The Structure of Evolutionary Theory

Fifteen hundred pages, published the year Gould died -- his magnum opus and lifetime summation. The book is an extended argument against the adaptationist programme: not every trait is an optimised product of natural selection, and the history of life is marked by contingency, constraint, and hierarchical structure rather than smooth gradualism. Spandrels, exaptation, punctuated equilibria, species selection -- all the threads Gould pursued across forty years converge here. It is not an easy read, and Gould's critics found it self-indulgent, but no serious student of evolution can ignore the alternative architecture he proposed. The parallel to how we think about organisational design -- where not every feature is adaptive, and path dependence matters enormously -- is hard to miss.