outdated stuff, not really good Jan 8, 2012
by apollo
Harvard published this just prior to Gould's untimely (and anticipated) death--nice for Gould to se his big book in print, but does it have a place? While writing his popular (justifiably so) books, Gould lost touch with the cutting edge of evolution, and the implications of the genomic revolution. In case you didn't know, Gould didn't do much research, and it's not great. He quickly turned to popular writing (Harvard actually hires people like that?) (Yes, E. O. Wilson is another). Somebody has to tell the truth about6 the nonsense that went on at Harvard (and still does). What Gould has to say in this book could easily have been condensed and should have been updated by someone more in touch with current evolutionary biology. A team of writers could have saved this project, no one person can summarize evolution (Ernst Mayr didn't).
