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Jul 15, 2011

Maria rated it:

With the help of drawings, photos, cartoons, tables, diagrams & notes, an emphasis on extremely lucid step-by-step explanations, examples, iteration & reiteration & plenty of humor, R Dawkins shows that we are indeed so lucky to be witness to the Greatest Show on Earth -- this wonderful book is addressed not only to those interested in our natural world (and who'll maybe wish they'd majored in biology) but more particularly to the creationists and proponents of "intelligent design" -- More...

5 comments like (10 people liked it)

May 20, 2010

A.J. rated it:

There's a general feeling out there about Richard Dawkins that he's a little too shrill, a little too hard on people, and perhaps a tad too full of himself. I've had a couple of these thoughts from time to time, though not the last one, and would almost catch myself nodding in agreement until I put myself in the man's shoes. Professor Dawkins is brilliant with a capital B. He is fanatically devoted to science and his particular subject, evolutionary biology. He has spent his life researching and More...

2 comments like (24 people liked it)

Sep 27, 2011

Kris rated it:

Wow! This is definitely one of those books that makes you look at the world a little differently after reading. Richard Dawkins writes so well on the subject. He is extremely thorough in his description of the fact of evolution, but he doesn't dumb down his explanations either. If you are interested in a particular subject, he often references places you can go to continue the story. He paints a beautiful picture of how evolution really works and why that helps you appreciate this amazing w

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0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2012

Megan rated it:

I wish I'd had engaging and interesting texts like this to read when I had to take science classes in high school. I always wanted to like science so much, but I always got bogged down in minutae, in questions the text or teachers didn't address, and in the boredom of rote memorization. This book really made me like biology. Not only does it explain concepts in an intelligent and cohesive way, it has pictures! Color pictures, even. Much like the ones I stared at in biology or earth science inste More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 04, 2011

David rated it:

This isn't the best introductory book I've read on evolution, Dawkins loves to insult the people who don't hold his views, goes way to far sometimes to get his point across and has a tendency to ramble on and mention interesting but irrelevant stuff. Once you get past the flaws this actually is a pretty good book, oddly by the end some of those qualities I hated about the book in the beginning, I started to appreciate more in the end (I kind of enjoy the almost pointless side stories and facts) More...

6 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jan 21, 2010

Catie rated it:

Dawkins arguments for evolution are elegant and, in some cases, simply breath-taking. As a psychology professor myself, and as one who has had to contend with "history deniers" for years, I especially liked his description of Lenski's research on the evolution of bacteria. Although facts have always been denied by those who claim Intelligent Design as a valid explanation for all nature, Dawkins painstakingly and elegantly lays out unassailable facts in support of the theory of evolutio More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

May 20, 2011

Tag rated it:

After reading this book, I quickly realized that it was targeted for a particular audience--the choir complete with holy robes and clapping hands shouting, "...Preach it brother Dawkins, preach it my brother, Evolution AMEN!, Hallelujah!" I honestly think that it is required that you be a Dawkinite and part of the Dawkins Tabernacle Choir in order for you to take this book seriously.

I was fully expecting some kind of scientific treatise yet it ended up being like a bunch More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 23, 2009

diana rated it:

Two disclaimers before I begin my review:

1. I am an atheist.
2. I am a molecular biologist.

So, I am clearly not the target audience. That being said, I really wanted to like this book. I am so happy that there are people out there who are speaking out in defense of evolution and (although not in this book) atheism, and as such I want to support Richard Dawkins. However, the best way I can sum up my feelings about the book is to say that it resembles a very long versi More...

6 comments like (22 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2009

Marvin rated it:

Richard Dawkins has taken his seat along with Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan as a great populist of science. In all of his science books and especially in The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence For Evolution, He has taken a complex subject and presented it with clarity to a population that usually gets lost in the seemingly foreign language of most scientists. Yet he does not "dumb down" neither. He has a gift for beautifully explaining difficult topics in a way a layman can understa More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Mar 15, 2011

Cassandra rated it:

It hardly needs to be stated that I am a generous rater in the first place. I love Dawkins but sometimes his literary skills need to be checked a bit. I feel on occasion that he rushes to publish before fully forming some of his ideas. On the other hand great experiments in this book! The E-coli 20 year extraveganza blew my mind. I would not have likely stubled across this information without having read this book. So for at least that information I have to say I was pleased with the book. I als More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 06, 2011

Graham added it

This book, perhaps more than any others of his, demonstrates his stature as a communicator without equal. In it he sets out to concentrate his explaination of the evidence for the evolution of life in a step by step demolition of the arguments of Creationists.

