An Urchin in the Storm: Essays About Books and Ideas - Softcover

Gould, Stephen Jay

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393305376 ISBN 13: 9780393305371

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988

"What pleasure to see the dishonest, the inept, and the misguided deftly given their due, while praise is lavished on the deserving―for reasons well and truly stated."―Kirkus Reviews

Ranging as far as the fox and as deep as the hedgehog (the urchin of his title), Stephen Jay Gould expands on geology, biological determinism, "cardboard Darwinism," and evolutionary theory in this sparkling collection.

About the Author:

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Geology at Harvard University. He published over twenty books, received the National Book and National Book Critics Circle Awards, and a MacArthur Fellowship.

From Publishers Weekly:

As a Darwinian biologist, Harvard scientist Gould has waged an ongoing battle with those who oversimplify evolutionary theory. He reminds us that understanding how an organism now functions may not explain why it evolved as it did. And when the organism in question is the human being, Darwin must sometimes yield to Lamarck, Gould freely admits, since we hand down cultural traits directly to our offspring. In this collection of reviews reprinted from the New York Review of Books, the author of Ever Since Darwin takes aim at sociobiology ("cardboard Darwinism") and the racialist theories of Arthur Jensen. He takes shots at Jeremy Rifkin, noted opponent of Darwinism and of genetic engineering. Gould argues that the scientific establishment's rejection of Barbara McClintock, forerunner of molecular genetics, had as much to do with her idiosyncrasies as with the fact that she was a woman.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0393305376
• ISBN 13: 9780393305371
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256