The experienced reader in natural history will not require instruction about books on evolution. There are about 75 books listed below. Either browse the page or select an author from the list provided here to jump to that author's location below. In some cases you may be directed to separate pages for Ernst Mayr or Steve Gould or to my Essays page (for Dawkins, Miller, Ruse, Wilson, Zimmer) where many more books are listed.

If you are relatively new to the study of science or to evolution please scroll down below the authors list for my recom-mendations on the best introductory books about evolution. If you are interested in books about the evolution-creationism de-bate (including intelligent design) you will find a number of titles in the column at the right. Read both sides of the issue to become well informed. See below for why I suggest not beginning with On The Origin of Species.

Before one can understand much about evolution one must have a basic understanding of biology. There can be no substitute for a biology textbook and a good teacher. Some people are capable of learning by reading alone. If you need a grounding in biology you will find several texts available online at my Biology Page. You will see many icons there for Kimball's Biology and the Online Biology Book. The worst thing you can do is to begin reading a book intended for the mature reader and not be able to understand it. Most authors assume that their readers have a basic competency in biology and do not write for the beginning student. Get the grounding if you need it. You will then be able to better understand and enjoy books written for the informed layman. You do not have to be an expert to read natural history. You do need to start at the beginning.

There are 10 books written by Charles Darwin available free at my Darwiniana Page. At some point in your studies you should read On the Origin of Species. However, it is the worst possible choice for your first book on evolution. Why do I say that? Darwin wrote for a literate audience in 1859. Without knowing a great deal of natural history or without being able to place yourself in his Victorian setting, you will probably find much of what Darwin has to say difficult to understand. But it might be a great deal of fun for you to read On the Origin of Species (use the first edition) side-by-side with Steve Jones' modern version of it: Darwin's Ghost. Professor Jones has in effect updated Darwin with modern writing and modern examples, chapter by chapter and topic by topic. He has also added one chapter on the genetics of evolution, a subject Darwin knew nothing about.

You can, of course, just skip Darwin and read Jones' Darwin's Ghost. I highly recommend that book. Another excellent, but perhaps more demanding, book to give you an overview of evolution is What Evolution Is by Ernst Mayr. Dr. Mayr provides a glossary for more difficult terms, but he does expect readers to have a basic understanding of biology.

Are you ready to go beyond the basics? Many people want to know more about what science can tell us regarding human evolution, details of the fossil record of some lineage—dinosaurs?—or the human genome. Perhaps you want to really know what all the debate is about between evolution and creationism. I'll give you a few suggestions in each of these categories, starting with the evolution-creationism debate.

First, though, I would like you to understand that it is not an argument between creation and science. Creationism is an argument based in scriptural literalism, and the scripture need not be the Bible. Fundamentalism exists within all religions and creationism can be found in a number of them. Essentially, fundamentalistic literalism states that whenever science discovers anything that is perceived to be in conflict with the preferred scripture, that science is to be ignored or denied as being in error. On the other hand many scientists are also believers in one faith or another. I think it is fair to say that, worldwide, most believers in Christianity also accept rational science and have no problem reconciling the two in their lives. There are well-reasoned books on the subject:

Finding Darwin's God by Professor Kenneth R. Miller. Dr. Miller teaches cell biology at Brown University and is a leading author of high school and college biology textbooks. You can see his books and essays here. Dr. Miller is a professing Christian who opposes the rejection of factual science by creationism and the Intelligent Design Movement. You can read reviews of the book as well as excerpts from Finding Darwin's God here.
Rocks of Ages by Stephen Jay Gould. Although an agnostic and non-practicing Jew, Dr. Gould loved to sing Handel's Messiah and other religious music with a choral society. His slender book is a beautiful contribution toward resolving conflict between religion and science. Rocks of Ages, with excerpts, can be found here. You might enjoy reading some of the reviews of this book.
Can a Darwinian be a Christian? by Michael Ruse. Professor Ruse teaches Zoology and Philosophy of Science. He also has credentials in theology. His book answers, in the affirmative, the question posed by its title. A Darwinian can be a Christian and vice versa. After all, millions of layman and scientists testify to this fact. Dr. Ruse's books and essays may be seen here and excerpts from the book Can a Darwinian be a Christian? may be read here.

