Table of Contents

Foreword; Preface; Part I. Darwinism, Its Rivals and Its Renegades: 1. Walking archives; 2. A world without Darwin; 3. Darwinism old and new; Part II. The Peacock: 4. The sting in the peacock's tail; 5. Nothing but natural selection?; 6. Can females shape males?; 7. Do sensible females prefer sexy males?; 8. 'Until careful experiments are made …'; 9. Ghosts of Darwinism surpassed; Part III. The Ant: 10. Altruism now; 11. Altruism then; 12. The social insects: kind kin; 13. Make dove, not war: conventional forces; 14. Human altruism: a natural kind?; 15. Breeding between the lines; Epilogue; Notes on the letters of Darwin and Wallace; Bibliography; Index.

Promotional Information

An enthralling account of the arguments about altruism and sexual selection raging since Darwin's day.

Reviews

'Part detective story and part philosophical enquiry, The Ant and the Peacock offers a paradox in every paragraph.' J. G. Ballard, Weekend Telegraph 'Nobody with an interest in how the human mind has come to work the way it does can fail to be gripped by it.' The Economist 'In her racy and provocative way, Dr Cronin tells a story that sums up the essence of neo-Darwinism ... Part detective story and part philosophical enquiry, The Ant and the Peacock offers a paradox in every paragraph ...' Weekend Telegraph 'The finest study of the evolution of Darwinian thought that we have to date ... Cronin's special understanding of the sexual force in evolution's drive adds a most important dynamic to this work.' The New England Review of Books