An ?endlessly fascinating? (Michael Ruse) work of scientific thought and synthesis Genesis is
Edward O. Wilson?s twenty-first-century statement on Darwinian evolution. Asserting that
religious creeds and philosophical questions can be reduced to purely genetic and evolutionary
components and that the human body and mind have a physical base obedient to the laws of
physics and chemistry Wilson demonstrates that the only way for us to fully understand human
behavior is to study the evolutionary histories of nonhuman species. At least seventeen of
these species - among them the African naked mole rat and the sponge-dwelling shrimp - have
been found to have advanced societies based on altruism and cooperation. Braiding twenty-first-
century scientific theory with the lyrical biological and humanistic observations for which
Wilson is beloved Genesis is ?a magisterial history of social evolution from clouds of midges
or sparrows to the grotesqueries of ant colonies? (Kirkus Reviews starred review).
