Review of The Ancestor's Tale

I recently finished reading The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins, which is his latest book. For many, Dawkins needs no introduction. The zoologist has been one of the largest popularizers of evolution and has sparked controversy due to his atheism. If you are interested in evolution, Dawkins is a must-read. The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker are probably his most well-known books to date. The Ancestor's Tale is a welcome addition to my library. Since I plan to use some of it as material for future posts, I will not discuss much of the content here.

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The Ancestor's Tale is patterned, in a fashion, after the Canterbury Tales. As travelers to the beginning of life on earth, Dawkins escorts us backward in time and enlists organisms along the way to tell tales that teach us about some aspect of biology. The book covers a wide range of topics, though not exhaustively or else the book would be much larger than the 600+ pages it already is. Although further discussion and details are certainly warranted on many topics, the scope and size of the book forces Dawkins to move along. (Dawkins can be long-winded at times.) Dawkins' intent in arranging the book in reverse-chronological order is to avoid the impression that humans were the destined outcome of evolution. Be that as it may, I think the arrangement is helpful in another sense as well--it starts the reader on terrain they are already familiar with and then moves to the less familiar.

One advantage of dividing the book into individual tales is that a particular organism can be used as an example of the topic at hand. Sometimes the topic is important for all descendants of that particular organism, so the sense of context is nice. There are, however, a couple of disadvantages to this arrangement. Some of the tales are empty of any real content--they simply serve as fillers in the tree of life. Also, at times there is no particular reason to associate the message of a particular tale with the organism at hand. Since the table of contents only lists the organisms telling tales, you'll probably have to go to the index to find where any particular topic is discussed. I found it helpful to annotate the table of contents with a short description of the main point of each tale.

In terms of content, I have little to say because Dawkins certainly knows more than I do about many things. I only have one critique concerning information not covered: I think a discussion of the evolution of the immune system would have gone along nicely with the discussion of globin gene duplication in "the lamprey's tale." As far as topics to be left out, well one thing I like about Dawkins is his willingness to take on politically incorrect topics. However, there are two or three cheap-shots taken at U.S. presidents that I think should have been left out. Two of the comments were in reference to the current war in Iraq. I think that, regardless of politics, these comments were distracting from the discussion (I don't remember any criticism of his own country's leadership, but perhaps I did not notice) and served no purpose other than to let his opinion be known.

One additional complaint: there are very few endnotes, and the ones that do appear are for illustrations or figures. In order to find references, you have look up a topic or person in the index to find a number that corresponds to a reference in the bibliography. While this may make the text more aesthetically pleasing, it is cumbersome if you want to find references for Dawkins' claims.

Is this book for you? Well I definitely recommend it. However, if you have not read about biology and evolution before, I recommend reading another book first--perhaps one of Carl Zimmer's books. I think you will gain more from this book if you are already somewhat familiar with biology beforehand. If you are unfamiliar with animals or concepts in the book, I recommend you take time to learn more on the internet. Certainly religious people will have some disagreements with Dawkins, but don't let that get in the way. While you may not agree with Dawkins on all issues, I think it is worth your time to hear the man out. Most likely, he will teach you something.