Recommended Books
I love books. Books of all sorts. I read a lot of books, popular and otherwise that bear upon or relate to my research. Here I recommend titles that can be beneficial to you if you would like to know more about evolution, science and biology in general, and so on. Note that my recommending a book does not necessarily mean that I support all things said in it, but merely that I think it is worth reading.
This page is under construction, so please be patient! (And please let me know if there is a title you think I should add.)
For General Audiences
E. coli
Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life, Carl Zimmer
Evolution - Popular Science Titles
Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer
Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, Olivia Judson
The Making of the Fittest, Sean B Carroll
Evolution - Textbooks
Evolution, Mark Ridley
The Tangled Bank, Carl Zimmer (An excellent and readable introductory text)
Evolution: Making Sense of Life, Carl Zimmer and Douglas Emlen
The Evolution - Creationism "Controversy"
The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design, Ronald Numbers
Denying Evolution, Massimo Pigliucci
The Tower of Babel: The Evidence Against the New Creationsism, Robert Pennock
Nature and Practice of Science
What is this Thing Called Science?, Allan F. Chalmers
Darwin (Because he was a very interesting person about whom you really cannot know enough!)
Darwin's Greatest Contribution, On the Origin of Species:
On the Origin of Species, 1st edition. In the first edition, you will find the purest expression of Darwin's ideas on evolution and natural selection. Later editions saw him include more attempts to deal with critics and issues that arose because of the time's lack of information on just how old the Earth was, and, most especially, the lack of a good model of genetics. When you go to read Darwin, this is the certainly the place to start.
The Origin of Species, 6th edition. The final edition is worth reading, if only because it includes a completely new chapter, much of which is devoted to refutation of St. George Jackson Mivart's criticisms. Mivart was a former friend and student of Huxley and Darwin who broke with them over evolutionary ideas. The final break was caused by his publication of a book called On the Genesis of Species, in which Mivart criticized natural selection as unworkable for not explaining where novel traits come from. In his response in the 6th edition of The Origin, Darwin elaborated on the concept of functional shift and re-purposing of existing traits which he had briefly introduced in the 1st edition. This goes to what is now referred to as "Evolutionary Tinkering", and it underlies current understanding of how novel traits evolve.
If you are interested in how Darwin changed The Origin through its various editions, Ben Fry has a wonderful animation showing them, which he calls The Preservation of Favoured Traces.
Given its foundational importance to biology, The Origin has been the subject of many works by biologists and philosophers that have sought to better explain its arguments, analyze its ideas, and trace its importance. The following are a few good ones to look into:
One Long Argument, Ernst Mayr
The Annotated Origin, Charles Darwin, with Introduction and Annotation by James T. Costa
The Origin Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the Origin of Species, David N. Reznick
The Cambridge Companion to the Origin of Species, Robert J. Richards and Michael Ruse, Editors
Biographies
There are a great many biographies of Darwin out there, many of which are worth reading. The following are some of the best I have encountered.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most authoritative biography of Darwin yet written is the great, two-volume work by Janet Browne of Harvard University. While a bit daunting because of their collective size, I urge you to not let that stop you from delving into them. Not only are they great from a scholarly perspective, but they are very well written, and compulsively readable. If you really want to understand Darwin, you have to read them.
Charles Darwin: A Biography. Vol. I: Voyaging
Charles Darwin: A Biography. Vol. II: The Power of Place
If you want a less weighty, introductory volume, the best is David Quammen's excellent The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. In addition to being a good place to start with learning about Darwin's life, it, more than anything else I have read, makes you feel like you know and understand the man. Quammen is an excellent writer all around, but this book is something special.
Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist, Adrian Desmond and James Moore
For More Professional Audiences
Evolution
Selection: The Mechanism of Evolution, Graham Bell
Ernst Mayr:
Animal Species and Evolution
Populations, Species, and Evolution
The Growth of Biological Thought
Toward a New Philosophy of Biology
What Evolution Is
What Makes Biology Unique?
Experimental Evolution
Experimental Evolution: Concepts, Methods, and Applications of Selection Experiments, Theodore Garland and Michael Rose, Ed.
