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Summary: If you're deciding whether to buy this book...
Review: To summarize anything I might say below - this is an incredible book. Mind-blowing. If you're reading reviews (as I do) trying to find the few people who didn't love the book so you can have an "unbiased" view, very good for you. (that's how I choose books, usually) My unbiased view is this - I *very rarely* give out fives. This is one of the few books that deserves it.Matt Ridley explains in the epilogue of The Red Queen that half of his ideas are probably wrong, just like those of Freud, Jung, and many others. But this common-sense attitude, projected onto the evolution of reproduction, is EXACTLY what about this book makes it so incredible. Ridley is grounded in a reality unfettered by religion, social science, social mores, or really any sort of external "moral" influence. (Not that he's the antichrist or anything - he's just not letting standard social concepts influence his ideas.) A few people who don't usually want to accept reality (ultra-conservatives) will hate this book. Fine. If you believe in creationism, go elsewhere. Otherwise, read this book! This is not a political or an ideological work - this is a scientific text on human evolution, and how it has been influenced by sex. I have been able to RIVET people with discussions of facts and theories from this book. It's the best money I've spent on a single book in quite a long while. And in case I sound like way too much of a suck-up - I haven't read any of Ridley's other works, not because I haven't bought them, but because I looked through them in bookstores, and every one I looked at seems either uninteresting, wrong, or awful. But this one is GREAT!
Rating:
Summary: The Queen of Sex and the King of P.C.!
Review: Very interesting, very difficult to review. The types of people who will read this book are widely differant. I will attempt to provide a dynamic review from three prospectives. The layman will appreciate this book because everyone needs to understand this topic and this is THE book about how and why. The layman who is religious or spiritual, believes in free will, or enjoys the breathing room that hard science seems to infringe will also enjoy as Mr. Ridley's book as he leaves ample room here for a compatabilist point of view as well. Allow me to add that everybody needs to understand this stuff and this book is a 6 star as an introduction to evolutionary psychology. Compatibalism maybe a responsible position givin the state of the country with respect to education and belief structure and perhaps short term book sales. This book does not however have the precision of Dawkin's "Selfish Gene" that makes a science book timeless but then they rarely do. Mr. Ridley extrapolates some excellent ideas and insights he sees in the work of those in the field but misses to nail the conclusion once and for all. Many will miss the flaw in circular evolution arguement at the end of the book but that does not detract from the fact that this maybe the most upto date book there is on the subject. This brings me to the biologist.
Some friends of mine at Cal Tech and I have all read this book recently and everyone really enjoyed it. They however were more cautious than I as they are scientist and are sceptical of popular science books and rather read the journels themselves. For those of you who are not informed, Mr. Ridley is and excellent writer and has a firm understanding of the field as he used to be a scientist himself, he is not however a current field scientist which I am told makes a big differance. This seemed to be scientist snootyness at those who can actually communicate to the laymen the beauty of science better than the scientist. Suprisingly, they were actually impressed with Ridley much more than I. It's not that Ridley doesn't make a provocative arguement with great wit, which he does brilliently, but that he hasn't covered his bases properly like most scientist seem to. I have a hunch that this is a product of working in a university as a professior and scientist who is constantly under the pressure of his peers and bright students to keep the rhetoric in-line and iron out the kinks in the arguement.
The third reader is the intellectual. The book is Politically correct because if it wasn't, you wouldn't be reading it because you never would have seen it anywhere so I see no reason for complaint as evolutionary psychology needs to take smaller steps. Ridley presents ideas with a grounded undertanding of truth is science with respect to PC arguements. What he needs is to teach and spend more time debating with others before he can satisfy this groups desire to complain about minor imperfections while enjoying Ridleys ablity to clearly construct conflicting points of view. The bottom line is that everyone that does not read this book or one that succeeds it is at a strong disadvantage to those that do.
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Summary: Evolution explains human nature
Review: Why do we have sex? One of the pivotal questions in Science is tackled in this well written, informative and interesting read. Ridley refers to hundreds of sources to provide a well thought out, logical response. Ridley argues that the costly phenomenon of sex was "invented" by nature to combat that ever so simple, yet effective enemy: the bacterium (and other microscopic parasites). In his investigation he examines the behaviour of males and females, dwelling on their differences and how these have evolved to more effectively facilitate reproduction. He also examines the strategies used by each gender to acquire a "mate" and explains how these originated and how they explain our behavour in the present day. This book is a wealth of information that is a must for anyone fascinated by nature. The reader will be spell-bound by the discussion on various aspects of our humanity that have become so prominent from such humble beginnings.
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