In recent years, the claims of genetics and evolutionary psychology to explain and indeed legislate on the human condition have been loudly trumpeted in a host of popular books. Genes are said to account for almost every aspect of our lives. Evolution is supposed to explain alleged human universals, from male philandering and female coyness to children's dislike of spinach. There are even claimed to be genes that account for differences between people — from sexual orientation to drug addiction, aggression, religiosity, and job satisfaction. It appears that Darwin, at least in the hands of his popularizers, has replaced Marx and Freud as the great interpreter of human existence.

Biologists, social scientists, and philosophers have begun to rebel against this undisciplined approach to their different understandings of the world, demonstrating that the claims of evolutionary psychology rest on shaky empirical evidence, flawed premises, and unexamined political presuppositions. In this groundbreaking book, Hilary Rose and Steven Rose have gathered the leading and outspoken critics of this fashionable ideology in a shared and uniquely cross-disciplinary project. Contributors range from biologists Stephen Jay Gould, Gabriel Dover, Patrick Bateson, and Anne Fausto-Sterling; to anthropologists and sociologists Dorothy Nelkin, Tim Ingold, Tom Shakespeare, and Ted Benton; to philosopher Mary Midgley and cultural critics Barbara Herrnstein Smith and Charles Jencks.

The result of this joint work, Alas Poor Darwin, is a sharply engaged, accessible, and highly entertaining critique of evolutionary psychology's tenets. What emerges is a new perspective that challenges the reductionism of evolutionary psychology and offers a richer understanding of the biosocial nature of the human condition.

"At last! With humor and expertise, this diverse group of critical thinkers — social and natural scientists and philosophers — take on sociobiology, reincarnated as evolutionary psychology. In the current haze and maze of genes, it is a relief to read these earnest, funny, and always intelligent essays."
- Ruth Hubbard, Harvard University professor emereta of biology and author of Exploding the Gene Myth and The Politics of Women's Biology

" 'Evolutionary psychology' is the latest episode in the misuse of biology. Hilary and Steven Rose have been leaders in the struggle against this kind of pseudo-science and in Alas Poor Darwin they bring together a superb collection of essays debunking this latest attempt to hijack Darwin. Anyone who has been seduced by the claims of 'evolutionary psychology' should read this book."
- Richard Lewontin, Harvard University professor of zoology and biology, and author of The Triple Helix

"Darwin clearly loved his distinctive theory of natural selection — the powerful ideas that he often identified in letters as his dear 'child.' But, like any good parent, he understood limits and imposed discipline. He knew that the complex and comprehensive phenomena of evolution could not be fully rendered by any single cause, even one so ubiquitous and powerful as his own brainchild."
- From "More Things in Heaven and Earth" by Stephen Jay Gould, in Alas, Poor Darwin.

This collection of essays discusses every significant aspect of Evolutionary Psychology, with contributors from the fields of biology, psychology, natural history, philosophy, and sociology.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 329-337) and index.

Hilary Rose is a sociologist of science. Her most recent book is Love Power and Knowledge: Towards a Feminist Transformation of the Sciences.

Steven Rose is a neurobiologist. His most recent books are The Making of Memory and Lifelines: Biology, Freedom, Determinism.

Less selfish than sacred?: genes and the religious impulse in evolutionary psychology / Dorothy Nelkin — EP, phone home / Charles Jencks — Anti-Dawkins / Gabriel Dover — Why memes? / Mary Midgley — More things in heaven and earth / Stephen Jay Gould — Colonizing the social sciences? / Hilary Rose — Sewing up the mind: the claims of evolutionary psychology / Barbara Herrnstein Smith — Why babies' brains are not Swiss army knives / Annette Karmiloff-Smith — Taking the stink out of instinct / Patrick Bateson — Beyond difference: feminism and evolutionary psychology / Anne Fausto-Sterling — Different strokes: beyond biological determinism and social constructionism / Tom Shakespeare and Mark Erickson — Social causes and natural relations / Ted Benton — Evolving skills / Tim Ingold — Escaping evolutionary psychology / Steven Rose.