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The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary edition (Paperback)

by Richard Dawkins (Author) "Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence ..." (more)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
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Product Description

The Independent, 10 March 2006

Here is a genuine cultural landmark of our time.


Review

Dawkins's first book, The Selfish Gene, was a smash hit... Best of all, Dawkins laid out this biology - some of it truly subtle - in stunningly lucid prose. (It is, in my view, the best work of popular science ever written.) (H. Allen Orr, New York Review of Books )

The Selfish Gene is a classic. (Robin McKie, The Observer )

A genuine cultural landmark of our time. (The Independent )

Review from previous edition The sort of popular science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius. (New York Times )
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Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary edition
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4.3 out of 5 stars (89 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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74 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Richard Dawkins is a great teacher, 14 Oct 2006
By M. de Boer (Zuidlaren, Drenthe, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary edition (Hardcover)
As far as evolutionary biology's concerned I'm very interested, but nevertheless a layman. Richard Dawkins has however the rare ability to explain any scientifically difficult subject to practically everybody. His style is easy to read, very understandable, sometimes funny, and he uses very good examples to explain. Anybody having difficulties to understand evolution (and there are many out there) should read Dawkins' The Selfish Gene. A very good book: convincing, informative, readable book.
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93 of 102 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, and an utterly compelling read, 28 Jun 2006
This review is from: The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary edition (Hardcover)
While you might expect Dawkins' classic to be terrifically interesting (and you'd be right), you'd probably expect it to be a bit of a slog. In this respect you'd be completely mistaken - it flows beautifully, and is seriously difficult to put down. And the whole way through you have the wonderful sense that you're being educated as well as entertained.

The book starts right from first principles, describing a plausible theory for the origin of life, and explaining how more and more complex molecules could have formed in the 'primaeval soup'. Eventually a molecule arose that could replicate itself, and life has never looked back. Dawkins goes on to define a gene, which turns out to be quite an important step (I thought I knew what the word meant already, but I was wrong), and relates how genes have indirect control over what he calls 'gene machines', i.e. living things. Subsequent chapters then detail various survival strategies, 'altruism' and how it can be explained genetically, tensions between sexes and generations, and a new replicator, the 'meme'.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is the way that Dawkins draws on game theory to assess mathematically the most sensible way for a gene machine to act. In particular, the sections on 'the Prisoner's Dilemma' (a specific game theory scenario which crops up all over the place in nature) are, to me at least, a radical new way of thinking of many problems in (human) life, and how we should approach them. It could have ramifications for politics, social policy, economics, and the environment, to name only a few. Like all the difficult concepts in this book, Dawkins explains this simply and thoroughly, and the reader never feels patronised. And if you ever feel a bit stuck, a captivating, and often extremely bizarre, illustration is selected from the animal kingdom to clarify the point. Dawkins is also refreshingly willing to state that certain aspects of this theory are +the truth+, a brave claim in our muddled, PC society.

I would therefore thoroughly recommend this book to the general reader. It's stuffed with hugely stimulating concepts (Dawkins' own 'meme', or replicating idea, is a paricularly rich one), and wonderful snapshots of the animal kingdom. Be warned though, it may take over your life for a while - personally I feel tempted to jack everything in and go and take a bilogy degree!
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81 of 90 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars an inspirational piece of work, 21 Oct 2006
By Mike J. Wheeler (Kingswinford, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This is a landmark piece of writing without any doubt. This was in fact the book that sparked a whole genre. Until the success of 'The Selfish Gene' popular science writing was spectacularly under-read. After this popular science sections became noticeable in every self-respecting bookshop.

The book itself tackles what in essence could be a very difficult subject (the level at which natural selection acts) but it articulates it so well. Many since have tried to contribute to the debate but none have the prose skills of Dawkins nor the ability to put over a difficult subject with the reader seeing it as outstandingly obvious and common sense. Dawkins also initiates the idea of the meme as a unit of cultural evolution here for the first time. In the long run this may turn out to be Dawkins biggest original contribution to science and it has spawned many books on the subject since.

I have a particular fondness for this book. It was having read this and 'The Blind Watchmaker' which sent me back to full-time education at the age of 29 to read Genetics and subsequently develop a career in science myself. Truly an inspirational piece of work - one of the outstanding books of the Twentieth Century.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding and fundamental book on evolution and more
"The Selfish Gene" is one of the most acclaimed popular science books of all times. I dare say that I see it as *the* most important popular science book; for many reasons... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Alexandra Zaharia

5.0 out of 5 stars A new and thrilling way to look at genetical evolution
'The Selfish Gene' is a justly popular book both because of the importance of its content (a new and thrilling way to look at evolution by natural selection) and the brilliance of... Read more
Published 4 days ago by G. Imroth

1.0 out of 5 stars The Selfish Gene
For anyone with some knowledge of genetics, even at a common level, this is not a useful book. The author writes somewhat on the paternalistic side and repeats himself too often... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Clive J. Evans

1.0 out of 5 stars Bad science, bad writing.
I'm an avid follower of popular science. Described by the back-cover blurb as being 'intellectually rigorous', Dawkin's 'The Selfish Gene' is, in reality, a nasty rhetorical... Read more
Published 1 month ago by B. Jeremy

4.0 out of 5 stars The Selfish Gene
This is a very good book, well written and although quite a complex subject, fairly easy to comprehend. Read more
Published 1 month ago by A. Morgan

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book You Must Read Before You Die
If I had read The Selfish Gene when I was much younger I would not have wasted so much of my youth mired in christian fundamentalism and giving away my precious little subsistence... Read more
Published 3 months ago by demola

1.0 out of 5 stars Oh dear, so dull
I read this for our book group and I'm afraid I was very disappointed. The comments on the back say 'accessible' and 'witty' but I found it neither. Read more
Published 3 months ago by JJ

5.0 out of 5 stars See things differently
"The Selfish Gene" is an extremely well researched and written book on evolution. Dawkins looks at the genes as the most basic unit of replication. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Ryopinion

5.0 out of 5 stars Why not re-read this classic?
When I bought this 1989 edition, it was because I wanted to re-read the classic that I'd last seen thirty years ago. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Paul R. Syms

5.0 out of 5 stars An important book.
This is a five star book because of the amount of thought it generates in people, although some of that thought is (to say the least) not all that deep - see the 1 star reviews... Read more
Published 6 months ago by SCM

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