I would have missed this video had reader Doug not called my attention to it. It’s a very good half-hour discussion by evolutionary biologist Zach B. Hancock, a professor at Augusta University, in which he recommends the the top ten most influential books in evolutionary biology. Since Hancock is a population geneticist, the books deal largely with evolutionary genetics, but not all of them.
I slipped in at #10 with my book on Speciation with Allen Orr, but I won’t be too humble to claim our book wasn’t influential, for, as Hancock notes, it’s the only comprehensive book on the origin of species around. (Darwin’s big 1859 book was about the origin of adaptations, and had little that was useful about the origin of species.) Hancock regrets that Allen and I aren’t going to do a second edition, but Allen refuses to, and I don’t have the spoons (I do have 200 pages of notes on relevant papers that appeared after our book came out, but that will go nowhere.)
The rest of the list is stellar, and shows a keen judgement about the field. I’m not sure I would have put Lack’s book on the Galápagos finches in there, as it’s pretty much out of date. It should be replaced by a very important book by Ernst Mayr, his Systematics and the Origin of Species or the updated version in 1963, Animal Species and Evolution. It was Mayr who codified the Biological Species Concept and paved the way for experimental and observational studies of speciation, and hence my book with Orr.
I’d expect every graduate student in evolutionary genetics to have read most of these books by the time they get their Ph.D. In fact, when I was on prelim hearings, judging whether students could be admitted to candidacy after a year or two, I and my colleague Doug Schemske made a habit of asking students to name the major accomplishments of several of the authors listed below. My impression is that the history of the field is not given so much weight now, so I wonder if students could still explain the major accomplishments of say, Theodosius Dobzhansky or Ronald Fisher. The books are of more than historical interest, for they raise questions that are still relevant. (I spent a lot of my career trying to understand the phenomenon of “Haldane’s Rule,” explained by J.B.S. Haldane in 1922. The paper was completely neglected until I read it in the early eighties and started a cottage industry of explanations [my own was largely wrong]).
Hancock’s explication of each book is excellent. If you’re an academic teaching evolutionary biology, you might see how many of these books your students have read.
One commenter on YouTube gave the list and the time points in the video where each is discussed (the links go to those time point).
2:26 #10 Speciation – Jerry Coyne & Allen Orr
4:50 #9 Darwin’s Finches – David Lack
6:59#8 Evolution: The Modern Synthesis – Julian Huxley
9:15 #7 The Origins Of Genome Architecture – Michael Lynch
11:23 #6 Chance & Necessity – Jacques Monod
13:26 #5 The Selfish Gene – Richard Dawkins
16:54 #4 The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution – Motoo Kimura
19:34 #3 Genetics and the Origin of Species – Theodosius Dobzhansky
22:20 #2 The Genetical Theory Of Natural Selection – Ronald Fisher
26:35 #1 On The Origin Of Species – Charles Darwin
G.C. William’s “Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought ” should be a consideration. Was a big influence on Dawkins.
Yes, I forgot about that one!
And congrats on making the list!
Congratulations on finishing in 10th place! I think that is a great honor. 🙂
Thank you for this post! For a layperson such as myself, it is helpful to see the topics represented in these titles, as well as the names of their authors.
Very cool. I’ve read all but Kimura’s, Lack’s, and Lynch’s books. Yes. Mayr’s 1942 Systematics and the Origin of Species belongs in the list. Paleontologists would undoubtedly add George Gaylord Simpson’s 1944 Tempo and Mode in Evolution. Botanists might add G. Ledyard Stebbins’s 1950 Variation and Evolution in Plants as well.
I worked through Sewall Wright’s four books (with difficulty). And I read Bernhard Rensch’s 1947 Evolution Above the Species Level as a European perspective on the Modern Synthesis. And, as Jeff Vader mentions, G.C. Williams’s book was enormously influential.
I suppose that many of the books published in the 1930’s and 1940’s around the Modern Synthesis are mostly of historical interest today, but what an amazing history it has been! Reading historical texts—and I devoured them—gave me a grounding that that I could never have gotten had I focused on the latest advances alone.
Congratulations, Jerry, upon making this list.
Yes, I read all four volumes of Sewall Wright (I got him to autograph one for me), but without profit. I wrote several papers on why what he considered his most significant accomplishment–the shifting balance theory of evolution–was either wrong or inapplicable to evolution in nature.
I saw Wright speak at the 1980 macroevolution conference in Chicago. He was 90. Maybe you were there!
