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''The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution'' is a 2009 book by British biologist Richard Dawkins, which was released on 3 September 2009 in the UK and on 22 September 2009 in the US It sets out the evidence for biological evolution, and is Dawkins's 10th book, following his best-selling critique of religion ''The God Delusion'' (2006) and ''The Ancestor's Tale'' (2004), which traced human ancestry back to the dawn of life. The book is published in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth nations by Transworld, and in the United States by Free Press. In its first week of release, it topped ''The Sunday Times Bestseller list, with more than twice the sales of its nearest competitor. An audiobook version has also been released, read by Dawkins and his wife Lalla Ward. ==Background== Richard Dawkins has written a number of books about evolution, beginning with his first two titles ''The Selfish Gene'' (1976) and ''The Extended Phenotype'' (1982). These were followed by three books which attempted to clarify some common misunderstandings about evolution.〔 His recent documentary series ''The Genius of Charles Darwin'' looks at Darwin's life and some of the evidence for evolution. Despite these works and others, he felt that there was a 'missing link' in that he had never comprehensively addressed the evidence of common descent.〔 Dawkins believed that opposition to evolution at the time of writing the book was as strong as ever, despite overwhelming and still growing evidence for the theory. He wrote the book in his final months as Charles Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science (Marcus du Sautoy now holds the position) and finished it in retirement. He thought that 2009, the bicentennial of Darwin's birth and 150th anniversary of his book ''On the Origin of Species'', was the perfect time for such a work.〔Dawkins (2009), Preface〕 Other authors have written similar books recently, such as Jerry Coyne's ''Why Evolution is True'' which Dawkins highly recommends.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title='Heat the Hornet' by Richard Dawkins )〕 Dawkins's literary agent John Brockman promoted the book to publishers under the working title ''Only a Theory''. However, American biologist Kenneth Miller had already used that title for his own book ''Only A Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul'' which Dawkins describes as a book-length response to Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District. He kept ''Only a Theory?'' as the title for the first chapter, "with a precautionary question mark to guard against creationist quote-mining".〔〔(Education: Questionable foundations: Providing millions of pounds to schools to teach creationism is dangerous, say atheist Richard Dawkins and Richard Harries, the Bishop of Oxford ) (Times article referred to in the first chapter by Dawkins and Richard Harries.) 20 June 2004〕 Dawkins got the title from a T-shirt given to him by "an anonymous well-wisher" which bears the words "Evolution: The Greatest Show on Earth; the Only Game in Town".〔 He had worn it occasionally when giving lectures,〔For example (Neo-Darwinism Lecture by Richard Dawkins )〕 and realised it was ideal for a title. His editor wouldn't allow the full title due to its length, so it was shortened to ''The Greatest Show on Earth''. On three occasions Dawkins wanted to include recent discoveries late in the publishing process. Despite the disruption, this was accommodated and the recent findings are included in the book.〔 The book is dedicated to web designer Josh Timonen, who collaborated with a small group of others to set up (RichardDawkins.net ). Dawkins writes in the preface "Josh's creative talent runs deep, but the image of the iceberg captures neither the versatile breadth of his contributions to our joint endeavour, nor the warm good humour with which he makes them." Dawkins also thanks his wife Lalla's "unfailing encouragement, helpful stylistic criticisms and characteristically stylish suggestions", and his friend Charles Simonyi as he signs off after fourteen years and seven books.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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