Evolution for Everyone is David Sloan Wilson's fifth book on the subject (including Darwin's Cathedral and The Literary Animal) and the most reader-friendly. Critics favorably compare the effort to Steven J. Levitt's and Stephen J. Dubner's runaway best seller Freakonomics. They claim that Wilson, professor of biology and anthropology at Britain's Binghamton University, does for evolution what those two authors did for economics—that is, draw interesting and unexpected connections between musty theory and its practical applications in our everyday lives.

Renowned evolutionist David Sloan Wilson tackles these and many other questions in this witty and groundbreaking new book. With stories that entertain as much as they inform, Wilson outlines the basic principles of evolution and shows how, properly understood, they can illuminate the length and breadth of creation, from the origin of life to the nature of religion.

Evolution, as Wilson explains, is not just about dinosaurs and human origins,but about why all species behave as they do--from beetles that devour their own young, to bees that function as a collective brain, to dogs that are smarter in some respects than our closest ape relatives. In example after example, Wilson sheds new light on Darwin's grand theory and how it can be applied to daily life. By turns thoughtful, provocative, and daringly funny,Evolution for Everyone cuts through the rhetoric to provide a revolutionary new way of thinking about human beings and their place in the world.

1.The Future Can Differ from the Past

2.Clearing the Deck

3.A Third Way of Thinking

4.Prove It!

5.Be Careful What You Wish For

6.Monkey Madness

7.How the Dog Got Its Curly Tail

8.Dancing with Ghosts

9.What Is the Function of a Can Opener? How Do You Know?

10.Your Apprentice License

11.Welcome Home, Prodigal Son

12.Teaching the Experts

13.Murder City

14.How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Genetic Determinism

15.They've Got Personality!

16.The Beauty of Abraham Lincoln

17.Love Thy Neighbor Microbe

18.Groups All the Way Down

19.Divided We Fall

20.Winged Minds

21.The Egalitarian Ape

22.Across the Cooperation Divide

23.The First Laugh

24.The Vital Arts

25.Dr.DoolittleWas Right

26.How Many Inventors Does It Take to Make a Lightbulb?

27.I Don't Know How It Works!

28.Darwin's Cathedral

29.Is There Anyone Out There? Is There Anyone Up There?

30.Ayn Rand: Religious Zealot

31.The Social Intelligence of Nations, or, Evil Aliens Need Not Apply

32.Mr.Beeper

33.The Ecology of Good and Evil

34.Mosquitoes Under the Bed

35.The Return of the Amateur Scientist

36.Bon Voyage

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography

Web Sites

Index