A major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences-what Darwin termed "the taste for the beautiful"-create the extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world.
RICHARD O. PRUM is William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology at Yale University, and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. He has conducted field work throughout the world, and has studied fossil theropod dinosaurs in China. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2010.
"Prum's argument is exhilarating . . . The Evolution of
Beauty should be widely read, as it will provoke readers, shaking
them (as reading Hume did to Kant) from their dogmatic slumbers . .
. I don’t see how any biologist could read this book and not walk
away at least questioning the idea that adaptation must explain
every last trait. Survival of the fittest might not be enough to
explain nature. We might need survival of the prettiest, too."
—Sam Kean, Wall Street Journal
"Prum draws on decades of study, hundreds of papers, and a lively,
literate, and mischievous mind . . . a delicious read, both
seductive and mutinous . . . Prum's attention never strays far from
nature, and his writing [about birds] is minutely detailed,
exquisitely observant, deeply informed, and often tenderly
sensual."
—David Dobbs, New York Times Book Review
"The single most provocative book I read this year, one of those
books that changes the way you look at everything . . . Everything
about this book is unexpected, including the prose–fine and often
funny."
—Michael Pollan
“The Evolution of Beauty is at once fascinating, provocative, and
totally compelling. Anyone interested in science or art or
sex—which is to say everyone—will want to read it.”
—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction
“A fascinating account of beauty and mate choice in birds and other
animals. You’ll be amazed by the weird things that birds do to win
mates. You’ll also discover why both men and women have armpit
hair, why men lack the penis bone widespread in other mammals, and
what really happened in the Garden of Eden.”
—Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and
Steel
"A major intellectual achievement that should hasten the
adoption of a more expansive style of evolutionary explanation that
Darwin himself would have appreciated."
—Nick Romeo, Washington Post
“A smorgasbord of evolutionary biology, philosophy, and sociology,
filtered through Prum’s experiences as a birdwatcher and his
diverse research on everything from dinosaur colors to duck sex.
Through compelling arguments and colorful examples, Prum launches a
counterstrike against the adaptationist regime, in an attempt to
‘put the subjective experience of animals back in the center of
biology’ and to ‘bring beauty back to the sciences.’”
—Ed Yong, The Atlantic
“Prum’s career has been diverse and full, so that reading this
fascinating book, we learn about the patterning of dinosaur
feathers, consider the evolutionary basis of the human female
orgasm, the tyranny of academic patriarchy, and the corkscrewed
enormity of a duck’s penis. Combining this with in-depth study of
how science selects the ideas it approves of and fine writing about
fieldwork results in a rich, absorbing text . . . The dance Prum
performs to convince you to take him on as an intellectual partner
is beautiful and deserves to be appreciated on its own terms.”
—Adrian Barnett, New Scientist
"Reads like a memoir, argues like a manifesto, and shines with
Prum's passion for all things ornithological."
—Erika Lorraine Milam, Science
“Life isn’t just a dreary slog of survival. It brims with
exuberance—from extravagant plumage to strange courtship rituals.
In The Evolution of Beauty, Richard Prum takes
us into this universe of delights to discover a fascinating
idea: that beauty is central to the history of life.”
—Carl Zimmer, author of Parasite Rex and Evolution:
Making Sense of Life
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