Amazon.com
"Many people have sex in mind a great deal of the time." Authors Malcolm Potts and Roger Short spent more than 15 years trying to understand and explain these passions. While not fully embracing biological determinism--that destiny is simply written in the genes--Potts and Short believe that evolutionary biology can help explain human behavior. In this book they focus on milestones in life's cycle, such as love, marriage, sex, pregnancy, birth, parenting, divorce, and death. Each of these complex behaviors is studied in turn and analyzed for its biological foundations and centuries of cultural modifications. Nearly 100 illustrations lend support to the authors' theories, and dozens of fascinating sidebars go into greater depth about everything from Siamese twins and cloning to wet-nursing and Viagra.
The book is not without its flaws: the authors' belief that most behaviors are biologically based leads them to make sexist conclusions at times--for example, they argue that a woman's interest in sports must primarily stem from a desire to please her man. They also maintain that evolutionary biology can suggest solutions to some of our most difficult problems, without suggesting what these solutions (or, indeed, problems) may be. That said, the authors do an excellent job of teasing out the twisted strands of nature and nurture that make us who we are. Though scholars may find the lack of footnotes frustrating, Ever Since Adam and Eve will pique the interest of educated readers. --C.B. Delaney
Book Description
Eminent scientists Malcolm Potts and Roger Short view the broad panorama of human sexual and reproductive behaviour to reveal an inextricable mixture of nature and nurture - a combination of innate actions which have evolved over the millennia to adapt us to a nomadic, hunter-gatherer lifestyle, overlain by more recent cultural constraints imposed by civilization. For each of life’s milestones - sexual intercourse, conception, pregnancy, birth, puberty, love, marriage, parenting, menopause and death - they describe the biology behind our actions and consider how pressures imposed by various historical and contemporary cultures have further influenced our behaviour. By looking back at the past they attempt to make sense of the present, to see how and why these cultural modifications arose, how they have contributed to the richness of human sexual behaviour, and what our biological and cultural inheritance can teach us about safeguarding the continuation of our species.
Customer Reviews:
Ever Since Adam and Eve.......2000-03-20
This book is a MUST for anyone who considers themselves an unbiassed thinker. If only there were a text like this when I was in college. It will appeal to anyone interested in anthropology, sociology and/or zoology. You don't have to agree with the arguments of the authors as they are the flavour enhancers of the proverbial "food for thought". The beauty of this book is it's personal affect of invading your waking and sleeping hours with questions. Wonderfully stimulating, the best thing I have read in AGES. What a legacy.
A great Outlook on sexual inhabitions and what drives them!.......1999-08-26
This book was written by my uncle who has always been an inspiration in my life. This book is just another extension of his Greatness! Malcolm Potts takes his work very seriously. I know that this book will and has already made changes in my life as far as human sexuality goes. It will make me take my sexual desires and actions to a new and much safer level.
veryprovacative,justone of thosebooksthathasrealityalloverit.......1999-08-03
the book was very touching.it made feel as if iwas far away from God, and it made me realize how far my relationship with God really was, and i'm just glad that Malcolm Potts and Roger Short brought me back to reality...
Stunning summary of the human condition from then to now.......1999-07-13
Of course there is nothing new under the sun...or is there? Better read this often funny, frequently irreverent book with remarkable sexual pictures and graphics. New syntheses must draw on past information. Like any masterpiece, these authors took lifetimes to acquire and understand the knowledge they now offer us in this complex, yet easy to read scientific recitation of human and other sexual histories. The book tells you about our evolutionary hsitory, that we are indeed descended from earlier animals and even earlier forms of life. They document that the main evolutionary drive for humans and mammals generally has been and is SEX, for the key to our existence is the need to produce the BEST next generation. For many this book will prove an epiphany of understanding, a creation of more reverence for life, but one not based on the mythology of religion, but on the clear facts of science. Don't miss it.
well written cultural anthroplogy.......1999-05-24
Two internationally recognized authors have provided us with a sparkling volume; informative and engaging. Several lay friends have read my copy, and shared it with their families.
