The Selfish Gene

Published in 1976, The Selfish Gene reframed evolution from the organism's perspective to the gene's, arguing that bodies are mere vehicles for replicators competing across generations. Dawkins introduced the term "meme" in the final chapter, launching an entire field of cultural evolution theory almost as an afterthought. The book has been loved, hated, and cited in nearly every subsequent debate about units of selection -- from kin selection to group selection to multilevel selection. Its rhetorical power is part of its legacy: the gene's-eye view became so dominant that critics like Gould and Lewontin spent decades pushing back. Forty years later, it remains the single most effective entry point into evolutionary thinking for a general reader, even as the science has moved well beyond its framework.