Understanding Evolution and Ourselves

by Dennis Littrell

This is an extraordinary book. There is nothing quite like it in the literature. What Dennis Littrell does is review some of the great tomes of evolution, especially recent evolution, written by some of the most glittering luminaries and critique them in a way that few people can. Littrell has the knowledge, but more importantly, he has the freedom to candidly and insightfully evaluate and criticize what evolutionary biologists, evolutionary psychologists and others from similar disciplines have written. The book is divided into six Human Evolution, Evolution vs. Creationism, Evolution Writ Small, Evolutionary Psychology, Evolution in General, and Evolution and the Future. There is an index of titles and another index of authors reviewed. Most of the famous names in evolutionary biology are here, such as Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond, Niles Eldredge, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Lewontin, Bobbi S. Low, Ernst Mayr, Ian Tattersall, Edward O. Wilson, Richard Wrangham, and of course Charles Darwin, and about eighty-five more including outstanding science journalists such as Matt Ridley, Nicholas Wade and Richard Wright. Littrell writes in a lively, often satirical style that stings his targets and delights his readers, but most significantly, his reviews inform. In many respects this book amounts to not just an introduction to the excitement of what is happening in evolutionary biology today, but can be seen as a course in evolution for the general reader. Don’t miss this book!

232 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2011

About the author

I've been a soldier, a newspaper reporter, a high school English teacher, a day trader and a poker professional. I've written literally millions of words in my career as a writer, and think of myself primarily as a writer. My work has appeared in popular publications like Playboy and Smoke magazines and in literary journals where it has won some minor awards. My novel A Perfectly Natural Act gained royalty publication from G.P. Putnam's in 1973 and was brought out in paperback the following year by Pinnacle. First Artists was considering an option on it when they went defunct. The novel would make a rather good movie. (Maybe I'll write the screenplay one of these days.) Additionally, I've written over fifteen hundred reviews (over a million words in all!) for various Web sites, most notably Amazon and the Internet Movie Database. Some of my reviews are among the best appearing anywhere (or so I have been told). Over the years I've also written about a dozen book-length manuscripts. My project now is to present perhaps eight to ten of these manuscripts before the public in book form. I was graduated from UCLA in 1969 with a major in Political Science and minor in English Literature.

Reviews

[Book Shark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Understanding Evolution and Ourselves by Dennis Littrell

"Understanding Evolution and Ourselves" is an exceptional book of reviews on the most elegant explanation of how life changed over time, evolution. Why would anyone read a book about reviews? Because they were written by the one and only Mr. Dennis Littrell. Mr. Littrell as I had described in the review of his wonderful book, "The World Is Not As We Think It Is", is that intellectual uncle everyone should be lucky to have. This book covers over ninety reviews on evolution. What sets Mr. Littrell apart is his innate ability to summarize and capture the essence of each book in his reviews. His reviews are a treat and this grand student of the world has provided knowledge seekers with a valuable reference. Evolution is one of my favorite topics in science and this book will serve as a personal reference for years to come. This incomparable 234-page book of reviews is broken out into the following six chapters: 1. Human Evolution, 2. Evolution vs. Creationism, 3. Evolution Writ Small, 4. Evolutionary Psychology, 5. Evolution in General, and 6. Evolution and the Future.

Positives:
1. Well-written, clear and concise reviews that capture the most important themes of each book. His reviews are insightful and will in fact improve your understanding of evolution.
2. The most unique book you will ever find...a book of reviews on evolution. Genius!
3. The book covers over ninety books and is broken out by the theme within evolution that they cover.
4. Excellent book format. Each chapter begins with an insightful introduction and is followed up with a review in alphabetical order. Each chapter covers an area on evolution whether it be on human evolution, evolutionary psychology or what have you.
5. Excellent review format. Each review begins with the author's name, book title, year and a rating (one to five stars) based on how well liked or valuable Mr. Littrell thought the book was. Each review begins with a one sentence synopsis of the book. He proceeds to clearly describe what the book is about and how good or not it was. He provides the main ideas, he quotes the book (page included) and is not afraid to be critical or complimentary. He covers so much of substance within that one thousand word limit imposed by Amazon. CliffsNotes eat your heart out!
6. Mr. Littrell has a great grasp on the topic and is able to provide wonderful insights into his reviews. He is able to compare books that cover similar topics and provides what he considers to be the better explanation. As an example, he states that Matt Ridley's book "The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature" covers the topic of the power of evolutionary psychology in a more sophisticated and direct way than Robert Wright's The Moral Animal. Having read both books, I agree.
7. The reviews are plain and simply a treat to read. Mr. Littrell's personality (humor) comes through without ever being the focus of the review. You'll end up knowing whether or not you'll want to read the book as a result of the review. Isn't that what reviews are for? As a bonus, you will pick up a nugget(s) along the way.
8. Life is too short to spend on a long poorly written book. This book will help you avoid investing your time poorly.
9. Can be read in any order. A great reference guide.
10. An index of reviewers and titles provided.

Negatives:
1. No links.
2. I would have added a quick list by ratings, nitpicky.

In summary, how can you not admire what Mr. Littrell has done here? A book review reference on evolution of the highest caliber. This book is a gift to avid readers like myself who love science and in particular a homage of sorts to the grand theory of evolution. This book will in fact help you better understand evolution and our species. I highly recommend it!

Recommendations (all books reviewed on Amazon): "Your Inner Fish" by Neil Shubin, "Wonders of Life" by Bryan Cox, "Last Ape Standing" by Chip Walter, "Before the Dawn" by Nicholas Wade, "Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why it Matters" by Donald R, Prothero, "The Making of the Fittest" by Sean B. Carroll, "What Evolution Is" by Ernst Mayr, "Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution" by Nick Lane, "Evolution for Dummies" by Tracy Barr and Greg Krukonis, "Written in Stone" by Brian Switek, "Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea" by Carl Zimmer, "The 10,000 Year Explosion" by Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending,"Relics of Eden" by Daniel J. Fairbanks, "Why Evolution Works" by Matt Young, "Why Darwin Matters" by Michael Shermer, "Only a Theory" by Kenneth R. Miller, "The Greatest Show on Earth" by Richard Dawkins and my favorite book for the masses, "Why Evolution Is True" by Jerry A. Coyne.