Book Description
Levine shows how Darwin's ideas affected nineteenth-century novelists—from Dickens and Trollope to Conrad. "Levine stands in our day as the premier critic and commentator on Victorian prose."—Frank M. Turner, Nineteenth-Century Literature. "Magnificently written, with a care and delicacy worthy of its subject."—Nina Auerbach, University of Pennsylvania
Customer Reviews:
Even unread theories permeate fiction........2003-06-27
The book functions as both a wonderful review of Victorian period novels and a review of Darwinism for the general reader. Science is part of cultural formation. Even unread theories permeate fiction because others in the milieu talk about the theories and talk about issues forming the foundation for scientific theories. This is a collection of essays extending the reach of the new historicism critical school. It is necessary in using critical method to resist using a kind of metaphorical reductionsim. Jane Austen, Walter Scott, Dickens, Trollope, Conrad, and Hardy are covered.
The scientific view Darwin displaced may be called "natural theology." Darwin learned the language and many of the adaptations from natural theology. The idea of adaptation also implies the idea of interdependence. Darwin may well be taken as the father of ecology. Jane Austen's works reflect the world of pre-Darwinian science. MANSFIELD PARK is a world of disciplined control. It is essentially a closed system. Jane Austen is dedicated to calling things by their right names. By way of contrast, Darwin needed to break the traditional hold of classification. He denies Aristotelian essentialism. Chance and the random become the great creative forces in Darwin's theory. Natural selection is a metaphor for mindless temporal processes.
Dickens had a preoccupation with irrepressible multiplicity. The difference between Darwin and Dickens is that Darwin's laws have no moral significance. In LITTLE DORRIT Dickens's images are of a world irredeemably secular in which both Darwinian theory and thermodynamics would find a place. Darwin and Trollope were alike in taking self-deprecating stances in their autobiographies and being keen observers. Thomas Hardy was preoccupied with close observation and his works encompass the character of the observer and the consequences of the act of observation which may constitute a sort of invasion of privacy. Conrad emphasized the disruptiveness of Darwin's vision. Through his characters Conrad moves from Darwinian distancing and dehumanization to the edge of self-annihilation.
Book Description
The processes in a single living cell are akin to that of a city teeming with molecular inhabitants that move, communicate, cooperate, and compete. In this Very Short Introduction, Philip Ball explores the role of the molecule in and around us - how, for example, a single fertilized egg can grow into a multi-celled Mozart, what makes spider's silk insoluble in the morning dew, and how this molecular dynamism is being captured in the laboratory, promising to reinvent chemistry as the central creative science of the century.
Customer Reviews:
A brief introduction to modern chemistry.......2007-01-10
My training is in Physics, and I have not had a chance to read-up on Chemistry in a long while. I decided to read this book in order to get a better bird's eye view of what the modern Chemistry is up to these days. As such, this book was a great introduction, and brought me up to speed with some of the more recent developments. Thanks to this book and some other info I got, I was able to piece things together and figure out what some of the more advanced research in the conventional explosives is all about.
Book Description
This VSI to prehistory will introduce the reader to four and a half million years of human existence. Many of the familiar aspects of modern life are no more than a century or two old, yet our deep social structures and skills were in large measure developed by small bands of our prehistoric ancestors many millennia ago. Chris Gosden invites us to think seriously about who we are by considering who we have been. The idea of prehistory owes its origins to Darwin - suddenly any description of human life on Earth had to take account of a much longer timespan than ever before. What new views of ourselves has this new timespan opened up? Chris Gosden's fascinating new book asks: What relationships did our distant ancestors have with the natural world, with each other, and with the objects and values they created? And as humanity hurtles into a future of virtual interraction and genetic manipulation, what can the darkest recesses of our past teach us about our future?
Customer Reviews:
The importance of things.......2006-11-19
The author being a museum curator, it is not surprising that he concentrates on physical artifacts and the ways in which early humans used them to relate to their environment and each other. His main thesis is that our relationship with objects, and the way we relate to other humans by use of objects (trading, giving, repaying, etc) is what defines us as humans and is the central dynamic of cultural evolution. He also claims that this intimate relationship with objects has been the evolutionary driving force behind human intelligence. Indeed, he attempts a new definition of intelligence which has little to do with intellectual ability as normally perceived but has to do with our interaction with the physical world around us. This is no doubt politically correct and allows us to describe the most moronic athletes as geniuses, but it leaves us with no definition of intellect, so we are back where we started. Are we to reserve judgement on Einstein's intellectual abilities until we know if he could kick a ball straight? I won't even ask about Stephen Hawking.
