Why are people? -- The replicators -- Immortal coils -- The gene machine -- Aggression: Stability and the selfish machine -- Genesmanship -- Family planning -- Battle of the generations -- Battle of the sexes -- You scratch my back, I'll ride on yours -- Memes: The new replicators -- Nice guys finish first -- The long reach of the gene.
Professor Dawkins articulates a gene's eye view of evolution - a view giving centre stage to these persistent units of information, and in which organisms can be seen as vehicles for their replication. This imaginative, powerful, and stylistically brilliant work not only brought the insights of Neo-Darwinism to a wide audience, but galvanized the biology community, generating much debate and stimulating whole new areas of research. Forty years later, its insights remain as relevant today as on the day it was published. This 40th anniversary edition includes a new epilogue from the author discussing the continuing relevance of these ideas in evolutionary biology today, as well as the original prefaces and foreword, and extracts from early reviews. Oxford Landmark Science books are 'must-read' classics of modern science writing which have crystallized big ideas, and shaped the way we think