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Sperm Wars (Paperback)

by Robin Baker (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Pan Books; New edition edition (10 Mar 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330390775
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330390774
  • Product Dimensions: 20.3 x 14 x 1.9 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 361,046 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #16 in  Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Human Biology > Reproduction
    #48 in  Books > Science & Nature > Medicine > Medical Sciences A-Z > Reproductive Medicine

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Product Description

Product Description
Robin Baker puts forward the thesis that evolution has programmed men to conquer and monopolise women while women, without even knowing they are doing it, seek the best genetic input on offer from potential sexual partners. Facts of life presented include: 10 per cent of children are not fathered by their "fathers", less than 1 per cent off a man's sperm is capable of fertilizing anything - the rest is there to fight off other men's sperm, "smart" vaginal mucus encourages some sperm but blocks others, and a woman is far more likely to conceive through a casual fling than through sex with her regular partner. Baker describes fictionalized scences and then explains the science behind the actions to demonstrate how our everyday behaviour fits into a pattern of evolution.

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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Read The Selfish Gene, then read this., 22 Jul 2002
This is an absolutely excellent piece of work. Written in a detached and scientific style (a necessity given the emotive nature of the content) - this book captures the reader and retains them through it's novel structure and massively thought provoking content.

Sperm Wars leads us through a series of fictional sexual scenarios - and goes on to comment on them from a biological and evolutionary viewpoint - and their impact on the people involved. The scenarios are close to home - and the conclusions are hard hitting, uncomfortable and scientific - all at the same time.

This book gives the reader a unique and unromanticised view into the world of sex, and sexual selection - both in the human animal, and the rest of the animal kingdom in general. For all those who enjoyed the "Battle of the Sexes" chapter in Dawkin's Selfish Gene - this is the book for you. In fact, this is the book for anyone who is remotely interested in male and female sexual behaviour - but can probably only be fully appreciated in the light of Dawkin's book.

All in all, brilliant.

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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Sperm wars, 26 April 2006
An interesting book that sometimes left me feeling slightly voyueristic with its use of fictional sexual settings to set the scene for each scientific denoumement. That the body reacts subconsciously to its own gender's needs in different circumstances is well illustrated with various cost benefit analyses. I also found interesting the information on "sperm armies" with the different "soldiers" for different roles. My two complaints however are the lack of references given and the use of various uncheckable statistics and percentages from surveys on sexuality. I personally would not like to be absorbing "facts" from subjective surveys such as "The Hite Report". My second complaint is that there seems to be a complete subordination of modern mans conscious mind,conscience and cultural influences that are typical of many evolutionary psychological perspectives and some of the explanations are pretty far fetched and overlook alternative explanations. Having said that I am going to read it again and not for the dirty stories!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Sperm Wars, 16 Dec 2008
This review is from: Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles (Paperback)
Sperm Wars is essentially an evolutionary biology book which tries to explain various strategies men and women's bodies employ subconsciously to win an ongoing sexual arms race.

The book is written in a style where Baker describes a fictional scene (borrowing from newspaper articles, anecdotal evidence from friends, and other sources) which covers a specific sexual situation such as infidelity, homosexuality, rape, masturbation and so on, which is then analysed and interpreted from an evolutionary biology perspective.

The book suggests that an individual's body will employ a dynamic sexual reproductive strategy which is determined by its existing genetic characteristics, environment, opportunity and circumstance, with the ultimate aim of acquiring the best possible set of genes from a mate to pass on to future generations. The strategies discussed often involve subterfuge.

I personally found the book incredibly fascinating and extremely insightful in places, and definitely worth the read. Baker tackles a lot of issues in the book which are not typical reading for most people, most notably gang rape and paedophilia, which are quite graphic, but every issue is approached logically and analysed appropriately. No judgements are cast on any of the scenarios.

I assume most people will have stumbled on the book from one of two avenues, either by being interested initially by the sex chapter in Dawking's Selfish Gene, and probably having read the Red Queen by Matt Ridley, or Sex is Fun by Jared Diamond, with the second group of people being those who are working their way through the reading list of Neil Strauss from The Game. I would have thought people in the first category will get the most out of this book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars tabloid science illustrated by made for TV dramas
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5.0 out of 5 stars Wake up and smell the coffee
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