Where many researchers would emphasize language as being central to what makes us human and what enables us to evolve sophisticated cultures, Gosden always comes back to objects. He does mention language. In describing the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis he acknowledges that it is 'controversial within linguistics', but then goes on to talk of it as if it were proven fact. I thought it had been thoroughly discredited long ago. But for the most part, language is ignored in favor of objects. Of course, this is understandable in someone who spends his time sifting through pieces of flint rather than poring over ancient manuscripts. I cannot blame him for ignoring literary evidence when prehistory, by definition, has none. But just because physical evidence is all there is, it does not mean that that was all that was involved in our species' extraordinary rise to prominence. Language may have more to do with intelligence, and those together may have more to do with cultural evolution, than Gosden gives credit for.
There is considerable overlap with two other entries in this series: Social and Cultural Anthropology by Monaghan and Just, and History, by Arnold. Both of those are excellent. There is also one called Human Evolution, which I have not yet read but which has received good reviews. Probably, if you read those three, you could safely skip this one.
To finish on a positive note: the book is valuable in that it demonstrates that prehistory is not simply 'the distant past'. It is undocumented history, and some societies have passed from their prehistory in relatively recent times. The book encourages the reader to approach prehistory from a sociological or anthropological perspective rather than in terms of a simple timeline. If early Man is a special interest of yours, then you will want to read this book as well as the other three mentioned above.
The worst one so far.......2006-02-27
I've read some 30+ Very Short Introductions series books so far, and by and large they are very good and informative readings. Most of them I would give either 4 or 5 stars. However, the "Prehistory" book is far worse than any of them, both in terms of content and style. In fact, I think it is so bad that I was compelled to write my very first Amazon review to warn others about it. The writing is rambling, vacuous and repetitive. There is very little prehistory covered, or any other history for that matter. You'll probably learn more about David Beckham's soccer skills than, say, what happened to the Neanderthals (they went extinct). However, if you enjoy the pseudo-intellectual cross-cultural, deconstructionist academese babble, this book just might be the one to keep you up late at night. Otherwise, stay away as far as possible.
Book Description
At the dawn of the twenty-first century, it is clear that - for the first time since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago - changes of enormous ecological significance are occurring on our planet.
The ozone layer is beginning to disintegrate. Since 1970 the world's forests have almost halved. A quarter of the world's fish have been depleted. We live in an age of ecocide.
Seven out of ten biologists believe the world is now in the midst of the fastest mass extinction of species in the 4.5-billion-year history of the planet, according to a poll conducted by the American Museum of Natural History. Biodiversity loss is rated as a more serious environmental problem than the depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, or pollution and contamination.
How have we come to be in this situation, and what can be done to conserve our environment for the future? "Ecocide: A Short History of Mass Extinction of Species" examines the facts behind the figures to offer a disturbing account of the ecological impact that the human species has on the planet.
Franz Broswimmer takes the reader on a historical odyssey starting with the impact of premodern societies on the environment, through to the commercial exploitation of species and the large-scale habitat destruction that we see today. Broswimmer argues that in the open marketplace nature has been reduced to an assortment of exploitable resources. Focusing in particular on corporate-driven neoliberal forms of globalization, the industrial war economy and the massive increase in human population, he shows how we are wilfully destroying our world. Highlighting important counter-movements who are working for ecological democracy, this is a truly unique book that will be of interest to anyone who cares about conserving our environment for the future.
Average customer rating:
- Written by Asimov, enough said.
- Biology from superstition to science
- Excellent
- Asimov strings together the concepts of Biology
- fresh intro
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A short history of biology
Isaac Asimov
Manufacturer: Published for the American Museum of Natural History [by] the Natural History Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
 General
| Biology
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Natural History
| Nature & Ecology
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A Short History of Chemistry
ASIN: B0006BLUP2 |
Customer Reviews:
Written by Asimov, enough said........2006-06-07
I've got the 1964 edition. :-) Just about everything he put to paper was well written.
Biology from superstition to science.......2004-08-20
While all sciences suffer from human prejudices, that problem has been more prevalent in biology. When first proposed, many of the principles of biology have been contrary to what humans preferred to believe at that time. Asimov starts with the role of Hippocrates, where he considered epilepsy to be a disease rather than demonic possession. It is hard to understate the significance of this event. Ancient humans explained the bad things in the world by appealing to demons that seemed determined to make life miserable. By attributing events to natural causes, which could be understood, prevented and manipulated, humans began to take control of their environment.