Experimental Evolution and the Nature of Biodiversity, Rees Kassen
This page is under construction, so please be patient! (And please let me know if there is a title you think I should add.)
For General Audiences
E. coli
Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life, Carl Zimmer
Evolution - Popular Science Titles
Parasite Rex, Carl Zimmer
Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation, Olivia Judson
The Making of the Fittest, Sean B Carroll
Evolution - Textbooks
Evolution, Mark Ridley
The Tangled Bank, Carl Zimmer (An excellent and readable introductory text)
Evolution: Making Sense of Life, Carl Zimmer and Douglas Emlen
The Evolution - Creationism "Controversy"
The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design, Ronald Numbers
Denying Evolution, Massimo Pigliucci
The Tower of Babel: The Evidence Against the New Creationsism, Robert Pennock
Nature and Practice of Science
What is this Thing Called Science?, Allan F. Chalmers
Darwin (Because he was a very interesting person about whom you really cannot know enough!)
Darwin's Greatest Contribution, On the Origin of Species:
On the Origin of Species, 1st edition. In the first edition, you will find the purest expression of Darwin's ideas on evolution and natural selection. Later editions saw him include more attempts to deal with critics and issues that arose because of the time's lack of information on just how old the Earth was, and, most especially, the lack of a good model of genetics. When you go to read Darwin, this is the certainly the place to start.
The Origin of Species, 6th edition. The final edition is worth reading, if only because it includes a completely new chapter, much of which is devoted to refutation of St. George Jackson Mivart's criticisms. Mivart was a former friend and student of Huxley and Darwin who broke with them over evolutionary ideas. The final break was caused by his publication of a book called On the Genesis of Species, in which Mivart criticized natural selection as unworkable for not explaining where novel traits come from. In his response in the 6th edition of The Origin, Darwin elaborated on the concept of functional shift and re-purposing of existing traits which he had briefly introduced in the 1st edition. This goes to what is now referred to as "Evolutionary Tinkering", and it underlies current understanding of how novel traits evolve.
If you are interested in how Darwin changed The Origin through its various editions, Ben Fry has a wonderful animation showing them, which he calls The Preservation of Favoured Traces.
Given its foundational importance to biology, The Origin has been the subject of many works by biologists and philosophers that have sought to better explain its arguments, analyze its ideas, and trace its importance. The following are a few good ones to look into:
One Long Argument, Ernst Mayr
The Annotated Origin, Charles Darwin, with Introduction and Annotation by James T. Costa
The Origin Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the Origin of Species, David N. Reznick
The Cambridge Companion to the Origin of Species, Robert J. Richards and Michael Ruse, Editors
Biographies
There are a great many biographies of Darwin out there, many of which are worth reading. The following are some of the best I have encountered.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most authoritative biography of Darwin yet written is the great, two-volume work by Janet Browne of Harvard University. While a bit daunting because of their collective size, I urge you to not let that stop you from delving into them. Not only are they great from a scholarly perspective, but they are very well written, and compulsively readable. If you really want to understand Darwin, you have to read them.
Charles Darwin: A Biography. Vol. I: Voyaging
Charles Darwin: A Biography. Vol. II: The Power of Place
If you want a less weighty, introductory volume, the best is David Quammen's excellent The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. In addition to being a good place to start with learning about Darwin's life, it, more than anything else I have read, makes you feel like you know and understand the man. Quammen is an excellent writer all around, but this book is something special.
Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist, Adrian Desmond and James Moore
For More Professional Audiences
Evolution
Selection: The Mechanism of Evolution, Graham Bell
Ernst Mayr:
Animal Species and Evolution
Populations, Species, and Evolution
The Growth of Biological Thought
Toward a New Philosophy of Biology
What Evolution Is
What Makes Biology Unique?
Experimental Evolution
Experimental Evolution: Concepts, Methods, and Applications of Selection Experiments, Theodore Garland and Michael Rose, Ed.
Experimental Evolution and the Nature of Biodiversity, Rees Kassen