Other books, opposing creationism and opposing evolution, may be found in boxes at the right, below. I simply suggest that the argument is unnecessary and that any of the three books mentioned above demonstrate that this is so.

Genes and the Human Genome

Before reading any book about genetics you should first have a basic understanding of what DNA is, what is looks like, how the genetic code (or sections of it) can be read and compared both within species and between species. Use the resources provided on my Biology Page to learn the basics or to refresh your memory on the subject. You will find many more resources on my Genetics Page. Here are three very good books:

Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley. Each chapter of the book is related to one of the human chromosomes. Ridley is a science writer in the UK and has several best-selling science books to his credit. He writes clearly and knows how to make a complex subject interesting to the lay reader. The book is not illustrated and gives only the briefest background information about basic genetics. Click on the book to learn more.
Dear Mr Darwin: Letters on the evolution of life & human nature is a delightful book by Gabriel Dover, Professor of Genetics at the University of Leicester, UK. Dr. Dover educates his readers about genetics while carrying on a correspondence with Charles Darwin at Westminster Abbey. Darwin even brings Newton into the picture as he learns the news about genetics—unknown in his day. We even learn about Manchester United and soccer, erroneously called football by some. Click on the book to learn more.
Genes, Peoples and Languages is a small but very interesting book by Professor Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza. It describes how modern human languages evoloved over the last 10,000 years, and tells how genes can be used to track the diversification of a species—us. You may read reviews of the book and excerpts from it here. I have Dr. Cavalli-Sforza's cladogram for human languages near the bottom of this page. See where your language heritage appears on it.

The Fossil Record

This is for me a problem area in deciding what to recommend to you. The fossil record is immense and no single book can cover all of it. There are technical books full of cladograms and short on text. There are monographs dealing with a single genus or family that might bore you to tears. There are also some hignly readable books that deal with the evolution and extinction of animals within important periods of geologic time. These will provide you with some information about the history of the earth as well as about the evolution of life.

Crucible of Creation: The Burgess Shale and the Rise of Animals by Simon Conway Morris. This is the story, from the perspective of a scientist who literally opened up the fossils to discovery, of a group of the earliest fossils from the Cambrian Age of Canada. Learn about the difficult work required to unravel the evidence after the fossils are brought back to the museum. You can read reviews of as well as excerpts from Crucible of Creation here.
Gaining Ground: The Origin and Evolution of Tetrapods by Jennifer Clack. In this book Dr. Clack explains in great detail how the tetrapod (that's us) leg evolved over millions of years before amphibians first emerged onto land. Find out what it really takes to close a fossil gap. I have a separate page featuring this important book, and with many more details, available here. You can read reviews of Gaining Ground, as well as excerpts from it, here.
Night Comes to the Cretaceous by James Lawrence Powell is the story of comets, craters, controversy and the last days of the dinosaurs. Step back 65 million years in geologic and fossil time. This is a great mystery story about how our puny ancestors got the chance to escape from the shadows of giants and begin the age of mammals. Learn some geology here. You can read reviews of and excerpts from Night Comes to the Cretaceous here.

Human Evolution

With each passing year the fossil record, anthropology, genetics and other disciplines continue to inform us with new evidence about our past. One problem arising from the rapid advances in knowledge is that almost all books on the subject of human evolution are outdated when they are released. I have chosen to recommend three very different books here. Extinct Humans is a complete discussion of the fossil evidence through about 1999. For discoveries since then please see my page on Hominid Transitionals. The book Lucy focuses on one particular fossil and gives a thorough description of the labor, luck and lives of some paleontologists. Blueprints is by the same authors, and has just one excellent chapter on human evolution. The rest of the book is a "must read."

