Rating: 
Summary: Kudos to Morris!
Review: "Richard Morris outlines where the real action is - not whether evolution happened, but how it happened and what the implications are for our lives. After you read this book you will be compelled to continue watching the drama unfold." -Michael Shermer, publisher, Skeptic Magazine"Exhilarating." -Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times "Morris' vivid conversational style and remarkable erudition across a wide range of disciplines carry the reader willingly along." -Los Angeles Times I have to agree with the writing style. I was unable to put the book down. My highest praise and my appreciation. - Richard Avis Brown
Rating: 
Summary: get up-to-date on the theory of evolution
Review: As a medical writer with a background in biological sciences, I have harbored an avid interest in developments and advances in the theory of evolution, especially with respect to human evolution. Decades ago, when I was an undergraduate, Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene (1976) had not yet attained its classic status and Stephen Jay Gould had barely published his second book, Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History (1979). While over the years I have struggled to keep abreast in the field, more often than not it has been difficult for me because of the availability of publications offering a bird's-eye view of the major ideas, personalities, and issues. You might understand, then, why I was pleased to come across Richard Morris' book. It brought me up-to-date, quickly, painlessly, on the theory of evolution. The book provides clear, concise information in key areas. First, it offers a pinpoint summary of Darwin's theory. Second, it gives a short history of the dispute, bordering on the comical, between Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould. It also engages the reader in an entertaining narrative about the roles of other important players in the controversy. Third, it shows the relevance of the sciences of complexity to the theory of evolution, suggesting the vast potential for scientific cross-fertilization. Fourth, it looks at the lively debates surging around the relatively new field of evolutionary psychology. Finally, it attempts at the end to bring the reader up to the very edge of progress in the evolutionary sciences, although the information in the concluding chapter is, of course, by now dated. All throughout, the author exhibits his deep assimilation of the scientific ethos of carefully qualified judgment, which suffuses the book with its persuasive tone. There are a few inaccuracies. For example, on page 36, Morris says that Homo Erectus lived until around 250,000 years ago, but Homo Erectus fossils recovered from Ngandong, Java have been carefully dated to 27,000 years old. There is also continuing debate about whether Australian fossils as recent as 10,000 years old indeed belong to late Homo Erectus. Occasionally, Morris tends to be repetitive and he uses some appropriate but trite examples. There are also scattered typos. His writing style could have been more interesting if the sentences were more varied in construction and length. Many passages appear where the sentences could have been combined into compound, complex, and compound-complex structures. Although none of the author's idiosyncrasies bothered me, they might exasperate other readers. I was very happy to read this book because it enabled me to accomplish my objective, which was to get up-to-date on the theory of evolution.
Rating: 
Summary: Good content; mediocre writing
Review: Good treatment of the current issues on evolution theory, with a particular focus on the bickering inside the neo-Darwinian orthodoxy. Morris summarizes the main positions well and is easy for a layperson to understand. The typos, redundancy, rhetoric, and occasionally awful grammer are sometimes a significant annoyance, but it would go too far to say that this really interferes with the reading.
Rating:
Summary: Worth Reading
Review: I agree with one reviewer that there are too many type errors and some redundancy, however, the redundancy serves to re-summarize the central issues between pluralism and reductionism. I couldn't get the author's e-mail address so I'll post my two points here: 1. Regarding Species Migration- If gaps have occurred in the fossil record due to species migration (which seems reasonable) then it should be a simple matter to go to a different region, but of similar historical climate and see if you can dig up similar or even intermediate fossils in the same sediment layers. Has any of this type of work been done to "fill in the gaps?" 2. The issue of Geographic vs. Ecological separation creating speciation- I believe the intent of theorizing the geographical separation within a species necessarily entails an ecological difference, without which there would be no reason for change. In the case of mountains thrust up near the ocean you can see how the mountains would create different climates on the ocean vs. inland sides necessarily creating an eco-change. And the difference between the bottom of a lake and the top provides the same divergence as any geographic separation possibly could. In this book, Morris has actually done a lot in showing how the Gould camp and Dawkins camp should actually be AGREEING on most issues. Emergent properties and complexity theory go hand-in-hand with reductionism and pure natural selection, as one builds on the other. They are not mutually exclusive.
