The book gives a good overview of the application of mathematical biology to the study of cooperative behavior in nature. Before reading the book, I thought that the selfish gene theory was what was still believed. The book shows that selfish gene theory in the form of kinship selection does play a small role in evolution and that much of what was thought to be kinship selection can be ascribed to selection at the group level. There are in all five mechanisms that are currently known that allow for the evolution of cooperation. The conditions for each one can be described by an associated inequality. It was interesting to see how the simulations showed that direct reciprocal cooperation is unstable and that it goes through a cyclic pattern. I don't know if any evidence of this has been found in nature. It was also unclear if any of the other four cooperative mechanisms have similar cyclic pattern.

There was much discussion about the personalities involved in the research. Some may find this distracting, but I enjoyed it. I do wish that more mathematical detail could have been given. Most of the research is so recent that there are no books that contain it and it can only be found in journal articles.