Climbing Mount Improbable
Richard Dawkins. W. W. Norton & Company, $16.95 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-393-31682-7
A prominent Darwinian examines the role of chance in evolution. (Sept.)
Details
Reviewed on: 09/15/1997
Genre: Nonfiction
- Amazon
- Apple Books
- Barnes & Noble
- Bookshop
- Share
- Tweet
- Copy Link
More By and About this Authorchevron_right
- A DEVIL'S CHAPLAIN: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and LoveRichard DawkinsOxford don Dawkins is familiar to readers with any interest in evolution. While the late Stephen Jay Gould was alive, he and Dawkins were friendly antagonists on the question of whether evolution Continue reading »
- THE ANCESTOR'S TALE: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of EvolutionRichard DawkinsThe diversity of the earth's plant and animal life is amazing—especially when one considers the near certainty that all living things can trace their lineage back to a single Continue reading »
- The God DelusionRichard DawkinsThe antireligion wars started by Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris will heat up even more with this salvo from celebrated Oxford biologist Dawkins. For a scientist who criticizes religion for its Continue reading »
- The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for EvolutionRichard DawkinsSignature Reviewed by Jonah Lehrer Richard Dawkins begins The Greatest Show on Continue reading »
- Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for WonderRichard DawkinsKeats complained that Newton's experiments with prisms had destroyed all the poetry of the rainbow. Not so, says Oxford biologist Dawkins (The Selfish Gene) who, in an eloquent if prickly defense of Continue reading »
- The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without DesignRichard DawkinsOxford zoologist Dawkins (The Selfish Gene, The Extended Phenotype trumpets his thesis in his subtitlealmost guarantee enough that his book will stir controversy. Simply put, he has responded head-on Continue reading »
- River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of LifeRichard DawkinsDawkins (The Selfish Gene) pictures evolution as a vast river of DNA-coded information flowing over millennia and splitting into three billion branches, of which 30 million branches--today's extant Continue reading »
- Climbing Mount ImprobableRichard DawkinsWhile an enzyme molecule or an eye might seem supremely improbable in their complexity, they are not accidental, nor need we assume that they are the designed handiwork of a Creator, asserts Oxford Continue reading »
- The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really TrueRichard DawkinsIn this outstanding "graphic science book," evolutionary biologist Dawkins (The Selfish Gene) teams up with illustrator Dave McKean (The Graveyard Book) to examine questions in everyday science, such Continue reading »
- An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a ScientistRichard DawkinsAs anyone familiar with his work might expect, Dawkins’s memoir is well-written, captivating, and filled with fascinating anecdotes. Beginning just prior to his birth in colonial Kenya during WWII Continue reading »
- Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in ScienceRichard DawkinsFollowing the first volume of his memoirs, An Appetite for Wonder, Dawkins reminisces about his life from the 1976 publication of his bestselling The Selfish Gene to the present. Continue reading »
PW EDITORS’ PICKS FOR
THE BEST NEW BOOKS
PW EDITORS’ PICKS FOR THE BEST NEW BOOKS
Featured Nonfiction Reviews
Den of Spies: Reagan, Carter, and the Secret History of the Treason That Stole the White House
Craig Unger
Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign really did make a deal with Iran to delay the release of 52 American hostages until after the election, according to this labyrinthine Continue reading »
The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir
Edmund White
With his trademark irreverence, White (The Humble Lover) celebrates more than six decades of sex in a candid memoir that doubles as an indispensable work of queer history. A Continue reading »
Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling
Jason de León
Smugglers who help Central Americans traverse Mexico and cross into the U.S. are not the “slick haired... kingpins” portrayed in popular media but are usually themselves poor Continue reading »
Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World
Dorian Lynskey
This sweeping cultural history from journalist Lynskey (The Ministry of Truth) chronicles how films, novels, and other media have imagined the apocalypse from ancient times Continue reading »
chevron_right
