Randolph M. Nesse

A really excellent, if slightly outdated, resource on the Darwinistic underpinings of our responses to disease. By far the best part of the book was the table categorizing disease responses (protective v. quirks v. secondary purpose). The book may have been made slightly stronger if it stuck more strictly to the topic of disease; however, as an introduction to the rigorous scientific ideas behind Darwinism, it was made richer by the discussions of pregnancy, foodstuffs, kin altruism and selfish gene phenomena. Thoroughly enjoyable, although not much new for the already versed reader.… (more)

This is a well written book that takes a look at why people get sick from an evolutionary perspective. This book is easy enough to understand without requiring a medical/biology degree, but not so simplified that it assumes the readers are have the attention span of a gnat and the intelligence of an amoeba. This is a meat and potatoes type of book compared to the bowl full of lettuce books that seem to be common in the popular science genre these days.

I do however wish the authors would update this book to include any additional information discovered/hypothesized in the last 20 years, but what they cover is still relevant and very interesting.… (more)

Excellent introduction to Darwinian medicine, with good examples of how an evolutionary perspective adds to our understanding of the origins of disease. While medicine usually focus on the "proximate causes" of disease (such as viral or bacterial agents, or inflammatory processes), we can learn much from also examining the "ultimate" or evolution-derived causes, which would include our genetic inheritance formed by mutation and natural selection, and especially by mismatches between our current resource-rich environments and the "environment of evolutionary adaptation" of our paleolithic ancestors.

Note that while the Kindle edition is (c) 2012, the book was published in 1996 and has not been revised.… (more)