The First Word
By Christine Kenneally
"Read this book!" is a simple imperative. If you take it literally and dive into The First Word, you can't help but reread that sentence as a triumph of human cognition and meaning-making. This book showcases the panoply of skills and behaviors that spurred the evolution of language, and the interpretive feuds among the talented minds who study them. The First Word stresses the importance of examining language as a suite of abilities that overlap with and diverge from those of other species. The result is a crash course on imitation, gesture, abstract thought, and speech—from the complex mental life of monkeys and dolphins, to the syntax inherent in animal vocalizations, to FOXP2, a gene that is profoundly important to human language. Kenneally illustrates how our uniquely human ability arises out of parts reconstituted from a wide swath of the animal kingdom. The First Word attempts a synthesis no less monumental than language itself: It is an elegant parcel that makes the abstract concrete—and, like an imperative, it is eminently worthy of attention.
The Most Dangerous Animal
By David Livingstone Smith
"Right now, somebody somewhere is planning a war." From the outset, Smith illuminates the propensity of humans to obliterate our enemies. Using examples ranging from the Stone Age to the present day, Smith contends that a penchant for war is embedded in human nature. To comprehend the allure of war, we must first understand ourselves. Drawing on biology, anthropology, and psychology, Smith shows how our innate aggression, arising from the need to fight for food, shelter, and reproductive success—and our abilities to self-deceive and dehumanize adversaries—conspire to make war inevitable.
Evolution for Everyone
By David Sloan Wilson
Evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson makes an impassioned call to apply evolutionary thinking to daily life, with an emphasis on understanding behavior not typically considered adaptive. He argues, for example, that while overly sensitive people seem to have it rough, they do well under harrowing conditions—such as in concentration camps—because they're able to find meaning where others cannot. His grandest claim is that religion can be seen as a powerful social glue that allows groups to function and survive as coherent units. In the end, Wilson believes that anyone can use an evolutionary prism to understand the world.
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