Product Description

These essays by Stephen Jay Gould, selected from the last six years of his writing, all examine aspects of natural history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #186971 in Books
• Published on: 1992-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 540 pages

Customer Reviews

Great essays from a great essayist
This was the first set of Stephen Jay Gould's essays that I read and is probably still my favourite. Gould takes subjects as varied as the origin of the QWERTY keyboard, the 18th century fad of mesmerism, travels of the Voyager space probe and weaves them into topics from evolution and the natural sciences. I find it impossible to read Gould's work without feeling that I have learnt something. Great stuff.

Praise from a natural science gradualist
I read this book looking to criticize, but instead I gave great praise. This book is perfect for natural science students with an interest in natural history, but is written with enough humour to keep the interest of anyone with even a passing interest in natural science.
There is a great deal of criticism in science journals and popular science books about some of Goulds ideas and I am no exception. As a gradualist I find Goulds ideas on punctuated equilibrium contraditory to what we real find in nature. Despite this everything esle about these essays is brillient. Gould shows a massive amount of knowledge about natural history, zoology and history and knows how to put it over with out needing to give too much scientific detail.
This book is fun and easy to read, you will learn a lot about things you may have thought you already knew about and it will open your eyes to many new lines of thought.
A great book for everyone interested in science.

wonderful collection of wonderful essays
these essays are both beautifully written and incredibly thought provoking. i couldn't put this one down.