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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher |
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A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS
A Pioneering Biologist Explains How Evolution Can Help Us Solve Our Biggest Problems
Why understanding evolution - the most reviled branch of science - can help us all, from fighting pandemics to undoing racism
Evolution has, since its inception, been one of the most ideologically fraught scientific fields. It has given birth to myths about biological racial "types," with distinct rankings of "genetic superiority." Evolution has been mistrusted by religious fundamentalists, contributing to a rise in creationist education that dovetails with the mass scientific illiteracy we see today. With so much fear and misunderstanding, it is crucial to set the record straight.
Enter evolutionary biologist Joseph Graves. In A Voice in the Wilderness, he makes the case that widespread understanding of evolution can lead us to new paths of achieving social unity. He refutes common, pseudoscientific misconceptions that undergird racism, homophobia, sexism, classism, and more - all issues on which many perceive evolutionary biology to be a reactionary force. He shows how evolution can either make pandemics better, or - if its lessons are unheeded - worse. And he tackles the political and religious objections to the study of evolution as well.
Graves' own experience powers the narrative. As a pioneering Black biologist, a leftist, and a Christian, Graves uses his personal journey from a child of the Jim Crow south to a major researcher leader in his field to rewrite his field - and show how it can be a force not for reaction, but for justice.
Provocative and timely, A Voice in the Wilderness is at once a powerful work of scientific antiracism and a moving history of a trailblazing life.
Joseph L. Graves Jr. is a professor of biological sciences in the Department of Biology at North Carolina A&T State University. He is the first African American to receive a PhD in Evolutionary Biology. Graves was elected a Fellow of the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1994. He is an associate director of the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine and has been recently added to the board of the National Center for Science Education, with his term beginning in April 2021. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Enter evolutionary biologist Joseph Graves. In A Voice in the Wilderness, he makes the case that widespread understanding of evolution can lead us to new paths of achieving social unity. He refutes common, pseudoscientific misconceptions that undergird racism, homophobia, sexism, classism, and more - all issues on which many perceive evolutionary biology to be a reactionary force. He shows how evolution can either make pandemics better, or - if its lessons are unheeded - worse. And he tackles the political and religious objections to the study of evolution as well.
Graves' own experience powers the narrative. As a pioneering Black biologist, a leftist, and a Christian, Graves uses his personal journey from a child of the Jim Crow south to a major researcher leader in his field to rewrite his field - and show how it can be a force not for reaction, but for justice.
Provocative and timely, A Voice in the Wilderness is at once a powerful work of scientific antiracism and a moving history of a trailblazing life.
Joseph L. Graves Jr. is a professor of biological sciences in the Department of Biology at North Carolina A&T State University. He is the first African American to receive a PhD in Evolutionary Biology. Graves was elected a Fellow of the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 1994. He is an associate director of the Triangle Center for Evolutionary Medicine and has been recently added to the board of the National Center for Science Education, with his term beginning in April 2021. He lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.
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Published 2022-09-13 by Basic Books |