Edward O. Wilson
Edward O. Wilson was Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. Arguably the most important evolutionary biologist of his time, he has made seminal contributions to the study of evolution and ecology, created the field of sociobiology, and was one of the earliest voices to speak out about biodiversity loss. Wilson is the author of two Pulitzer Prize winning books, On Human Nature and The Ants. He is also the author of many groundbreaking works, including Sociobiology, The Diversity of Life, The Future of Life, Consilience, Naturalist and In Search of Nature. Wilson is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, and is an active author of media articles and editorials. He was mentioned in the Economist as “one of the world’s most distinguished scientists.”
Books by Edward O. Wilson
Naturalist: A Graphic Adaptation
by C.M.Butzer, Edward O. Wilson & Jim Ottaviani
This book is a wonderful graphic adaptation of biologist EO Wilson's memoirs. It's touching and enlightening and leaves you feeling excited about the natural world. It's also interesting for the light it sheds on what makes someone a great scientist. Wilson, born in 1929, won two Pulitzer Prizes for nonfiction for his books, one in 1979 for On Human Nature, and one in 1991 for The Ants, co-authored with German biologist Bert Hölldobler. EO Wilson's books—he wrote many—have also been frequently recommended on Five Books.
“It’s bold, it’s prescient and it hammers the message home: the biosphere does not belong to us, and if we ignore it, we will eventually, inevitably, become the perpetrators of our own extinction.” Read more...
The Diversity of Life
by Edward O. Wilson
He's a conservation biologist, a really deep-thinking ecologist and he cares a lot about understanding how life exists, the diversity of life that exists, how many species there are, how many different habitats there are, in particular what our influence on these different habitats has been.
“On Human Nature is an absolutely fascinating book, in which a biologist applies the laws of nature to understanding things like the urge for religion and the impulse for altruism. He writes fundamental things about how we work and tries to explore the biology of these things, which are so central to our understanding of human beings but which seldom come up in the field of biology. Wilson has such an interesting mind, and also is a wonderful writer. Actually he is the only writer to have won two general nonfiction Pulitzer prizes. His style is almost poetic. There is a real beauty to the way he writes, and a love of his subject that comes through.” Read more...
Mark Kurlansky, Science Writer
The Insect Societies
by Edward O. Wilson
A book by the most famous entomologist in 50 years. He distills down the essence of social behaviour across these organisms and writes about them in captivating prose
Consilience
by Edward O. Wilson
In Consilience Wilson makes the prediction that a lot of the disciplines we have separated human behaviour into are obsolete, and that we are on the verge of unifying knowledge in an inter-disciplinary way. And that is actually happening with neuroscience: there’s a field of neural economics, neural this and that, basically neural everything: literary critics, historians. People in many different disciplines are using this work on the brain to illuminate their thinking. I think what they’re finding in our unconscious mind will have the same sort of influence that Marx had, and that Sigmund Freud had, namely an entire new vocabulary, that will help define a lot of different fields.
Interviews where books by Edward O. Wilson were recommended
The best books on Neuroscience, recommended by David Brooks
It’s hard to understand many things about the world around us without a knowledge of the unconscious workings of the brain, argues the New York Times columnist David Brooks. He chooses five accessible books that’ll get you into neuroscience as well.
The best books on Bugs, recommended by May Berenbaum
Insects outnumber us, outweigh us, and without them ecosystems would collapse. In short, we live on their planet. The entomologist explains why we should value bugs more – even, or especially, the carrion beetles and dung feeders
Favourite Science Books, recommended by Mark Kurlansky
The bestselling author of Cod and Salt tells us about five science books he loves—from whales and snails to evolution and string theory—all of which make difficult subjects accessible
The best books on Extinction and De-Extinction, recommended by Beth Shapiro
Evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro tells us why it’s impossible to clone a mammoth, and why we might want to. She guides us through five inspiring books to get us thinking about extinction and the role genetics could potentially play in maintaining biodiversity.
The best books on Wilding, recommended by Isabella Tree
Is there room for both humans and wild nature to flourish on an increasingly crowded planet? The author Isabella Tree argues that ‘wilding’ can be benefit both, and chooses five books to support her case.
