NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Eugenie C. Scott's Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, second edition (Greenwood Press/University of California Press, 2009) in honor of her impending retirement as NCSE's executive director. The preview consists of chapter 2, "Evolution," in which Scott sketches the basics of evolutionary science. Echoing Dobzhansky, she concludes, "Evolution tells us why biology is like it is: living things had common ancestors, which makes a comprehensible whole of all those facts and details."
The historian Edward J. Larson described Evolution vs. Creationism as "an invaluable resource for those seeking to understand the American controversy over creationism and evolution from the perspective of an eloquent and knowledgeable partisan," adding that it "offers an insightful overview of the American controversy over teaching evolution along with a representative sampling of short excerpts from both creationists and evolutionists. By reading it, teachers, parents, students and the public can be better prepared to answer creationist claims and defend the teaching of evolution."