Darwin's On the Origin of Species: A Modern Rendition

Recommended Further Reading

305 Darwin wrote on a prodigious variety of subjects, from corals to emotions. All of his publications are available through Darwin Online, maintained by John van Wyhe and sponsored by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (UK): http://darwin-online .org.uk. Additional resourcesarecollectedonthecompanionwebsitetothis book: www.themoderndarwin.com. The body of modern literature directly or indirectly concerned with evolution is dauntingly expansive; happily there are several exceptional books written for a general audience. I highlight some of my personal favorites below–books I find both arresting and thought-provoking–followed by a bibliography. The foreword recommends Mark Ridley’s How to Read Darwin for advice on engaging the text of the Origin. (Ridley’s guidance works as well with this rendition as it does with the original.) Also mentioned are James Costa’s meticulously annotated Origin and Steve Jones’s interpretation in light of modern biology. Additional detailed commentary can be found in David Reznick’s The “Origin” Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the “Origin of Species.” These books go some way to demonstrating both the intellectual and scientific environment from which Darwin’s work was born and the extent to which that environment has changed.TheexcellentgraphicadaptationbyMichaelKellerandNicolle Fuller supplements key excerpts from the Origin with explanations and lively illustrations. Among the best accounts of Darwin’s life is the brilRECOMMENDED FURTHER READING 306 Recommended Further Reading lianttwo-volumebiographybyJanetBrowne,alsotheauthorofthemuch shorter but equally fascinating “biography” of the Origin. ErnstMayr,E. O. Wilson,StephenJayGould, andRichardDawkins have each written many superb books about evolution (see the bibliography for particular recommendations). Mayr brought his philosophical mode of thought to bear on evolutionary theory, an outlook that helped him rethink our perspective on biological science. Wilson is best known forwritingabouthislifelongresearchintosociobiology,whileGouldand Dawkins are recognized as passionate public educators. David Attenborough has become synonymous with the quality nature documentary, and his television programs, including Life on Earth and The Living Planet, often incorporate evolutionary themes. The companion books to these two series are full of memorable photography and written in Darwin’s tradition of wonder at the natural world. Olivia Judson’s Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation is the product of scientific expertise crossed with an exceptional facility for engaging writing. The book explores the often incredible consequences of sexual selection. The story of Peter and Rosemary Grant, the husband-wife team that has studied the evolution of finches on the Galápagos for over three decades, is chronicled by Jonathan Weiner in The Beak of the Finch. A basic understanding of molecular biology illuminates a great deal of what was unknown to Darwin, and its concepts are suffused with evolutionary theory. The best-written and most accessible textbook for this grounding is James D. Watson et al., Molecular Biology of the Gene. References Attenborough, David. 1979. Life on Earth: A Natural History. Boston: Little, Brown. ———. 1984. The Living Planet: A Portrait of the Earth. Boston: Little, Brown. Browne, Janet. 1996. Charles Darwin: Voyaging. Volume 1. London: Princeton University Press. ———. 2003. Charles Darwin: The Power of Place. Volume 2. London: Princeton University Press. ———. 2006. Darwin’s Origin of Species: A Biography. London: Atlantic Books. Costa, James T. 2009. The Annotated Origin : A Facsimile of the First Edition of “On the Origin of Species.” Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press. Dawkins, Richard. 2006. The Selfish Gene (30th Anniversary Edition). New York: Oxford University Press. Gould, Stephen J. 1992. The Panda’s Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History . New York: W. W. Norton. Recommended Further Reading 307 Hölldobler, Bert, and Edward O. Wilson. 1990. The Ants. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press. Jones, Steve. 2000. Darwin’s Ghost: A Radical Scientific Updating of the “Origin of Species” for the 21st Century. New York: Random House. Judson, Olivia. 2002. Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation. New York: Metropolitan Books. Keller, Michael, and Nicolle R. Fuller. 2009. Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species”: A Graphic Adaptation. New York: Rodale. Mayr, Ernst. 2001. What Evolution Is. New York: Basic Books. Ridley, Mark. 2005. How to Read Darwin. London: Granta. Reznick, David N. 2011. The “Origin” Then and Now: An Interpretive Guide to the “Origin of Species.” Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Watson, James D., et al. 2013. Molecular Biology of the Gene, 7th ed. Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press. Weiner, Jonathan. 1995. The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time. New York: Vintage Books...