This book follows the path charted by Richard Dawkins’ “The Selfish Gene” and Robert Wright’s “The Moral Animal”. The book covers a lot of the same material exploring evolutionary psychology with elaborate examples. Where it primarily differs from the two is the degree of focus in the evolutionary explanation of human behaviors (including differences between the sexes) contrasted with the ‘Blank Slate’ position taken by several sociologists – the claim that human behavior including gender differences are purely a function of culture. Stewart-Williams makes a compelling argument for why the ‘culture only’ theory cannot be a satisfying explanation for many of the most common ubiquitous behaviors and gender differences and where an evolutionary approach is the only reasonable explanation.

It’s commendable how Stewart-Williams carefully treads the subject of gender differences – a landmine especially in the current socio-political environment: he’s uncompromising on his passionate advocacy of the evolutionary drivers of differences but balances this with the abundant caution needed to prevent readers from drawing incorrect conclusions and worse, using it as evidence to perpetuate social inequality and nullify hard won gains on that front.

The final chapter on Memetics is also new territory (not covered in detail in the other two books), but lacks the readability of the rest of the book.

While several reviewers find the “Alien assessment” construct instructive it didn’t work for me: I was left bewildered and could not get past the assumption that a super intelligent alien would either not be a product of natural selection itself or unaware of the concept.

Overall a highly recommended read and to use an idea from the book, demonstrates sufficient inclusive fitness to survive on my rather small bookshelf at the expense of some other hapless book that will now be donated to the local library.