The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics

by William B. Provine

Tracing the development of population genetics through the writings of such luminaries as Darwin, Galton, Pearson, Fisher, Haldane, and Wright, William B. Provine sheds light on this complex field as well as its bearing on other branches of biology.

Genres: Science, Evolution, Genetics, Nonfiction, Biology, History, History Of Science

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

Reviews

[Wendelle]

Sadly, since my background is minimal, the most I could get from this book was a superficial survey of the history of evolutionary biology. The book focuses on the parting of ways between Darwin and Galton/Haldane on evolution acting on individuals rather than populations; the historical debate between Mendelians and biometricians; a discussion of ''pure lines theory''; and population genetics as the synthesis between Mendelism and biometry. Approximately half of this book is biographical vignettes that begin with saying 'this guy from evolutionary biology graduated from Oxford or Cambridge...'. This emphasis on personalities is apparently by design, not accidental, because the book concludes by saying that personality conflicts figure largely on the timeline of evolutionary biology's development and discoveries, delaying correct results and conclusions, and that scientists sometimes accept things a priori due to preferences instead of secure scientific foundations. It is an interesting book with content probably not found elsewhere, but be prepared to have deep interest in the wrong road turns of biology at the driving hands of obscure Oxford dons, or you will be nodding off.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Which one, Fisher, Wright, or Haldane, would win in hand to hand combat.

[Animesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tough read. The author often does not explain the experiments, its design and logic in detail. This, along with the difference in schools of thoughts covered being subtle, makes it especially hard for the reader to follow and keep track of different inferences drawn from various experiments. This is a great book but I would recommend it only to people having some population genetics background, and of course, interest in history of evolutionary biology.

[Onuralp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poorly written. New edition can benefit from figures - especially for describing the experimental designs, and annotated footnotes on the context for some terminology.

1/3 stars is for the introduction to Udny Yule's work.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A straightforward, clear guide to a potentially confusing subject.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book much more than I thought I was going to. If you like to read about passive aggressive (or just aggressive aggressive) arguments about science in the late 19th century, then you will like there book. There's like three different sections that end with "and then the editors of Nature refused to publish anything else on the topic". So that was fun.

Of course, it was also quite good from an intellectual perspective. Sometimes when I'm reading science history I start to wonder what the point is in trying to understand the theories in question because they've pretty much been totally invalidated. It's good to understand where modern thinking comes from though, because some things make a lot more sense when they are placed into a historical context. Science doesn't happen in a vacuum! Theories grow out of what came before.

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in population genetics. It's short, easy to read, and relatively thorough.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Provine does a fantastic job of painting a history of the rise of population genetics and the modern evolutionary synthesis which is brief yet detailed, and very readable. Just the right level of mathematical detail for a light read, and a healthy spade of personality clashes, drama, and portraits of individual scientists. The afterword is recommended reading for placing it in historical context. There hasn't been such a refreshingly good treatment of this subject in the years since.

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last 50 pages made up for the rest. The summary of Fisher, Wright, and Haldane was nice.

[Mauna Dasari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew pop gen had such catty origins?

[Xin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good history of population genetics