Dawkins has covered many of these points in his previous books but here he brings them all together to address just this one subject.

He covers each of the various objections raised by Creationists, none more so that the supposed "Mi More...

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Mar 22, 2011

Alberto rated it:

Dawkins si conferma una delle mie "persone preferite". Il suo modo di affrontare grandi temi come in questo caso l'evoluzione (e tanti altri annessi) e la passione che ci mette nello scriverli, rendono i suoi saggi delle piccole perle. Scorrevoli, entusiasmanti e soprattutto "insegnanti". Vi assicuro che solo in pochissimi tratti del libro si raggiunge la difficoltà di scorrimento che a prima vista può instillare un saggio biologico sulla teoria dell'evoluzione di 400 pagine. More...

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Feb 09, 2012

Eppursimuov3 rated it:

I cannot disagree with Richard Dawkins when he says that the evolution of life is indeed 'the Greatest Show on Earth'! I also agree with him that there are already enough books on countering creationist arguments, and the need now is for a comprehensive book that presents the evidence FOR evolution. This book attempts to do just that, though I was rather disappointed that it wasn’t as comprehensive as I had hoped it’d be. Probably I’m asking for too much, considering the amount of evidence that More...

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Jan 11, 2012

John rated it:

How appropriate that in this bicentennial year of Darwin's birth, and the 150th anniversary of the original publication of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", Richard Dawkins's "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" has been published throughout the Anglo - American world by his American-based publisher, the Free Press imprint of Simon and Schuster. Not only should this be mere cause for celebration since its initial publication date falls within the Darwin More...

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Jan 08, 2012

Loy rated it:

T4 bacteriophage, Biogeography, Australopithecus, Plate tectonics, Embryology, Palaeontology, Macro-Evolution and Homology. If any of these words create a sense of apprehension in any part of your understanding, I would recommend avoid this evidential hypothesis by Richard Dawkins. Simply because apart from the inclusion of these grandiosely ghastly gargantuan guide-words which are omnipresent throughout Dawkins scientific masterpiece, he makes a trenchant proposition as to why evolution and not More...

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Jan 07, 2012

Robert rated it:

Back in the 60‘s, the Modern Library edition of the Origin of Species and Descent of Man was probably the single greatest inspiration for me to study biology and eventually get a degree in that major. I was not an atheist back in those days. I’m not sure I am totally one today? I have many, many problems with organized religion. I cannot nor will I ever believe that I could be a member of such a community. However, I have not given up on the idea that there might not be some intelligent design t More...

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Dec 28, 2011

Христо rated it:

ЕВОЛЮЦИЯТА е “Най-великото шоу на Земята”, доказва смазващият Ричард Докинс\
http://www.knigolandia.info/2011/12/blog...

Това е Книга, която не би трябвало да има нужда да бъде писана. Но както Докинс посочва още в началото, потискащо много хора са се вкопчили в безумната идея за планета на няколко хиляди години, едновременно сътворение на всички живи същества на планетата, че и въртене на Слънцето около Земята пътем. Всичко, заради което трябваше да се напише и величествената “Де More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 04, 2011

Steven rated it:

Bookmarks begins its review of this book by saying: "'Like a detective reconstructing a crime' (San Francisco Chronicle), Dawkins amasses a mountain of evidence in this richly illustrated, enormously readable explanation of the theory of evolution." This book is Dawkins' effort to lay out the evidence for evolution. His target is the "intelligent design" approach to explaining why species end up as they are--explicitly rejecting Darwinian evolutionary theory.

The b More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 19, 2011

Joe rated it:

This is the first ever Dawkins book that I could not finish. But then I'm not its target audience, being somebody who knows his science. To anyone who does the details on evolution set our here are distressingly basic and over-simplified. But then that's on purpose considering who the target audience is: people who from a lack of knowledge or an excess of misinformation cling to creationist beliefs. Mind you, I expect even Dawkins would recognize trying to reach people who are creationists f More...

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Nov 05, 2011

Ryan rated it:

Dawkins accomplishes just what he set out to do with this book: to provide a clear, logical, and eloquent explanation of why scientists consider evolution to be a fact. He patiently deconstructs evolutionary theory piece by piece, explaining why each component is logical, sound, scientific, and supported by an enormous array of facts, with no dissenting facts. He gives a solid overview of every relevant area of science, covering how we know what we know about natural selection, genetics, mutatio More...

