"This is a superb book. It is beautifully and clearly written, by one of the nation's leading primatologists and sociobiologists, without sacrificing intellectual rigor; it is the best introduction I know to both fields. It establishes more convincingly than any other work with which I am familiar the relevance of the study of (other) primates and of human evolution, to urgent current issues of public policy involving women, children, and the family." -- Richard Posner, Chief Judge, US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit "A magnificent synthesis of ideas about motherhood, this is a book brimming with warmth, wisdom, and wit. It is not easy in a polarised academic world to keep a foot in the feminist camp and another in evolutionary psychology, nor to bridge the arts and sciences so effortlessly. But Sarah Blaffer Hrdy achieves these feats." -- Matt Ridley, author ofThe Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation "Mother Natureis a book to treasure and to study, both for its impeccable research and for the wise ways that author Sarah Blaffer Hrdy weaves her own experience of motherhood into her text." -- Susan Brownmiller, author ofAgainst Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape "Mother Natureis a pioneering reassessment of key assumptions in debates about human evolution.

By demonstrating how female strategies as mates and mothers have shaped the evolutionary process throughout nature, Hrdy succeeds in overturning some of the most entrenched theories in this scientific domain.  A worthy companion to Darwin'sDescent of Man, and an endlessly fascinating read,Mother Naturereflects a lifetime of bold research and judicious thought by one of the foremost primatologists of our day." -- Frank Sulloway "Mother Natureis a stunning achievement. The book reveals the highest scholarship with an unparalleled breadth in the use of the comparative method.  Hrdy expertly uses the comparative method. Hrdy expertly uses the comparative method to illustrate her points by contrasting biology and behavior across species and orders, and by making full use of human variation both through evolutionary and historical time and across space and cultures. This book is a very accessible, scientific discussion of the evolutionary history of maternal care written by a first rate scientist." -- Jane B.

Lancaster, Editor ofHuman Nature "Sarah Hrdy's scholarly but readable book on motherhood demonstrates once and for all the power of a Darwinian approach, when combined with an appreciation of cultural differences, for the understanding of human behavior. Providing a comprehensive discussion of diverse aspects of motherhood ranging from the physiological to the sociological, it also faces a crucial problem for many women today--the clash between career and motherhood." -- Robert Hinde, Royal Society Research Professor, Cambridge University "Hrdy has given us a truly monumental work, as elegant as it is insightful. It took a woman scientist to find the rightful place of our species in the matrix of the animal kingdom, and Hrdy has done so brilliantly. This is by no means the usual psychobabble or hodge podge of animal behavior that other authors so often use to define us -- here is a clear and telling examination of a hitherto almost unknown organism -- the human female. Any woman wanting to know who she really is will find out in the pages of this tremendously important work of real science by a real scientist." -- Elizabeth Marshall Thomas "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 "By demolishing superstitions.