“The Evolution of Everything” by Mathew Ridley

Ridley’s premise is that although Darwin’s theory of evolution was particular to biology, evolution is a more basic mechanism. In fact, improvement by evolution has been the general course of affairs throughout human history. Ridley spans the globe, time, and fields- from economics, technology, sexual relations, religion, social structures, astronomy, to politics showing evolution’s pervasiveness. Although he does not discount human agency, he implies that human improvement never depends on any one particular individual. Inventions come when the time is ripe and are often independently arrived at by multiple people, in short order. Ridley’s take is that the greatest advances of mankind have been bottom up, rather than topdown affairs: every great man has stood on the shoulders of previous giants.