Books
Jan 29th, 2008 by The Editors
Please share information about other relevant books by posting information and links as a Reply below…or just send a note to The Editors.
Recommended reading
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Principles of Evolutionary Medicine
The first textbook for the field. See the glowing review in Science.
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Evolution in Health and Disease (2007, 2nd Edition)
edited by Stephen C. Stearns and Jacob C. Koella
Oxford University Press (order and description)
Download Bibliography (pdf, endnote file, text) and Chapter 10.
Why we recommend this book:
Provides a state-of-the art account of current developments in the field etc.
Evolutionary Medicine and Health: New Perspectives (2007, 2nd edition)
edited by Wenda R. Trevathan, E. O. Smith and James McKenna
Oxford University Press (order; the OUP companion website)
Chapter 1.
Download Bibliography (endnote file, provided by E.O Smith).
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Why we recommend this book:
Provides a view of the field emphasizing work by antropologists.
Why we get sick: The new science of Darwinian Medicine (1994)
Randolph M. Nesse and George Williams
Times, New York (order)
Reviews: NEJM.
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Why we recommend this book:
Groundbreaking book describing the field for the first time…
The Evolution of Infectious Disease (1994)
Paul W. Ewald
Oxford University Press (order)
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Why we recommend this book:
A clear and interesting introduction to evolutionary approaches to infectious disease.
Optimal Format for adding books:
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Line 6: A sentence or two about the significance of this book for evolution and medicine
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Then a brief summary of the book if available
Diseases and Human Evolution
Ethne Barnes
University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque
General introduction to origin of all kind of diseases from an evolutionary point of view. Addresses a broad audience.
From back cover:
Recent interest in new diseases, such as HIV / AIDS and Ebola, and the resurgence of older diseases like tuberculosis have fostered questions about the history of human infectious diseases. How did they evolve? Where did they originate? What natural factors have stalled the progression of diseases or made them possible? How does a microorganism become a pathogen? How have infectious diseases changed through time? What can we do to control their occurrence? Ethne Barnes offers answers to these questions, using information from history and medicine as well as from anthropology. She focuses on changes in the patterns of human behavior through cultural evolution and how they have affected the development of human diseases.
Cancer – the Evolutionary Legacy
Mel Greaves
Oxford University Press
An evolutionary perspective on Cancer, for a non-specialist audience.
From the website of Oxford University Press:
In this lucid and entertaining book, Mel Greaves argues that evolutionary biology offers a new perspective that can help us unravel the riddle of cancer. Why, for example, have women always had such a raw deal in the cancer stakes? And why are some cancers, such as prostate cancer, increasing in incidence?
Greaves argues that Darwinian selection millions of years ago has endowed our genes and cells with inherently cancerous credentials, and this is exacerbated by our rapid social evolution and exotic behavioural traits that outpace genetic adaptation. The book is full of novel insights, the latest scientific discoveries, and wonderful historical anecdotes. It provides a unique portrait of cancer, past, present, and future.