Overview

Most people who have taken a biology course in the past 50 years are familiar with the work of David Lack, but few remember his name. Almost all general biology texts produced during that period have a figure showing the beak size differences among the finches of the Galapagos Islands from Lack's 1947 classic, Darwin's Finches. Lack's pioneering conclusions in Darwin's Finches mark the beginning of a new scientific discipline, evolutionary ecology. Tim Birkhead, in his acclaimed book, The Wisdom of Birds, calls Lack the 'hero of modern ornithology.' Who was this influential, yet relatively unknown man? The Life of David Lack, Father of Evolutionary Ecology provides an answer to that question based on Ted Anderson's personal interviews with colleagues, family members and former students as well as material in the extensive Lack Archive at Oxford University.

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9780199922642

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Reviews

An excellent and fascinating account of the life and work of perhaps the most influential ornithologist and evolutionist of the 20th century John F. Burton, British Trust for Orthinology this book is readable and will be consistently interesting as history of science, as history of British academic culture and, to a lesser extent, as philosophy of science. Anderson has made a very helpful contribution and has opened a further research agenda for those willing to follow the lead. Kenneth E. Hendrickson, British Journal for the History of Science

As Ted Anderson shows in his charming and very readable biography, Lack's argument, which developed slowly, was that differences in the way populations adapt to and compete for local resources (such as seeds, in the case of finches) is a key part of the process of speciation...Anderson gives us a vivid portrait of Lack and the personalities and careers of many people he interacted with. -- Ben C. Sheldon, NatureOne of Teaching Biology's Top 25 Popular History of Science Books

<br> As Ted Anderson shows in his charming and very readable biography, Lack's argument, which developed slowly, was that differences in the way populations adapt to and compete for local resources (such as seeds, in the case of finches) is a key part of the process of speciation...Anderson gives us a vivid portrait of Lack and the personalities and careers of many people he interacted with. -- Ben C. Sheldon, Nature<br><p><br>

As Ted Anderson shows in his charming and very readable biography, Lack's argument, which developed slowly, was that differences in the way populations adapt to and compete for local resources (such as seeds, in the case of finches) is a key part of the process of speciation...Anderson gives us a vivid portrait of Lack and the personalities and careers of many people he interacted with. -- Ben C. Sheldon, Nature

As Ted Anderson shows in his charming and very readable biography, Lack's argument, which developed slowly, was that differences in the way populations adapt to and compete for local resources (such as seeds, in the case of finches) is a key part of the process of speciation...Anderson gives us a vivid portrait of Lack and the personalities and careers of many people he interacted with. -- Ben C. Sheldon, NatureOne of Teaching Biology's Top 25 Popular History of Science Books Ted Anderson ... has written an excellent and fascinating account of the life and work of perhaps the most influential ornithologist and evolutionist of the 20th century. --British Trust for Ornithology News At its best, the book provides intimate glimpses into Lack's character and personality. ... Evolutionary ecologists may ... find this to be an accessible introduction to the diverse origins of their field, an area of increasing interest among historians and philosophers of the life sciences. --Quarterly Review of BiologyFeatured in Ardeam, the journal of the Dutch Ornithological Society.

Author Information

Ted R. Anderson is Emeritus Professor of Biology at McKendree University. Professor Anderson is the author of Biology of the Ubiquitous House Sparrow: From Genes to Populations (OUP 2006). He is retired and lives with his wife, Carol, in Kingston, Washington.

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