The acclaimed naturalist delivers a pithy summary of evidence for Darwinian evolution of human behavior. A magisterial history of social evolution, [and] lucid, concise overview of human evolution that mentions tools and brain power in passing but focuses on the true source of our pre-eminence: the ability to work together.--Kirkus Reviews [starred review] Wilson ( On Human Nature ), a Pulitzer Prize winner and Harvard evolutionary biologist, addresses what he calls the six "great transitions of evolution" that led to human society in this ambitious treatise, his 32nd book. He does an impressive job in this short text of making the nature of the transitions clear."--Publishers Weekly Arresting. Deeply informative and provocative.--Ray Olson, Booklist Genesis is a beautifully clear account of a question that has lain unsolved at the core of biology ever since Darwin: how can natural selection produce individuals so altruistic that, rather than breeding themselves, they help others to do so?--Richard Wrangham, author of The Goodness Paradox In his characteristically clear, succinct, and elegant prose, one of our grand masters of synthesis, Edward O. Wilson, explains here no less than the origin of human society.

--Richard Rhodes, winner of the Pulitzer Prize Endlessly fascinating, Edward O. Wilson - in the tradition of Darwin - plumbs the depths of human evolution in a most readable fashion without sacrificing scholarly rigor.--Michael Ruse, author of A Meaning of Life.