The First Four Billion Years

Edited by Michael Ruse

Edited by Joseph Travis

Foreword by Edward O. Wilson

    If ever there were an education in a book, there's one in this massive volume...What is most probably the commemorative par excellence of the Origin of Species sesquicentennial.
       --Ray Olson, Booklist (starred review)

    Half essay collection, half encyclopedia, it's packed with everything you'll ever want or need to know about the science of evolution.
       --Zelda Roland, Wired

    Broad, engaging, and useful.
       --Gregg Sapp, Library Journal

    Evolution, which is slightly less than 1,000 pages long, covers almost every angle of its huge subject, from the perspective of science, religion, philosophy, and history.
       --Evan R. Goldstein, Chronicle of Higher Education

    Harvard's blockbuster contribution to the Darwin anniversary is a substantial work at almost a thousand pages.
       --London Review of Books

    Evolution: The First Four Billion Years is as equally inviting and particularly timely in this bicentennial year of the birth of Charles Darwin and the ever-bubbling controversy with advocates of a creationist explanation for the mysteries of biology...The 16 explaining essays, followed by the second encyclopedic section offer the reader an easily and enjoyable access to what the fuss is all about and why it is important to get one's own opinions based on reality. Life, after all, is too important.
       --James Srodes, Washington Times

    More than 100 authors contribute to the rich variety of excellent articles in this highly commendable and scholarly volume. The authors explore in detail evidence supporting the role of natural selection and other forces driving evolutionary change, and consider myriad controversies and unresolved issues in evolutionary science. Illustrative examples are drawn from all levels of life on Earth. The book critically examines distinctions between microevolution--which even religious Fundamentalists generally do not dispute--and the far more contentious macroevolution. Contributors also address the influence of evolution on philosophy, sociology, and religion and provide an excellent discussion of American antievolutionism and the ongoing controversy of teaching evolution versus intelligent design/creationism in schools.
       --D. A. Brass, Choice

  • Cover: Evolution
  • A photo of the author

photo of Michael Ruse (top)
and Joseph Travis (bottom)

Michael Ruse is Lucyle T. Werkmeister Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science, Florida State University. He is the founder and editor of the journal Biology and Philosophy, and has appeared on “Quirks and Quarks” and the Discovery Channel.

Joseph Travis is Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of Biological Science at Florida State University.

Edward O. Wilson is Pellegrino University Professor at Harvard University. In addition to two Pulitzer Prizes (one of which he shares with Bert Hölldobler), Wilson has won many scientific awards, including the National Medal of Science and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.