Despite all of the current biological knowledge and the obvious benefits to society, there is still significant resistance to some of the more dominant principles of biology. Evolution is still very controversial; battles are still fought in some school districts over the role it should play in the curriculum. In this book, Asimov is at his best, capturing the science of the processes of life, as it went from an appeal to the supernatural to the understanding of the natural processes of chemistry and physics. Although it was written in 1964, this book is still a valuable resource for the study of biology. It can serve as a primer or as a brief review.
Excellent.......2001-12-16
Asimov goes thru a sequential (historical) development of the field, explaining how biologists arrived at each new discovery. What were they looking for, and (more important), why? How did this field look in the first century? In the fifteenth? In the nineteenth? In this context, I think it's easier to understand the crucial experiments, why they were done, and their effect on the field. For someone who has had a basic (high school) biology course, this allows the reader to fit his or her understanding into a logical framework, and often makes it easier to understand what the discovery actually meant. Even for someone with no background in biology at all, this book provides a synopsis that's relatively painless to read and digest (up to the 1960s). But its real value lies in making the development of the field much clearer, explaining what we knew and when (and most importantly, how, with attendant ambiguities) we knew it. As good as his Short History of Chemistry.
Asimov strings together the concepts of Biology.......2000-07-26
Most introductory biology books throw a large collection of facts in your face without really giving you any explanation of how they came to be. What makes this so hard is that the heart of biology is about details. One way of putting this is -- nomenclature (taxonomies) is to biology, as mathematics is to physics. Unfortunately, for the a "non-specialist", getting a quick introduction to the different fields of biology is difficult. Asimov slowly introduces the concepts of biology by explaining the development of this science through history. He subtly introduces the different fields of biology along with some of the famous discoveries and experiments. The difference is that he doesn't get bogged down in the details. A biologist would probably find this disappointing. However, for someone who wants to sort through the massive amounts of information on biology, this book is great. This book requires almost no prerequisite knowledge. If you read this book along with an introductory book on Biology, it will give an excellent view of some of the fundamental concepts of Biology. I don't know if a biologist would like this book, but I did. I think this book is perfect for a freshman biology (or pre-med) student or prehaps an intelligent reader (like a computer scientist who is interested in neural computation, but wants to get past the algorithms) who would like a gentle introduction into this field.
fresh intro.......2000-03-13
Well, you want to see a review, let`s find out. First. As always, the author is strongly informed about the subject. Second. U want to learn, or just to have a good time, so if u don't, ... Here I am; trying to give u positive vibes about this; PLEASE read this book if you're interesed in the origin of terms, technics, and human desire to know more about this fabulous science.....BIOLOGY. Enjoy
Book Description
"A splendid introduction to geology and paleontology for the lay reader. To compress Earth's history into a single, lucidly written volume is a major achievement."--Publishers Weekly, starred review.
"Few people have both the knowledge and the writing ability to capture such a long and varied history in a compelling manner. In A Short History of Planet Earth, J.D. Macdougal demonstrates that he is one of the few."--Earth.
This exhilarating survey of the four and half billion years of Earth's history charts both the geological and biological history of the planet. It moves from the origin of the earth's iron core to the formation of today's seven continents, and from the primordial building blocks of life to the evolution of the human form.
J.D. MACDOUGALL (San Diego, California) is a professor of earth science at the Scripps Oceanographic Institute of the University of California, San Diego, the premier center for earth science research in the U.S. His work has appeared in Scientific American and the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.
Customer Reviews:
Not what I expected.......2006-03-10
I expected this book to be about its title, but it was only half that. The other half was explaining geological techniques- something I couldn't have cared less about while I was reading this book. I was and am still interested in the geologic and evolutionary history of earth. When I bought this book that's what I thought I was getting. Instead, about half the pages were taken up with geologic tools, such as carbon dating. I wasn't interested in how you determined the age of a rock, but only the age of the rock and what that implied.
Also, at the end (the last chapter) he talked about the disasters that are about to occur, unless all of our money is funnelled into geologists pockets, so they can tell us what to be afraid of.