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Sep 10, 2011

Chuck rated it:

This is a splendid book, comprehensive, well written, and nicely illustrated. Dawkins makes the case for evolution, drawing from the fossil record, comparative anatomy, contemporary experiments, and molecular genetics. Any one of these evidential paths is plenty convincing, but their collective weight is overpowering. Dawkins occasionally snipes at creationists, although he is much more restrained here than he was in The God Delusion. Still, his impatience with creationistism seems quite ju More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 28, 2011

Spac3m0nk3y rated it:

Ah the venerable Richard Dawkins -- self-proclaimed atheist of an almost evangelical bent. My problem with Richard is that he spends too much time philosophizing publicly. His atheist stance becomes almost more important than his work as a evolutionary biologist. But we are dealing with dumb times so I think he believes it is his duty to inform the general public of the misconceptions about evolution.
If you are into the implications of natural philosophy on the question of God, as wel More...

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Aug 22, 2011

Andy rated it:

I read The Selfish Gene many years ago in my late teens (opening up a whole new world for my brain to play around in). I also saw him speak a few years back at a book reading event when 'The Devil's Chaplain' was released. I've always appreciated his clarity and enthusiasm though his rabid atheism pushed me away slightly (I'm not religious, agnostic probably fits best if I had to classify, but I feel those with a violent atheism often put as much naked belief and faith into the concept as the More...

5 comments like

Aug 16, 2011

James rated it:

This book was only so so, and there were two main reasons.

First, his evidence:

It simply wasn't that good. And it's not because there isn't good evidence for evolution. But the whole way through this book I kept thinking things like: "I could produce better evidence than that!" "Why didn't he mention this or that?" and, "Why is he talking about this, it's a huge digression?" etc. The evidence he provided is actually overwhelmingly convincing, the More...

1 comment like

Aug 09, 2011

procrastin8or rated it:

Dawkins latest book finally tackles creationism in a not-so-head-on collision. Always vowing to never answer a challenge directly, Dawkins does it in the best way he possibly could, by demonstrating why evolution is true.

He seemingly leaves no stone uncovered in the challenge, often tackling direct claims made by creationists and demonstrating why they are false. He also covers how speciation has been observed and the whole "show me your transitional fossils" non-argument is handled ma More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 30, 2011

Gerrit rated it:

A decent book discussing the evidence for evolution. However, as a whole it is not very in-depth. Some issues such as the fossil evidence for Human Evolution are oversimplified and hence incorrectly presented. Dawkins suggests a smooth gradient from Australopithecines through Homo habilis and Homo erectus to us. This obscures the reality that we now know about 20 species of hominin and for most of them do not have a clear idea on the relationship between the species.

Luckily Dawkins style is ofte More...

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Jun 24, 2011

Jorge rated it:

The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins

The Greatest Show on Earth is another solid book in a series of books by Richard Dawkins. This book has to do with the evidence in support of evolution. The book is composed of the following thirteen chapters: 1.Only a theory? 2. Dogs, cows and cabbages, 3.The primrose path to macro-evolution, 4.Silence and slow time, 5.Before our very eyes, 6.Missing link? What do you mean `missing'? 7. Missing persons? Missing no longer, 8. You did it y More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 21, 2011

Billie rated it:

Richard Dawkins argues that evolution, the change over time in inherited traits of all the life that at least inhabits this planet, is as sure as the nose on one's face. In light of an overwhelming proportion of people in the United States and the world over who do not believe in evolution, he examines evidence for evolution in the form of its parallels to artificial selection, as when people breed dogs to produce certain traits, or select types of corn, say, to grow bigger and better corn; the More...

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Jun 20, 2011

Dylan rated it:

Everybody should read this book. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating when I say that reading this book should be a prerequisite for being considered an educated adult. It makes the case, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that all life on Earth arose through non-random natural selection, aka evolution. Those who believe otherwise are basing their decision on something based other than evidence, because the evidence is so overwhelming that you'd have to be either ignoring it, unaware of it, or unable to und More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 09, 2011

Abe rated it:

Dawkins felt that he had not written a straight-out evidence-for-evolution book and this fills that gap. Like reading The Origin of Species, I felt honor-bound to educate myself further on this. Probably not the best use of my time.

While this was a good book for folks with a marginal knowledge of evolution, I felt as if I was already familiar with most of the concepts discussed. As with Darwin, Dawkins has a wide range of knowledge about creatures great and small, living and long ex More...

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