Don Prothero’s great book, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, is on sale for this month only (Nov.) at a tremendous reduction. Regularly $23.99, it’s now only $3.99 (click the link above). This is one of the five evolution books for the layperson that I recommended in my Browser interview and it’s really good.
Don’t pass it up. But wait—there’s moar! Reader James, who brought this to my attention, says that if you use his Associates tag “gumbercules-20” he’ll donate all the admittedly small referral fees to Doctors Without Borders (and add $25 of his own). To do this, he says;
To make sure that everyone uses the tag, you can just append “/gumbercules-20” without the quotes to the URL: then the referral fees would automatically be generated.
If you want a readable but thorough book on the paleontological evidence for evolution, and how it makes hash of creationist claims, this is the book for you. I give it two thumbs up, and the price is amazing.
Are you sure it’s only $3.99? Your link takes me to a page where it’s $22.11 – mind you, I’m in the UK where it’s £13.99.
Cheers.
Norm.
PS. I already have the book.
Done and done. Thanks!
Ditto. Kindle version very satisfying for me, especially at that price!
Bought it. Thanks!
By all means, get this book. It is amazingly comprehensive and just destroys the Duane Gish “The Fossils Say NO!” BS argument. Either the genetic or fossil evidence for evolution taken alone are decisive for evolution acceptance, but the combination destroys creationism and makes it perverse not to accept the science. In recent years, genetics has (rightfully, perhaps, given the range and novelty of the discoveries) fleshed out evolutionary theory. But the bones are still…the bones.
In the US, the link goes to the Kindle version for $3.99. Still a great deal.
I’m in the UK as well, and the price I find at the link also shows $22.11. It seems the reduced price is offered only for US customers. How disappointing for the rest of us.
Ah guess we Amuricuns are jest spaaayshul and “Exceptional.” (The sound of gagging oneself with a spoon.)
I got about a third of the way through it, and then got distracted by A.C. Grayling.
Did I correctly get the impression that Prothero subscribes to Gould’s “punctuated equilibrium”?
“Did I correctly get the impression that Prothero subscribes to Gould’s “punctuated equilibrium”?”
So does Dawkins and, I would suspect, Coyne as well. They just object to PE being referred to as some huge paradigm shift, rather than as anything other than a minor addition to Darwinian theory.
uh, PE was only supported by patterns in the fossil records that Gould and Eldrige worked heavily on.
there’s really not much going for it as an overall theory.
it was more that they chose to try and label everything else as a type of gradualism that nobody really used anyway.
*shrug*
so, it’s not really correct to call someone a “subscriber” to punc eq.
“The theory of punctuated equilibrium is a minor gloss on Darwinism, one which Darwin himself might have approved if the issue had been discussed in his time.”
The Blind Watchmaker
But Ichthyic I think that you are correct to note that Gould and Eldridge defined “gradualism” in a way that no one else really ever used.
Not one of those sites where they alter the price depending on nationality, how long you spend browsing before you purchase and presumably past spending history and whatever else they can think of to ratchet the price up to the customer’s tolerance level?
I think only the kindle version only is $3.99 and perhaps this is limited to the US only. I already have the hard back or I’d buy it at this price.
Anyone who bought the kindle version how well do the images show up?
Some show up very well on a kindle, others are too info-rich and hard to clearly see, but can be seen well using Amazon’s Cloud Reader on your PC. I am quite content with my Kindle version of the book (especially at that price).
Thanks for the info. Illustrations are often quite poor on the standard Kindle,and they’re b&w only, but if they’re ok in the Cloud that will work. I’ve actually already read the book from my local library, but it would be good to have as a go to reference on Kindle.
Jerry, thanks for the tip. Just ordered it in here in South Africa for around 19 USD
Yes! Please keep us informed about books as well as other publications that are worth the while.
This is great. This one on Kindle, and a hard back WEIT are some of my reads now!
Thanks
Correct me if I’m wrong Jerry (or if you have pointed this out before), but the author does seem to be an accomodationist and an endorser of NOMA.
*accommodationist*
I don’t think so… Don Prothero submits articles to http://www.skepticblog.org/ and neither these nor his pronouncements about religion in What the fossils say suggest to me that he is an accomodationist.
I just started reading the book. In one of the opening chapters, he specifically cites and approves of Gould and his NOMA concept.
Not that this detracts too much from the overall quality of the book; the information on transitional fossils looks superb.
Yes, I decided to skip over the so-so intro chapter on the philosophy of science and go straight to the good stuff–the fossils.
I just bought this book (along with WEIT) two weeks ago! Still, this book is worth having in both forms. Downloading to my iPad as I type.
Gumbercules? I love that guy!
OK, this is ridiculous–it’s the Kindle edition–how about a real book????
Ebooks outsell paper books now.
Sent from my iPhone
Just bought it. What a great deal!
I have this nook and I love it.
Bought it! Thanks for the tip!
Bought! Love these tips!
It had been sitting for a long time in my basket, waiting for a price drop. Thanks.
BTW, I bought it from Switzerland, and got the US3.99 price. Maybe because there is no Swiss Amazon store?
Don’t pass this up. It is a great read and each chapter is worth the $3.99 as a reference.
Amazon Cloud reader shows the pics and diagrams very well.
I bought the hard-back a few years back, now its great to have the e-version handy at my fingertips any time.