The Evolution of Beauty

Richard O. Prom delivers an excellent book on the evolution of beauty in the animal world. Honestly, the book is well-written, well-researched, and seems to be an illuminating take on Darwin's The Fall of Man. I would rate the scientific content of the book as 5 stars, but then again, I don't know any factors or contributing information that would make me doubt or refute Prum's points.

That being said, I was disappointed. I think I read the book's title and focused pretty heavily on the evolution of human beauty. I wanted to hear more about sexuality and the ‘why' behind human behavior. I suppose though that is Prum's point—there isn't much to say about beauty from an evolutionary point of view, and if there is, we can't say definitely as to why we developed in certain ways. (I originally rated the book as 3 stars, but now that I'm analyzing things, I think I will rate it 4 stars because the author did ultimately convince me of these findings.)

I think the largest piece of information that I will take out of this book is two-fold:
1. I absolutely know nothing about bird and ornithology. It seems to be an intriguing field and I am sure the birds are both beautiful and an interesting look into evolutionary forces.
2. All evolutionary biology has a history of eugenics (either directly supporting it, benefitting from it, or cheering it on)