Reading List

Arsuaga, Juan Luis The Neanderthal's Necklace (Four Walls, 2002). Discussion of the life and culture of Neanderthals, early inhabitants of Europe who are not ancestors of humans and why they are not.

Bailey, J. Michael. The Man Who Would Be Queen. Joseph Henry, 2003. The best introduction to the etiology of homosexuality although highly controversial among gay activists and conservatives alike.

Bainbridge, David. The X in Sex. (Harvard Press, 2003). Interesting discussion of the X chromosome and its effects on gender determination, gender related traits, and gender related diseases.

Banton, Michael Racial Theories (2nd edition, Cambridge U. Press, 1998). A classic discussion of theories of race and justifications for racism across time.

Barkow, Jerome, Cosmides, Leda, & Tooby, John. The Adapted Mind. Oxford, 1992. An edited book containing a classic set of papers on evolutionary psychology. Now dated and not easy to read, but it still contains the major arguments.

Baron-Cohen, Simon The Essential Difference (Basic Books, 2003). Argues that men and women have fundamentally different ways of thinking, men being better at systematizing and women at empathy. Provocative and draws on a range of psychological, evolutionary, and biological research. His earlier Mindblindness deals with theory of mind and autism which also are covered in the more recent book.

Bloom, Paul. Descartes' Baby. Basic Books, 2004. What infants know and how they learn more, written from an evolutionary perspective. First rate.

Boyd, Robert & Silk, Joan How Humans Evolved. (Norton, 2003). A standard textbook with more detail than the average reader needs (or wants) but quite readable.

Buss, David. The Evolution of Desire. Basic Books, 1994. The leading exponent of the idea that men favor attractiveness and females resources in picking mates. A classic.

Cartwright, John. Evolution and Human Behavior: Darwinian Perspectives on Human Nature. (Macmillan 2000). A fairly comprehensive treatment of the history of evolutionary thinking about humans and modern evolutionary psychology.

Cavalli-Sforza, Luigi Luca. Genes, Peoples, and Languages. (University of California Press, 2000). One of the leaders in modern studies of gene distributions around the world used to infer evolutionary history. He also discusses parallel developments in language evolution. This is not an easy read, but it is as close to definitive as one can get in a non-professional book. Wells and Olson below cover some of the same material in a more accessible manner.

Daly, Martin & Wilson, Margo. Homicide. Adline, 1988. An evolutionary account of murder. Their later and much briefer, The Truth about Cinderella (Yale Press, 1998) covers the same material.

Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene (2nd edition, Oxford Press, 1990), A classic but readable reformulation of how genes work. His later The Blind Watchmaker (reissue, Norton, 1996) is another classic and accessible discussion of evolution and how chance factors can account for biological complexity.

Dennett, Daniel Darwin's Dangerous Idea (Simon & Schuster, 1995). An influential philosopher has written one of the best discussions of modern evolutionary theory.

Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. (Norton, 1999). A Pulitzer Prize winning, well-written, and brilliant treatment of why some cultures have become "advanced" while others have languished. His argument rests on geographical and environmental explanations rather than genetic. Similarly his recently published (and best selling) Collapse explains why cultures and civilizations decline. His earlier The Third Chimpanzee on human evolution is also exciting although now a bit dated.

Evans, Dylan & Zarate, Oscar Evolutionary Psychology (Icon Books, 1999). Despite heavy reliance on cartoons this is the best short introduction to this topic.

Gopnik, Alison, Meltzoff, Andrew, & Kuhl, Patricia The Scientist in the Crib. (Harper, 1999). Three experts on human infancy discuss the interplay between genetically given cognitive programs and the experiences of babies. Highly readable.

Gould, Stephen Jay. The Mismeasure of Man (Norton, 1996). A biased but informative attack on psychologists' attempts to measure individual differences, especially intelligence, and the effects on racial and gender theories on the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Harris, Judith Rich The Nurture Assumption (Free Press, 1998). Mounts a strong argument that genetics and peers matter more in developmental outcomes than do parents.

Lewin, Roger Human Evolution: An Illustrated Introduction (Blackwell, 1999). A good general introduction to theories, methods, and general results. Boyd & Silk (above) is more technical and comprehensive.

Maccoby, Eleanor E. The Two Sexes (Harvard U. Press, 1998). The leading expert on sex differences argues that they arise through interactions between biological predispositions and peer group influences.

Malik, Kenan Man, Beast, and Zombie (Rutgers U. Press, 2002). A thoughtful criticism of claims of evolutionary psychology and sociobiology as ways of uncovering a universal human nature.

Marcus, Gary, The Birth of the Mind. Basic Books, 2004. A sophisticated but still accessible treatment of the development of neural structures. Good discussion of the interplay of genes and experiences in creating the brain.

Marks, Jonathan. What It Means to Be 98% Chimpanzee (University of California 2002). A skeptical treatment of what can be learned about humans from genetic and behavioral studies of great apes.

Nisbett, Richard & Cohen, Dov. Culture of Honor. Westview, 1996. Why the American South is violent.

Olson, Steve. Mapping Human History: Genes, Race, and Our Common Origins. (Marriner, 2002). Covers much of the same material as Wells and Cavalli-Sforza. Using genetic information to detail the spread of humans across the world from Africa. Also severs as a useful antidote to those who insist that racial categories make sense.

Palmer, Jack & Palmer, Linda. Evolutionary Psychology. Allyn & Bacon, 2002. A standard, but accessible text.

Pinker, Steven The Blank Slate (Penguin Books, 2003). Winner of many awards, a beautifully written argument that our genetic endowment does matter and that modern social sciences have way over-emphasized the importance of experience in shaping human behavior. The earlier How the Mind Works covers the same material with a greater focus of modular accounts of human cognition.

Ridley, Matt Nature via Nurture (The Agile Gene in paperback) (Harper, 2003). An interesting, readable, but sophisticated treatment of the nature-nurture debate in which he argues that the two are inseparable. His earlier Genome is a lucid description of one gene on each of the 23 chromosomes demonstrating what we can and cannot conclude about genetic influences on behavior.

Roughgarden, Joan. Evolution's Rainbow. University of California Press, 2004. Controversial and interesting approach to the evolution of sex and sexuality.

Schwartz, Barry. The Battle for Human Nature. Norton, 1986. Classic discussion of classic theories

Stevenson, Leslie. Seven Theories of Human Nature (2nd edition, Oxford, 1987). Considers Christianity, Freud, Lorenz, Marx, Sartre, Skinner, and Plato, and mostly valuable for showing the range of views.

Sykes, Bryan. Adam's Curse (Norton, 2004). Interesting discussion of sex and especially the role of Y chromosomes in evolution and human history. His earlier Seven Daughters of Eve (Norton, 2001) discusses the importance of DNA in tracing human history.

Wells, Spencer. The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey (Random House, 2003). A discussion of the genetic Adam who lived about 60,000 years ago and from whom we are all descended. In the process he discusses genetic variation around the world and does so in an interesting and accessible style. Cavalli-Sforza and Olson above cover the same material.

Wrangham, Richard & Peterson, Dale. Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence. (Marniner, 1996). Fascinating discussion of the role of violence in the great apes and the implications for human behavior.

Wright, Robert. The Moral Animal. Vintage, 1994. A classic evolutionary account of moral and other social behavior.