Genesis

A magisterial history of social evolution... A lucid, concise overview of human evolution that focuses on the true source of our pre-eminence: the ability to work together * Kirkus * Engaging . . . Wilson inspires awe with narratives about evolution and animal societies. * Nature * In his characteristically clear, succinct and elegant prose, one of our grand masters of synthesis, E. O. Wilson, here explains no less than the origin of human society. -- Richard Rhodes, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb' Genesis is a beautifully clear account of a question that has lain unsolved at the core of biology ever since Darwin: how can natural selection produce individuals so altruistic that, rather than breeding themselves, they help others to do so? In elegant, simple language Edward O. Wilson distills a magisterial knowledge of animal diversity into an unambiguous argument that the solution is group selection. Rich in accounts of extraordinary societies, Genesis is the ideal introduction to a problem of enduring fascination. -- Richard Wrangham, author of 'The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution' Endlessly fascinating, Edward O. Wilson-in the tradition of Darwin-plumbs the depths of human evolution in a most readable fashion without sacrificing scholarly rigor. -- Michael Ruse, author of 'A Meaning of Life'