Sociobiology

Abridged Edition

Edward O. Wilson

    When Sociobiology was published in 1975, our reviewer, John Pfeiffer, hailed it as 'an evolutionary event.' Since then, it has become the framework for a controversial new science--the study of the biological basis for social behavior in every species, from the lowliest amoeba colony to modern human behavior. This shortened version, retaining all of Sarah Landry's illuminating drawings, makes it more accessible to general readers.
       --New York Times Book Review

    A towering theoretical achievement of exceptional elegance...Like most great books, Sociobiology is unpedantic, lucid, and eminently accessible.
       --Pierre L. van den Berghe, Contemporary Sociology

    The book enthralls and enchants...If you have this book...you can begin getting your mind ready for the illuminations about human society.
       --Lewis Thomas, Harper's

    Rarely has the world been provided with such a splendid stepping stone for an exciting future of a new science.
       --John Tyler Bonner, Scientific American

    Its contents do indeed provide a new synthesis, of wide perspective and great authority...Wilson's plain uncluttered prose is a treat to read, his logic is rigorous, his arguments are lucid.
       --V. C. Wymne-Edwards, Nature

    This book will stand as a landmark in the comparative study of social behavior.
       --Quarterly Review of Biology

    Sociobiology is an excellent book, full of extraordinary insights, and replete with the beauty and poetry of the animal kingdom.
       --Times Literary Supplement

    It is impossible to leave Wilson's book without having one's sense of life permanently and dramatically widened.
       --Fred Hapgood, The Atlantic

    Sociobiology, a new concept, is one with extraordinary potential value for understanding and explaining human behavior.
       --Practical Psychology

  • A photo of the author

Author photo: by Jon Chase/Harvard 1996

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.