Rating:
Summary: A searchlight in the night
Review: I found this book to be a godsend. I have read extensively (30 + books) in the areas of complexity and chaos theory, evolutionary psychology,evolutionary theory, genetic programming, evolutionary history, genetic mutation, and other related areas and frequently felt lost in the forest of ideas, though increasingly familiar with each tree, twig, and type of bark (to extend the analogy). Richard Morris does an admirable job of describing the forest, and helped give me a context to understand the (frequently high-decibel!) arguements between the advocates of different positions. Right from the start, Morris categorizes thinkers into broad schools -- for example, among evolutionary theorists he groups the disputatants into two broad schools: pluralists and reductionists. He clearly explains the differences between these, and does so without himself becoming polemical. He even devotes space to very recent studies (1999 & 2000) casting light on 'which way the evidence points.' Morris sidesteps the creationists (thank you!) and examines differences within the scientific community itself. Many familiar names appear within this book: John Maynard Smith, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Steven Pinker, Niles Eldridge, Steven Jay Gould (of course!), Richard Lewontin, Charles Darwin himself and others. I was surprised at a few names that did NOT appear: Jared Diamond, Benoit Mandelbrot, Brian Fagan, John Koza and Terrence W. Deacon, just to name a few.... But my gratitude for Morris's very clear guide overwhelms my quibbles. Those of us who stumble from book to book trying to understand the issues and the reasons for disagreements (not to mention the development of various lines of thought!) have long needed an overview like this one!
Rating:
Summary: A searchlight in the night
Review: I found this book to be a godsend. I have read extensively (30 + books) in the areas of complexity and chaos theory, evolutionary psychology,evolutionary theory, genetic programming, evolutionary history, genetic mutation, and other related areas and frequently felt lost in the forest of ideas, though increasingly familiar with each tree, twig, and type of bark (to extend the analogy). Richard Morris does an admirable job of describing the forest, and helped give me a context to understand the (frequently high-decibel!) arguements between the advocates of different positions. Right from the start, Morris categorizes thinkers into broad schools -- for example, among evolutionary theorists he groups the disputatants into two broad schools: pluralists and reductionists. He clearly explains the differences between these, and does so without himself becoming polemical. He even devotes space to very recent studies (1999 & 2000) casting light on 'which way the evidence points.' Morris sidesteps the creationists (thank you!) and examines differences within the scientific community itself. Many familiar names appear within this book: John Maynard Smith, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Steven Pinker, Niles Eldridge, Steven Jay Gould (of course!), Richard Lewontin, Charles Darwin himself and others. I was surprised at a few names that did NOT appear: Jared Diamond, Benoit Mandelbrot, Brian Fagan, John Koza and Terrence W. Deacon, just to name a few.... But my gratitude for Morris's very clear guide overwhelms my quibbles. Those of us who stumble from book to book trying to understand the issues and the reasons for disagreements (not to mention the development of various lines of thought!) have long needed an overview like this one!
Rating:
Summary: Great book on Evolution
Review: I have read many books on the evolution theory and this is by far the best written and the most easily understandable. This book is food for the hungry curious mind if one wants to learn how evolution has evolved since Darwin's theory in 1859. It introduces us to the world of scientists and their way of expressing skepticism about claims made by other scientists. As Richard Morris said that is the only way that science can progress. I really enjoyed the details concerning the herd of elephant overrunning the world in no more than a few thousand years if all of the offspring lived to maturity. Or better the story of the brainworm, a parasite infecting sheeps, eaten by snails, whose mucus worm larvae is eaten by ants, who then crawl up a stem of grass, and wait there patiently until a sheep makes a feast with it. What about the species of ants which makes slaves, others maintain fungus farms and some other "milk" their owns. Why do you help your neighbor or give money to the homeless, why does the house sparrow have a different wingspan depending on where they live, What about the story of Mendel and his peas? Did you know that Mendel was an Austrian monk who discovered the genetic inheritance before Darwin? Richard Morris introduces us slowly to the evolution theory' scientific terms, which for a layman are very inspiring: Do you know what a spandrel is? What is the Wason Selection Task? The Cambrian era? What is Dr. Kettelwell experiment with moths and his findings? Who are the parents of the mule? What is a hinny and who are its parents? What is a tetrapod? Why are the same bones seen in the leg of a frog, in the wing of a bat and in the arm and hand of a human being? How new scientific disciplines like complexity theory and evolutionary psychology have emerged? Everything about the fossils creation, the radioactive dating and all the function of DNA and much more are explained. As Richard Morris said: "The essence of science, after all is questioning, not the creation of rigid theories that have hardened into dogma." We, all of us are part of the Evolution, if you want to see where it stands now, read this book. I am not going to give you all the answers, they are or sometimes are not in this book and you better see for yourself, and buy it! I almost forgot I have only one little problem with this book, I am French and had to run to my dictionary for many words! I hope it will be translated into French very soon. Yvette Lemoine