Hancock said that your book was “languishing” for lack of a new edition. I think that first editions are usually the best. That was certainly the case with the Origin. Once one starts having to react to critics, later editions sometimes become muddled, and the original thesis softens.
“Languishing” at the top of your game is just fine. Life is too short to keep plowing the same furrow.
I enjoy lists like this. As you say, one’s own field influences what’s on their list, but this is certainly an influential collection. My version would have something by Ernst Mayr on it. And maybe Evolutionary Biology by Douglas Futuyma—though now out-of-date with respect to modern methods, it’s very comprehensive in its coverage of topics, and was a must-read for every grad student I knew way-back-when, before taking their preliminary exams.
Coincidentally, I teach a class on species concepts and speciation, and we still use the Coyne and Orr book for the second half of the class. As mentioned in the video, being over 20 years old it does not incorporate genomic data (and I too used to wish for a second edition), but beyond advances in methodology it’s very comprehensive and I don’t know of a newer book that would replace it.
I like the first chapter of the book, which lays out the problem, as well as the Appendix, which critiques non-BSC species concepts.
It took Allen and I six years to write that book (12 “man years”) and we read every single paper that’s cited at the end. While it’s largely outmoded, its main thesis, that understanding the origin of reproductive isolation is the same thing as understanding the origin of species, is solid. How r.i. evolves is a problem for the ages.
Jerry, are you still thinking about writing a trade book on speciation?
Naawwww. I thought about it seriously (Oxford University Press wanted it for their “Very Short Introductions” series (a great series, by the way), but somehow I just couldn’t get it together. And I had two trade books to write.
Let me join others in congratulating PCC(EM), with a capital M to emphasize the “merit” part, for being posted to the list of GOAT.
Very well done.
I would include E. O. Wilson’s Sociobiology.
I think we need a top 15 or top 20 list.
I have watched some of Zach’s videos on YouTube, and consider him a leading force in educating people about evolution on that platform.
I’ve only read nos. 1 & 5 (twice each) but, having only a high school education, all the others would be way above my pay grade. Can anyone tell me if Monod’s book falls into that category? I’ve often heard it mentioned as one of the greats.
From a popular viewpoint, Dawkins’ The Ancestor’s Tale is top of the pops for me – his magnum opus.
I have that Dawkins book sitting on a shelf, unread. Sounds like I should add it to my reading list.
Definitely. It’s also one I’ve read twice and a third reading is on the cards! A masterpiece.
How about a top 5 or 10 for laypersons, starting, of course, with Why Evolution is True?
Congratulations to you and Allen for making the list. A fine recognition of two of the best writers I have read over the years. And Prof Hancock is so enthusiastic about “Speciation”. It is on EVERYONE’s bookshelf. Nice.
I thought “The Evolution of Individuality” by Leo Buss was an underappreciated classic. Had a big effect on me. Notable absence from the list of any evolutionary developmental biology (Waddington, Raff, Kaufman, West-Eberhard, Gilbert, Kirschner, Gerhart). Of course that field includes some of the worst books in evolutionary biology as well. It’s hard to top Williamson’s “Larvae and Evolution: Toward a New Zoology” (the cold-fusion-of-phyla guy).
I received a copy of Dobzhansky’s Genetics of the Evolutionary Process as a gift from my high school biology teacher. It was years before I could read it but, when I could, I found it inspiring.
At a family gathering last year, I was discussing religion (or lack thereof) with my niece’s SO, and mentioned this website…he was quite familiar with Speciation, saying he’d referred to it often in his PhD. studies (of nocturnal insects in Texas and Oklahoma-brave man). Your reach is widespread!
Ones that I really found valuable (some are mentioned by other commentators):
Adaptation and Natural Selection by G.C. Williams
The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins–truly an amazing book
The Triumph of the Darwinian Method by Michael Ghiselin
Why Evolution Is True by PCC(E), which I have assigned to a non-majors biology course for the past 7 years. Best one-stop shopping for the evidence for evolution and how it works.
In addition to GC Williams 66 [ Adaptation and Natural Selection] I would have included a cpl of books about BIG phenotypes, like Life histories and Sexual Selection, and left off some of the mechanisms of evolution books.
How about Stearns 1992 THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE HISTORIES
and ANDERSSON 1994 SEXUAL SELECTION
These 2 are massively influential, and well cited even after 30 plus years, by professional biologists.
In addition, if we are considering just books that massively influenced the professional field, one would be hard pressed to find one more influential than John Maynard Smith 1982. EVOLUTION AND THE THEORY OF GAMES