Books by Ernst Mayr

In a series of twenty chapters, Ernst Mayr presents a consecutive story, beginning with a description of evolutionary biology and ending with a discussion of man as a biological species. Calling attention to unsolved problems, and relating the evolutionary subject matter to appropriate material from other fields, such as physiology, genetics, and biochemistry, the author integrates and interprets existing data. Believing that an unequivocal stand is more likely to produce constructive criticism than evasion of an issue, he does not hesitate to choose that interpretation of a controversial matter which to him seems most consistent with the emerging picture of the evolutionary process.

In his extraordinary book, Mayr fully explored, synthesized, and evaluated man's knowledge about the nature of animal species and the part they play in the process of evolution. Now, in this long-awaited abridged edition, Mayr's definitive work is made available to the interested nonspecialist, the college student, and the general reader.

The diversity of living forms and the unity of evolutionary processes are themes that have permeated the research and writing of Ernst Mayr, a Grand Master of evolutionary biology. The essays collected here are among his most valuable and durable: contributions that form the basis for much of the contemporary understanding of evolutionary biology.

What we do and do not know about evolution, by one of the field's pioneering thinkers.

The great evolutionist Mayr elucidates the subtleties of Darwin's thought and that of his contemporaries and intellectual heirs-A. R. Wallace, T. H. Huxley, August Weisman, Asa Gray. Mayr has achieved a remarkable distillation of Darwin's scientific thought and his legacy to twentieth-century biology.