Mothers and Others now available on Audible.com, read by the silver-tongued Helen Stern. Click Here to Order or to Listen to a Sample
BOOKS
Mothers and Others (2009) Awarded 2012 J. I. Staley Prize and 2012 Howells Prize
"Hrdy’s much-awaited new book is another mind-expanding, paradigm-shifting, rigorously scientific yet eminently readable treatise . . . [Mothers and Others] lays the foundation for a new hypothesis about human evolution." —Claudia Casper, Globe and Mail, May 9, 2009. Available online. (Nov. 27, 2009, Chosen as one of Canada's Globe and Mail's best-reviewed books on science religion and the environment)
"Hrdy's lucid and comprehensively researched book takes us to the heart of what it means to be human." —Camilla Powers, Times Higher Education (London) "Book of the Week"
"Hrdy is one of the most original thinkers in evolutionary biology . . ." Chosen as one of the year's Best science books. —Natalie Angier, The Week, November 19, 2009. (U.S.)
"Expertly crafted and beautifully written . . . (Mothers and Others) is also a work of scholarship . . . meticulously researched and firmly based in science which stems from a wide array of disciplines . . . it provides an excellent example of integrative human evolutionary behavioral science in action." —Rebecca Sear in Evolutionary Psychology (2009) 7(4):355-357.
Further Comments and links to reviews and chapter-by-chapter summaries of Mothers and Others [PDF].
German Reviews of Mothers and Others 2010 Susanne Mayer, Alles in Mutter, Die Zeit 9:53, February 25 [PDF]
2009 Stefan Klein, Was Will Mutter Natur, Die Zeit 48:35-38 [PDF]
Mütter und Andere short-listed for Wissenshafts buch des jahres (Science Book of the Year) for 2010
Correspondence concerning Mothers and Others, please contact Rose Ann Miller at Harvard University Press.
Mother Nature (1999)
(Please note that the author's preferred subtitle is the one used in the original 1999 edition: Mother Nature: A history of mothers, infants and natural selection.)
Selected as one of "BEST BOOKS OF 1999". Publisher's Weekly, Nov. 1999.
Selected as one of "BEST BOOKS of 1999". Library Journal, Jan. 2000.
Chosen as one of "Top 10 Science Books of 1999". Reader's Choice.
Chosen as finalist for PEN USA West 2000 Literary Award for Research Nonfiction.
Winner of Howells Prize 2001, for Outstanding Contribution in Biological Anthropology.
"a splendidly thought-provoking book . . . [W]ith one great stride Hrdy has carried the debate about parenting to a higher stage of adaptation. [This book] should be required reading for parents, feminists and evolutionary thinkers alike." —The Independent (London)
"This is a brilliant, liberating book on a profoundly important subject. Sarah Hrdy, the leading scientific authority on motherhood, is also to the benefit of us all, one of the best stylists now writing on any subject in science." —E.O. Wilson, Author of On Human Nature and Consilience
Excerpted Comments on Mother Nature [PDF]
Excerpt of Mother Nature [PDF]
The Woman That Never Evolved (1981; revised paperback edition 1999)
[A] breakthrough book . . . A primatologist by training and feminist by predilection, Hrdy asked the basic and in my mind perfectly sensible question: How do women compare to other female primates? What can we understand about our urges, desires, and fears, our sexuality, our relationships with men and with other women, and the near universality of women's second-class status, by examining the lives and loves of our closest nonhuman kin? Among Hrdy's many bracing conclusions: Far from being coy and sexually tepid, as the stereotype has it, women may well have evolved for a restless sort of promiscuity, the better to confuse issues of paternity and thus heighten their children's chances of survival in the hazardous, half-cocked company of men. —Natalie Angier (O Magazine )
Infanticide: Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives (1984; republished by Aldine/Transaction in 2008) G. Hausfater and S. Hrdy, eds.
“In some ways, the most striking conclusion that emerges from this book is the depth of human denial and refusal to consider infanticide, despite evidence of its frequency . . . Yet we persist in teaching family sociology courses in which the unconditional good will of parents towards offspring is taken for granted and exceptions are treated as deviants. Evolutionary theory provides a basis for a more realistic view of human nature, both in the impulses of parents to be selective in their investments, and in the moral-ethical-aesthetic tendencies that lead us to evaluate infanticide as repugnant and to reject and deny its existence. Few sociologists will find their assumptions unchallenged and their theoretical framework unimproved in its precision by an acquaintance with the contents of this book.” —Nancy Howell in Contemporary Sociology
Five explanations proposed for infanticide, and predictions based on them [PDF].
Excerpted Comments on Infanticide [PDF].
The Langurs of Abu (1977; new paperback edition 1980)
“The Langurs of Abu: Female and Male Strategies of Reproduction is one of the first attempts to apply sociobiological theory to the behavior and social structure of wild primates.” —James Loy, Science
“Seldom in a field report have new facts, information from the literature, and theory been so well integrated, the data so lucidly presented, and the text so skillfully written. Since the langur saga may 'unmask misconceptions about ourselves', it is hoped that Hrdy will reach a broad audience. The Langurs of Abu is the best book on primates I have read.” —George Schaller, American Scientist
Black-Man of Zinacantan: A Central American Legend (1972); Paperback (2012)
“While most recent analysis in anthropology would move toward ecology or social structure to further interpretation, this analysis shows boldness and originality in rooting much of the interpretation in the culture history of the Maya people, even before the Spanish conquest.”
—Renato Rosaldo, American Scientist