Rating:
Summary: Extraordinary overview
Review: I recommend this book as background reading for my evolutionary psychology students, since so many of them--like most people, even the well educated--have no idea of what is really going on in research on evolution. I don't think students--or anyone else--should be talking about evolutionary psychology unless they understand the state-of-the-art in the sciences of evolution. Outside of science, people seem to think the "big question" is whether evolution is a fact. The cognoscenti pride themselves on knowing that it is, looking down upon religious fideists of various sorts who claim otherwise. And vice versa. Within science, though, that question does not even appear. That evolution is a set of facts to be explained, not a hypothesis up for grabs, was settled within science a century ago. For real scientists, the real debates--the real efforts to understand reality--take place over very different questions, and the various research programs differ very significantly. This book is a nice overview of some of the leading issues. If you are under the illusion that the debate is about whether evolution takes place, you will find this book kind of ho-hum. But thinking that makes about as much sense as being ho-hum about Newton vs. Einstein. That would be like thinking, "Newton and Einstein didn't disagree on whether gravity exists, so this is just infighting among people who differ only in emphasis." In fact, Newton v. Einstein matters a great deal--as do the controversies explained in this book. Just as Einstein's discoveries made possible many developments we would never even have been able to conceive within Newtonian physics, so the eventual truths uncovered by the various competing research programs in evolution will determine a great deal about our ability to understand and shape our lives. Scientists, of course, are human, and they can want for themselves all sorts of things besides scientific truth, including fame, influence, and the financial rewards of being popular celebrities. (Science journals do not pay for articles. Pop venues do. Science books rarely make much money. Lots of pop writing on science does.) Sadly, too many of the scientists, when they turn to writing for popular audiences, grossly misrepresent science, and they sometimes just get mean. Within the popular press--even the highly respectable sanctums of the intelligentsia, like The New York Review of Books--writers need not meet elementary rules of scientific writing. Routinely, they don't. They exaggerate their own claims, minimize the evidence for the claims of others, and claim to have proven grand things that every real scientist in the world knows they haven't--and that they don't even claim themselves in their scientific writing! And they do not necessarily play fair with their opponents. In the evolution debates, they have basically reduced themselves to insulting each others mothers. Richard Morris does a nice job of avoiding such scientifically useless vituperation, helping us see where the real issues lie and what makes each possibility promising. Of course, anyone who wants can complain about Morris's principles of selection. Personally, I wish he had not overlooked increased scientific interest in sexual selection, especially since there is evidence to show that the leading way of reconciling it with natural selection is less than clearly true. But that's really neither here nor thre. The important thing is that he has made clear what real research within science is about. If you are a lay person who wants a fair overview of current issues involved in our efforts to understand human life, this is a very helpful accomplishment. If, though, you have no interest in understanding how life works, just an interest in priding yourself on already accepting evolution, you will find this book boring. Evolutionary thinking promises to open exhilirating new vistas on our lives. The new areas of research it has opened even in the last twenty years--which are certainly decades away from yielding conclusive results--give us the chance to understand ourselves and our world as never before. For those sciences to do their work, though, they need for all of us to understand why they matter, what they may accomplkish, and what they haven't yet achieved. They need that so we support them and make their work possible. That being said, it follows that Morris has made a contribution to the future of our species--insofar as this book helps people see beyond the cant and mutual ill-will that fills public debate, to understand that evolution is a set of sciences, not a settled body of knowledge, from which we can eventually learn immense amounts.
Rating: 
Summary: Can't see the forest for the trees?
Review: Morris' book is just another example of the worthless rhetoric that is put forth surrounding the controversial subject of evolution. Evolution, outside of limited variation, is NOT a fact. This book is dripping with ignorance. Invest your money in a coloring book - it's much more educational.
Rating:
Summary: Popular science writing?
Review: The Evolutionists is an endlessly repetitive, poorly organized book, replete with spelling and grammatical errors. Worse, it is an uninspired introduction to a fascinating and important topic. Morris appears to have expended as little effort as possible researching this book, and evinces only a facile understanding of the issues he engages. The Evolutionsists reads like a third-rate middle school book report. It's about 5 pages of content morphed into 200+ pages of text (how many times can Morris report exactly the same findings about stickleback fish? I lost count...). Though not popular science writing at its worst (Morris at least comes across as a neutral reporter, and his facts are generally correct), the Evolutionists is popular science writing at its most mediocre. What a disappointment. Are Morris' other books this lame?
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