Re: Book recommendation

From: Guy Hoelzer (hoelzer_at_unr.edu)
Date: 03/03/05 

Date: Thu, 3 Mar 2005 13:07:23 -0500 (EST)

in article d0626g$gfi$1@darwin.ediacara.org, Perplexed in Peoria at
jimmenegay@sbcglobal.net wrote on 3/2/05 8:01 PM:

> <clemenr@wmin.ac.uk> wrote in message
> news:cvvldt$1eha$1@darwin.ediacara.org...
>> Hi. Could someone please recommend a book on evolutionary biology for
>> me. While I have good access to various journals such as the Journal of
>> Evolutionary Biology, Evolution, Trends in Ecology and Evolution etc.,
>> I would also like to have what could be described as "a good
>> undergraduate textbook". I have used _Evolutionary Biology (3rd
>> Edition)_ by Futayama before, but note that it's from 1998, and am
>> thinking that there might be something better around. I *mostly* find
>> the journal articles quite readable, so any suitable books would not
>> have to be at undergraduate level.
>
> My requirements are similar. I notice by browsing Amazon that there seem
> to be three textbooks available - Futuyma, Ridley, and Strickberger.
> I've browsed thru Futuyma and was a little put off by his sneers at
> mathematics and models.

You must be misreading his comments. Futuyma does not personally dismiss
the value of mathematics and models in evolutionary biology. My opinion is
that Futuyma's textbook called "Evolutionary Biology" is the most accurate
and thorough textbook in Evolution out there. He does the best job of not
twisting difficult concepts as a way of pandering to his student audience.
I found that it was too encyclopedic for the undergraduates at my
institution, but it is the best choice for graduate students IMHO. Futuyma
has also just published a new textbook simply called "Evolution", which is
shorter and targeted more to undergraduates. I haven't completed a thorough
review yet, but I like the coverage of topics and the order in which they
are presented.

> Can anyone tell me anything about Ridley or
> Strickberger? How do they compare with Futuyma? Which would be used
> at the better universities? All three cost about a hundred bucks apiece.

I have used Ridley and reviewed Strickberger, who is the author of what used
to be the best selling textbook in Genetics (about 20 years ago). I like
many things about Ridley (the layout, topic coverage, readability), but I
find him to be too biased in his personal views of evolutionary theory and
methodology to present them in a balanced way. IMHO he often distorts ideas
to make them more palatable to undergraduates, and information in the
textbook is sometimes contradictory. For example, Ridley is a diehard
cladist. He tries to present the set of alternative conventional approaches
to phylogenetics, but elsewhere in the book he basically indicates that
cladistics is the only valid approach. There are several such examples. I
think that Strickberger's textbook is rather rarely used in Evolution
courses. It is relatively dry, IMHO. It does take a rather novel approach
of walking the reader through the diversity of taxonomic groups, so if that
is something you would like, then I Strickberger might be a good choice.
However, if that is the primary thing you are after there may be better
options that don't claim to be evolution textbooks.
 
> I guess I don't need much math in the text; I can get that elsewhere.
> But I would like to see proper attention paid to the history of the
> field. I've heard names like deVries, Bateson, Goldschmidt, etc., but
> I don't know much about them. Also, I have no overwhelming interest
> in human evolution.

I don't think that any of the books you listed are very good in there
coverage of historically influential evolutionary biologists like these.
Futuyma and Ridley cover the main players in the modern synthesis, but don't
go much further. I forget what Strickberger covers in this regard. There is
a wonderful old evolution textbook you might enjoy that was co-authored by
four of the leading evolutionary biologists of the day, each from a
different sub-discipline. The authors included Francisco Ayala, and I think
they included George Gaylord Simpson and Theodius Dobzhansky. It was
published in the 1960's.
 
> While talking books, I notice Amazon has a book by Sean Rice called
> "Evolutionary Theory". Looks good. Anyone know anything about it?

I highly recommend it for someone as prepared to appreciate quantitative
arguments as you are.

Guy Hoelzer

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