Extinct Humans by Ian Tattersall and Jeffrey Schwartz. You won't find a prettier book than this one, but it's somewhat pricey. It is richly illustrated with photos, drawings of fossils, footprints, maps and other graphic aids. The authors discuss the vigorous competing viewpoints that exist within paleoanthropology. You can read reviews of as well as excerpts from Extinct Humans here. N.Y. Times review by Richard Dawkins   |   First Chapter Text
Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind by Donald Johanson and Maitland Edey. This tells the story of the discovery of the fossil called Lucy, and of the subsequent work that went into establishing its age and taxonomic status. At the time she was the best example of a transitional hominid, although it is not certain that she is in the direct line of ancestry of modern humans. This book offers an appreciation of the problems encountered in paleoanthropology. Lucy may be available at amazon.com.
Blueprints: Solving the Mysteries of Evolution by Maitland Edey and Donald Johanson. You might encounter problems finding this book, but it is worth the search. Only one chapter deals specifically with human evolution and DNA. Reading that alone is worth the trouble. But the book is also a fine overview of evolution. It is clearly written and contains significant material on the history of evolutionary thought and research. Reviews of Blueprints and buying information are available here.

Books, Books and more Books

Yes, there are lots of book to choose from. You might want to read one from each group mentioned above. I have listed many more below without descriptions. As you have now learned you can find reviews for almost all of them at amazon.com, and for most them you can browse the table of contents and read sample pages or chapters. Two of my favorite links on the web are for Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

But don't neglect Journals, Science Magazine and Online News sources. Many libraries in the USA carry the weekly journal Science, while in the UK the journal Nature is more likely to be found. If these technical journals are above your level of comprehension you can read National Geographic, Natural History, Discover, Scientific American and many others. Science is for everyone. Don't be the exception.

Attacking "Icons" of Evolution

Icons of Evolution: Science or Myth? : by "Jonathan" (John Corrigan) Wells

This book by Wells completes the trilogy of attacks, begun by Phillip Johnson and Michael Behe, on the teaching of evolution in public schools. To be fair to Wells, some of the criticism he levels at current textbooks in biology is justified and factually accurate. However, his survey is neither broad enough (I found much less of what he claims in another 9 textbooks) nor is he honest about his purpose. Since his days in theology school, where he was supported by The Moonie religious cult, his announced purpose has been to destroy what he terms Darwinism -- and which he concludes is Atheism. Reviews from credible sources have begun to accumulate here.

Larry D. Martin : is professor of ecology, evolutionary biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Univ. of Kansas. He is the author of some three hundred scientific papers and two books dealing with evolution and the fossil record. "[Jonathan Wells'] next target for the wrecking ball is a big edifice, the tree of life. Unfortunately, he tries to demolish it with a firecracker. Needless to say, the damage is superficial."

Fatally Flawed Iconoclasm -- by Eugenie C. Scott : In Science, June 22, 2024. ".....Wells presents a systematically misleading view of evolution. Individual sentences in Icons are usually technically correct, but they are artfully strung together to take the reader off the path of real evolutionary biology and into a thicket of misunderstanding." If you don't have an online subscription to Science, see this at your library.

Icon of Obfuscation : Jonathan Wells' book is wrong and makes a travesty of the notion of honest scholarship. Purporting to document that students and the public are being systematically misinformed about the evidence for evolution, via common textbook topics such as peppered moths, embryo similarities, and fossil hominids, Icons in fact contains a bevy of its own errors.

NCSE asks Discovery Institute: Where's the Shrimp? : Wells accuses three developmental biologists of exaggerated claims in a paper in Nature. But it is Wells, in his zeal to criticize any research supporting evolution, whose claims are exaggerated.

Biochemist David Ussery : "..... this book is nothing more than yet another attempt for the Creationists to try and sneak their agenda into the public schools, under the guise of science. Appendix I contains an evaluation of several popular biology textbooks. (This list is similar to a previous report by Jonathan Wells.) Most of them receive a grade of an "F". Using the same type of criteria from the Appendix in "Icons of Evolution," I would give Wells' book a grade of an "F," because he distorts and misquotes scientists and does not write to encourage people to build upon a logical foundation, but rather to blindly accept his "proofs" that evolution is wrong." [Artwork at top of this box is from this webpage.]

Don Lindsay : in a review of reviews of Icons of Evolution, presents a letter to the editor of the Philadelphia Enquirer (16 December 2024) by Richard Weisenberg, Professor of Biology. This letter was a response to one by Wells in which some of the points in Wells' book were given a failing grade.

Jerry Coyne, Professor of Ecology & Evolution : In discussing the misuse of one of his papers, Coyne states "Creationists such as Jonathan Wells claim that my criticism of these experiments casts strong doubt on Darwinism. But this characterization is false." If you have access to the British science journal "Nature," see Coyne review of Wells' book, "Creationism by Stealth," in the issue of 12 April 2024.

