The Red Queen_ Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature - Matt Ridley [0]
THE RED QUEEN
‘Why have animals been put to the trouble of creating separate males and females to reproduce sexually, when asexual reproduction requires much less time and effort? … The surprising answer, according to Ridley, is that sexual reproduction evolved to beat disease … This remarkable book draws together many of the latest strands of scientific thinking, to create a coherent explanation both for sexual reproduction and for the extraordinary explosion in human brainpower over the past million years’ – Clive Cookson in the Financial Times
‘Sex … what it is and why it evolved are two of the biggest unsolved problems in biology … Mr Ridley explains the ins and outs of a complex and often controversial subject clearly, accurately and entertainingly’ – Peter Tallack in the Economist
‘Ridley is informative and stimulating throughout. His knowledge and breadth of reference is astonishing (from gibbons to Gibbon). His ability to explain complicated and scientific theories is helped by his uncluttered, modest and witty style … a bold and fascinating book’ – Edward Chancellor in the Spectator
‘A brave, exciting read whose sub-title merely hints at its provocations … The real beauty of this book is not that it is erudite without being inaccessible, or that it draws together with purpose so many disparate facts, but that its thought operates cogently across disciplines … it marries scholarship, discovery and wit and is just the sort of writing our age needs’ – Cynthia Rose in the Literary Review
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matt Ridley did research in zoology at Oxford before becoming a journalist. He worked for the Economist for eight years and was a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Telegraph for seven years. He is the author of Warts and All, about US presidential politics, and The Origins of Virtue, which is published by Penguin, and Genome. His books have been shortlisted for six major literary awards. He is chairman of the International Centre for Life. He lives in Northumberland and is married to a reader in physiology at the University of Newcastle.
The Red Queen was shortlisted for the 1994 Rhône-Poulenc General Prize for Science Books.
THE RED QUEEN
Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature
Matt Ridley
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published by Viking 1993
Published in Penguin Books 1994
Copyright © Matt Ridley, 1993
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Illustrations by Nancy Tolford
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
ISBN: 978-0-14-196545-1
Contents
Preface
CHAPTER ONE: Human Nature
CHAPTER TWO: The Enigma
CHAPTER THREE: The Power of Parasites
CHAPTER FOUR: Genetic Mutiny and Gender
CHAPTER FIVE: The Peacock’s Tale
CHAPTER SIX: Polygamy and the Nature of Men
CHAPTER SEVEN: Monogamy and the Nature of Women
CHAPTER EIGHT: Sexing the Mind
CHAPTER NINE: The Uses of Beauty
CHAPTER TEN: The Intellectual Chess Game
EPILOGUE: The Self-domesticated Ape
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface