The Richness of Life
  • Published: 2 July 2007
  • ISBN: 9780099488675
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 656
  • RRP: $32.99
Categories:

The Richness of Life

A Stephen Jay Gould Reader

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An impressive and generous selection of the best and most representative writing by one of the best loved scientists and science writers.

There aren't many scientists famous enough in their lifetime to be canonized by the US Congress as one of America's 'living legends'. Yet few would have grudged this accolade to Stephen Jay Gould, whose writings on history - both of the natural world and of the study of the natural world - had made him a household name by the time of his death in 2002.

A committed Darwinian and robust critic of creationist myths, he nevertheless made major revisions to orthodox Darwinian theory, from his concept of punctuated equilibrium to his insistence on the importance of chance in the history of life on earth. And in addition, his trenchant attacks on scientific racism and the pretensions of sociobiology still resonate, nearly three decades after they were first written.

In The Richness of Life, Steven Rose and Paul McGarr have selected from across the full range of Gould's writing, including some of the most famous of his essays and extracts from his major books. An introduction by Steven Rose sets both the essays, and Gould's life, in context.
  • Published: 2 July 2007
  • ISBN: 9780099488675
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 656
  • RRP: $32.99
Categories:

About the author

Stephen Jay Gould

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Geology at Harvard University and the curator for invertebrate palaeontology in the University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. He is the author of over twenty books, and received the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the MacArthur Fellowship. He died in May 2002.

Also by Stephen Jay Gould

Eight Little Piggies
The Hedgehog, The Fox And The Magister's Pox
Triumph And Tragedy In Mudville
I Have Landed
Rocks Of Ages
The Lying Stones of Marrakech
Wonderful Life
See all

Praise for The Richness of Life

This "best of Gould" collection leaves two strong impressions. One is that evolution is as proven a fact as gravity but that how it works is an unsolved problem. The other is that, for the practitioners, science is fun

Brenda Maddox, The Times

Georgeously crafted essays... entertaining... makes a plausible case for supporting claims that the author was a modern-day Montaigne of science... a rewarding read

Sunday Telegraph

A great scientist and science writer

Sunday Times

A Western Science phenomenon. His quirkiness, his ability to coalesce seemingly unconnected topics, and his individual passion are qualities that help make him such a powerful writer

Observer

The most readable of scientists. Whether linking the death of textile workers in New York with Darwin's theory of natural selection, or the sale of fake fossils in Morocco with an 18th-century paleontological hoax, Gould proves that he is a master bridge builder

Financial Times

It is a hallmark of Stephen Jay Gould's craft, brilliant paleontologist that he is, to retrieve long-buried evidence from oblivion and breathe vibrant life into it, making fascinating connections between science and the human predicament... extraordinary

Sunday Times

One of the best essayists in the business. He uses his wide background knowledge (anything from baseball to the political history of revolutionary France) as a bridge to entice non-scientists into sharing the excitement of scientific discovery and the curious, convoluted path of new ideas through history

Scotsman

A modern polymath

John R. G. Turner, Times Literary Supplement
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