Evolution: The First Four Billion Years

It's really too bad that Harvard University Press does not possess the in-house expertise and judgment to have stopped the production of this book, and to rethink how best to package its substantial content. As others here have noted, the book is really an (excellent) hodgepodge of a variety of essays and other material. Hidden in this thick tome is a wonderfully useful encyclopedia on evolution written by the best minds in the field. Imagine how much more accessible--and influential--this encyclopedia would have been if Harvard UP had been able to package it as a digital product on the Internet! Instead, this $40 book will languish on the shelves of a relative handful of academic libraries, and in scholarly bookstores for purchase. The result? A scholarly press creates a product that by its nature will gain scant attention in schools, and instead 100s of amateurs are writing material for the Internet--of much inferior quality--that are getting thousands of visits a week by Web-surfing students wishing to learn more about evolution.

Is this the best that a scholarly press can do in providing access to information? The excellent content of this book screams for a better way to present it than in its current form. Whether on the Internet as a subscription-based searchable database, or on people's Kindles as inexpensive ebooks, the material in this book should be out there vigorously contributing to the general education on evolution, and in influencing the current discussion. Instead, it will be purchased only by the relative handful of serious students of evolution and by the better academic libraries willing to spend $40 for an unwieldy 1000-page monster.

Let me start by affirming that I would be regarded as what one author in this book, Eugenie C. Scott, persistently calls antievolutionist (p.370, ff). That label, however, covers the entire spectrum of opponents of Darwinism, who differ in various ways, especially in that only some reject evolution as a whole, while many reject its purported mechanism.

This mechanism is set down firmly in the Foreword by Edward O. Wilson (p.vii): "So solidly have the fields of biology built upon the Darwinian conception of evolution that it makes sense today to recognize it as one of the two laws...that govern our understanding of life. The first law is that all the elements and processes that define living organisms are ultimately obedient to the laws of physics and chemistry... The second law...is that all elements and processes defining living organisms have been generated by evolution through natural selection."

The questioning of natural selection is the most common objection of opponents. Less common is questioning that all is governed by the laws of physics and chemistry, a questioning that comprises virtual heresy. The known argument against natural selection is that organisms are not the implied result of "blind" natural forces, but are the product of "intelligent design". It is not a clear part of this argument that if natural forces alone are not held adequate for the formation of organisms, then an additional creative force should be posited.

This reviewer has consistently tried to call attention to another factor concerning "our understanding of life" (see 2nd paragraph above): that among the "elements and processes defining living organisms" are their live activities, directed at self-preservation. The cause of this goal-directed, purposive, process can justifiably be regarded as a force distinct from the undirected natural forces solely responsible for lifeless events, in agreement somewhat with Henri Bergson's vital force ("élan vital", pp.446-7 of the book now reviewed), to which "[t]oday, few would openly subscribe".


It should accordingly be reiterated that the foremost law "that govern[s] our understanding of life" is the great property distinguishing it from the lifeless: the purpose of self-preservation. Yet it is sad to say that the index of this massive tome on life includes neither self-preservation nor purpose. I marked the volume for two stars because of its rich scholarship regardless, aided by many illustrations.

This book begins with a collection of essays, some of which are quite interesting, though they don't "hang together" too well. The Alphabetical Guide, which comprises about 60% of the book, is where the real disappointment begins. The Guide isn't indexed and so you must literally look at every page to see what topics are discussed. I'm not sure who wrote the essays in the Alphabetical Guide, most aren't credited to anyone, and are too general to be of much use. The book's dust jacket is misleading because it shows pictures of dinosaurs when the book contains very little information about dinosaurs and the scant four page discussion in the Alphabetical Guide portion of the book is worthless. And, of course, there is little discussion of individual dinosaur species. Similarly, the three pages about Charles Darwin is also shallow. One could mine more interesting information about Darwin after five minutes of Googling than is provided here; there are no insights--nothing special. Since the early 1990's, it has been all but unanimously accepted that the K-T extinction was caused by a boloid. This was due to the rigorous research done worldwide by many scientists verifying the hypothesis proposed by the geologist Walter Alvarez and his father Luis, the Nobel prize winning physicist. Yet, this important discovery and the fascinating story behind it gets little more than a page. An understanding of geology and global warming and cooling periods is crucial to an understanding of evolution, yet there is no focused discussion of these topics. With the bold title "The First Four Billion Years", I would expect an expansive treatment of all of the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic periods and the current understanding of the life forms that evolved during them. Instead, the book uses a vast number of pages giving us the condensed biographies of Goldschmidt, Goethe, Galton, Frisch, Kettlewell, Kimura and dozens of other dead geneticists, biologists, physicians, philosophers and others who, though they played some role in the evolution of our understanding of evolution, take up too much space in a book that I would have preferred to be more about science than about people. All in all, this book would make a good bathroom reader if it were published as a paperback.

If this book is ever revised then I would recommend the following changes:

* additional essays on the topics that I suggested above and others
* gut some of the filler, e.g. the biographies
* index and summarize the Alphabetical Guide after getting rid of most of it
* add appendices which would include a glossary, good geological and evolutionary timelines, trees of life, location of continental masses through the eons and perhaps other reference material not included in the essays
* index all important charts, tables, drawings
* use color, if only sparingly; I realize that this is a bargain-priced book but it should take a few steps up from the basement

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

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.