Review by Choice Review
Nothing stimulates a good debate in contemporary evolutionary biology more than seemingly simple questions like: "What is an animal?" "What is an organism?" "What is an individual?" This book traces the history of these questions from their very beginnings and skillfully weaves history, politics, egos, indisputable facts, and vigorously disputed interpretation of those facts into a cohesive story. The story can be read on many levels: the politics of science, the role of history in scientific discovery, the science of symbiosis, and the natural history of organismal associations. The 13 chapters each are heavily laden with citations (more than 300 distinct entries) covering publications often not discussed in the US. They carry the reader from 18th-century questions of "What exactly are lichens?" to the more recent "Just who is Gaia?" It is a valuable resource work. It will convince readers of the need for good libraries, good reviews of the old literature, and a good sense of history no matter how fresh the ideas. Upper-division undergraduate through professional; two-year technical program students.
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