Massimo Pigliucci : has debated Wells, and has a short point-by-point rebuttal of the book.

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Boston Review : Allen Orr, Evolutionary Biologist, Reviews "Darwin's Black Box"

Boston Review : Response by Douglas J. Futuyma (hemoglobin, eyes)

Boston Review : Response by Jerry H. Coyne (integrity, etc.)

Boston Review : Response by Russell F. Doolittle, biochemist (hemoglobin, clotting)

Michael Ruse in Boston Review : As far as I am concerned, if Behe wants to appeal to design to understand the world, he can do so all that he wants. Rather, I ask whether he has the right to do so in a context where he expects us to take him seriously, especially to take him seriously as a scientist.

American Scientist Review Article

Review by Kenneth R. Miller : Professor of Biology, Brown Univ., Providence, R.I.

Missing Links and the Origin of Biochemical Complexity : by Barry A. Palevitz, again. If the really important question in eye evolution isn't gross anatomy but molecular pathways, the answer isn't in intelligent design or other supernatural handwaving, but more biochemistry and genetics.

Review by Terry M. Gray : Dept. of Chemistry, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI
Complexity--Yes! Irreducible--Maybe! Unexplainable--No!  A Creationist's Criticism
Irreducible Complexity or Irreproducible Irreducibility? : Keith Robison at talkorigins.org

Review of Darwin's Black Box : By biochemist David Ussery, refuting Behe.

Review by Gert Korthof : Behe criticized Darwinism. Criticism in science is essential. Behe offered no scientific alternative for Darwinism. Nobel Prizes go to those who solve problems, not to critics.

Evolution of the Bacterial Flagella : Michael Behe nominates the clotting system, the immune system and the bacterial flagella as systems that are "irreducibly complex" and unable (or unlikley) to be produced via evolution. This article outlines the construction of eubacterial flagella, it's relationship to other systems, and ends with a speculative scenario for its evolution.

Michael Behe's "Darwin's Black Box" : Review by Don Lindsay (fine evolution website)

Rebuttal of Behe : by Clare Stevens, Zoologist and Physiologist.

Redundant Complexity : A Critical Analysis of Intelligent Design in Biochemistry.
by Niall Shanks, Depts. of Philosophy and Biological Sciences, E. Tenn. St. Univ.

An Anonymous Review of a Paper by Behe (by a journal referee, but released by Behe himself). Michael Behe has submitted some of the ideas from "Darwin's Black Box" to peer-reviewed scientific journals. So far, he reports, his paper has been rejected. In this referee's judgment, the manuscript of   Behe "does not contribute anything useful to evolutionary science. The arguments presented are weak. ....Meanwhile, metaphysicians should spare scientists their metaphysics and just let the scientists do their work - or join them in doing it."

A Classification of Possible Routes of Darwinian Evolution. :
These are: serial direct evolution, parallel direct evolution, elimination of functional redundancy, and adoption from a different function. This classification provides a conceptual framework within which to investigate the accessibility by Darwinian evolution of complex biological structures. Another nail in the coffin of Behe's thesis.

Shortsightedness in Intelligent Design : by Jonathan Griffin, High School Biology Educator.

Published Works on Biochemical Evolution : Michael Behe claims: "There has never been a meeting, or a book, or a paper on details of the evolution of complex biochemical systems." In any case the claim itself is false since papers do in fact exist that attempt to flesh out the details of the evolution of various biochemical systems and structures. Many such citations are included.

Jonathan Woolf on Behe : Behe's argument is valid. If the premises are true, the conclusions must be true. However, Behe has failed to show that the premises are true. In particular, he's failed to show that irreducibly complex systems cannot have evolved by Darwinian means. This makes the book little more than an exercise in abstract thinking. Behe may be right, but he hasn't proved it. A large probability exists that he's wrong.

The New Creationism by Robert Wright: Incidentally, the first time I opened Behe's book, I came upon a major confusion about Darwinian theory...... It's no wonder Behe can't imagine how natural selection could create complex things if he hasn't bothered to find out how natural selection is supposed to work in the first place.

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