Overall, the book was okay because it delivered on at least part of what I wanted to know, but spent too much time on saying "look at all the cool things I can do". Just tell me about earth's history, not how you determined it.
Natural History in a Nutshell.......2006-01-17
The general reader can hardly do better than J.D. Macdougall's concise history of our planet. Helpfully organized in chronological order, this work synthesizes the best current thinking by scientists in an easily understood fashion regarding our geological past. The time charts at the beginning of each eon discription keep the reader oriented to the events relationships. The use and choice of charts & graphs prove helpful without being overdone. The author's detour into the techincal aspects of dating rocks and plate techtonics could be a bit boring to the general reader, but are situated in the text so that they can be skipped easily.The author brings you right up to the present day and delivers some thoughts as to how the cycles of the past may effect our future. I feel the author is very impartial when addressing "hotbutton" issues such as global warming, etc. There is also a helpful glossary in the back and suggestions for further reading for those whose appetite on this subject is wetted.
A Good Popular Book on Earth History and Geology.......2005-12-23
Ok - as a geologist myself, I love to read books on geology even if they cover a lot of material I already know. But this book surprised me in being very thorough on earth history including many very recent scientific discoveries and developments that I have only seen in scientific journals. He does a very nice job of covering the breath of earth history without being overly technical for the lay person, but yet engrossing enough for the professional geologist. Hey even we cannot know everything in the geology world - thus the reason I read this.
MacDougall does a good job of providing the reader with both the rock history but also the history of life on earth, from the earliest bacterial forms through the amazing trilobites, dinosaurs and trees and grasses and such. He also does a good job of relating many of the geologic features around the US and the world to plate tectonics and the interplay of the environment that produces the rocks and features we see today
For those budding young rock hounds or the adult wanting to brush up on an area that you could use more info on, or perhaps a geologist who wants to brush up on their earth history, I whole-heartedly recommend this book.
clear, comprehensive and concise.......2005-06-13
This book is not only a great way for the layman to get an understanding of the history of our planet, it's also a testament to the way science works. MacDougall writes clearly, avoids jargon, and doesn't hesitate to explain the reasoning behind statements about events in geological history. He doesn't leave loose ends nor does he make unsupported statements. He draws together different threads of evidence, allowing the reader to see how ideas come together to reinforce a statement about what happened millions or billions of years ago. He seems to anticipate questions a reader might ask and answers them. Far from a boring account, you could get excited not only about geology but about science in general from this book. I've read it twice and keep it on the shelf for future reference. Many drawings give clarity to the written account. There is no attempt to entertain the reader with gratuitous humor, so common in explanatory books these days. This isn't "for dummies" or "an idiot's guide." Instead, your intelligence, curiosity and scepticism are assumed. It isn't easy for creatures who live less than 100 years to grasp events that occur over millions of years but I found this book allowed me to conceptualize the earth's 4.5 billion year story in a very satisfying way.
Well organized, well written! Heir to Carl Sagan?.......1999-01-30
My title above pretty much says it all! There is a good flow to the way one paragraph flows into another. I am a layman with an interest in the integrated "big systems" of science--how processes studied by several disciplines come together and attempt to explain how our planet works. This book does that to the point I may want to go on to more specialized, in-depth works. Chapter Ten, "Global Catastrophes" is the clearest account I have ever read of mass extinction theories. I had not realized that the now very famous K-T boundary event of 65 million years ago (the dinosaur killer) is the only extinction event uncovered in the last 600 million years where the "smoking gun" of extraterrestrial iridium can be found in enough abundence to point to a comet or asteroid impact. I had thought that there was evidence to show that there were incoming impactors every 26 million years or so and that this had caused other mass extinctions including the biggest one at the Permian-Triassic boundary some 250 million years ago. These other mass extinctions may very well have come about because of purely earth-bound processes such as plate tectonics and rising and falling sea levels. Fascinating stuff to say the least! Drawings and diagrams are well done and to the point also. I recommend MacDougall as heir apparent to the Late, Great Carl Sagan as a popularizer of the great realm of science! Enjoy!
Average customer rating:
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The Evolutionary Self
Roger Ebbatson
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
20th Century
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ASIN: 0389202975 |
Books:
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- Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill
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- Green Clean: The Environmentally Sound Guide to Cleaning Your Home
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History
- Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics (The Mcgraw-Hill Series in Civil and Environmental Engineering)
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