Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution

Category: Book
By (author): Bohannon, Cat
Subject:  NON-FICTION / General
  SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Biology
  SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Evolution
  SOCIAL SCIENCE / Women's Studies
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: October 2023
Format: Book-hardcover
Pages: 624
Size: 9.66in x 6.48in x 1.53in
Our Price:
$ 42.00
Availability:
In stock

Additional Notes

From The Publisher*An ambitious, eye-opening, myth-busting and groundbreaking history of the evolution of the female body, by a brilliant new researcher and writer.

Why do women live longer than men? Why do women have menopause? Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer's? Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet? And does the female brain really exist?

In Eve, Cat Bohannon answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, she covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex. Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it's an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Bohannon's findings, including everything from the way C-sections in the industrialized world are rearranging women's pelvic shape to the surprising similarities between pus and breast milk, will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens have become such a successful and dominant species, from tool use to city building to the development of language.

A 21st-century update of Our Bodies, Ourselves, Eve offers a true paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is and why it matters.
Review Quote*"Bohannon's coverage of the science of sex differences, male bias in research studies and the fact that not all drugs are sex ‘neutral' make for rousing reading. . . . Eve is an enlightening examination of the evolution of the female body, an ode to its remarkable design, intricacies and capabilities." -Booklist

"Eve was immeasurably useful to me in my life-long quest to understand my own body.  I highly recommend it to anyone who is on the same journey." -Hope Jahren, author of Lab Girl and Story of More

"For over a century and a half since Darwin, we have talked about the origin of man. But what about women? Marshalling considerable wit, scholarship, and cutting-edge science Cat Bohannon traces the history and importance of female biology and, in the process, gives us a refreshing new view on the origin of humanity." -Neil Shubin, University of Chicago biologist and author of Your Inner Fish

"A smart, funny, scientific deep-dive into the power of a woman's body, Eve surprises, educates, and emboldens. Who runs the world? Girls!" -Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

"This book is almost fantastically interesting. Every few pages there would be some fact I didn't know or an idea that was new to me, and I would ask my wife if she knew, and she'd say, 'What? You're kidding! No!' and we'd end up talking for half an hour, and it would be midnight, and I'd only read 8 pages. So this book took a LONG time to read, but for the best possible reasons. Frankly, I'm writing this while I'm still on page 387, where Cat Bohannon talks about why sex feels good. I definitely plan to finish." -Charles C. Mann, historian and author of 1491

"[An] ambitious debut. . . . Bohannon offers a bracing corrective to male-centric evolutionary accounts . . . and she balances scientific rigor with entertaining prose. . . . [A]n illuminating and fresh take on how human evolution unfolded." -Publishers Weekly

"Such a rare book: scholarly, funny, accessible and very important. A truly original history of humans that explains so much of who we are today." -Chris van Tulleken, author of Ultra-Processed People

"Utterly fascinating. This book should revolutionise our understanding of human life. It is set to become a classic." -George Monbiot, author of Regenesis

"I'm obsessed with Eve by Cat Bohannon. Riveting, jaw-dropping, hilarious, exciting, enraging and deeply, deeply refreshing. Bohannon presents cutting-edge science with glittering sensory detail, awe-inspiring storytelling and a genius and often poetic turn of phrase. I will never forget her description of animals as 'essentially lumpy donuts filled with ocean.' I loved the real talk about giving birth to live babies and the reality of gestation and motherhood.  So clever, so necessary, so funny. Finally, Eve's story is here and Bohannon's remarkable and gripping telling will change the world." -Lucy Jones, author of Matrescence
Biographical NoteCAT BOHANNON is a researcher and author with a PhD from Columbia University in the evolution of narrative and cognition. Her essays and poems have appeared in Scientific American, Mind, Science Magazine, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Georgia Review, The Story Collider and Poets Against the War. She lives with her family in Seattle.