Over at Pennmachine.com, Derek Miller reviews and discusses the evidence-for-evolution books by the Three Donkeymen: Neil Shubin, Richard Dawkins, and me.
Blog review of WEIT and its colleagues.
October 29, 2009 • 5:30 am
Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
that was a truly spot-on essay. thanks.
Thanks, kalibhakta.
This is an extremely well written article. The only thing missing is more information on botfly maggots in scalps. 🙂
Indeed spot-on and tightly written too! Bravo & thanx!
I’ve read Shubin’s* and Coyne’s, and am nearly finished with Dawkin’s TGSOE. I agree in general with this review with one additional observation.
While I prefer Dr. Coyne’s book over the other two, I think the complementary benefit of Dawkins’ book is that his essays are presented in a manner that have a better probability of his main points being better retained whereas Dr. Coyne’s WEIT is formatted more as a concise argument. I prefer Coyne’s format since it’s easier for me to go back and reference certain topics and quickly get back up to speed rather than have to scan through Dawkins’ ramblings.
However, I don’t think Dawkins’ tutorial style is always superior on every aspect, I particularly liked Dr. Coyne’s coverage of biogeography and vestigial traits. But in general Dawkins’ books reads more like a retired professor writing a set of essays to a set of students where I find his stories resonate.
If I was referring an evolution book to someone, I’d probably take into account what motivates them to read non-fiction. If they’re retired and/or enjoy big books and are actually looking to make a commitment to taking on the subject, I’d suggest Dawkins’ TGSOE followed up by WEIT. If they were merely looking to get up to speed on evolution and consider science’s case, than Dr. Coyne’s book distinguishes itself though I’d like everyone to follow up either book with Carroll’s “The Making of the Fittest” given that none of the aforementioned books adequately covers microbiology.
I’d love to see every bright high school student read Neil Shubin’s Your Inner Fish. What a great book this was, one of the most personable science books I’ve ever read. But Your Inner Fish’s objectives are not as comprehensive as TGSOE or WEIT and therefore not as worthy if you were looking to recommend a book about evolution in general.
I’m disappointed no readers at Amazon has reviewed Carl Zimmer’s Tangled Bank yet. I’m hoping to start that book right after Deer Camp. Too bad Mr. Zimmer wasn’t provided access to Wright and Lovejoy’s work on Ardipithecus prior to publication – but that’s one reason we have revisions.
*Dr. Shubin’s name is not spelled ‘Schubin’ as this blog post inadvertently spells it.