Books
Mothers and Others
"Hrdy's lucid and comprehensively researched book takes us to the heart of what it means to be human."
—Camilla Powers, Times Higher Education (London) "Book of the Week"
"The ideas are big, bold and brain-bending."
—Marc Hauser, Author of Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong.
Excerpted Comments on Mothers and Others [PDF]. More information is also available at Amazon.
Correspondence concerning Mothers and Others, please contact Rose Ann Miller at Harvard University Press.
Mother Nature
"a splendidly thought-provoking book. . . . [W]ith one great stride Hrdy has carried the debate about parenting to a higher stage of adaptation. [This book] should be required reading for parents, feminists and evolutionary thinkers alike."
—The Independent (London)
"This is a brilliant, liberating book on a profoundly important subject. Sarah Hrdy, the leading scientific authority on motherhood, is also to the benefit of us all, one of the best stylists now writing on any subject in science."
—E.O. Wilson, Author of On Human Nature and Consilience
Excerpted Comments on Mother Nature [PDF]
More information is available at Amazon.
The Woman That Never Evolved
(1999 revised paperback edition)
[A] breakthrough book... A primatologist by training and feminist by predilection, Hrdy asked the basic and in my mind perfectly sensible question: How do women compare to other female primates? What can we understand about our urges, desires, and fears, our sexuality, our relationships with men 
and with other women, and the near universality of women's second-class status, by examining the lives and loves of our closest nonhuman kin? Among Hrdy's many bracing conclusions: Far from being coy and sexually tepid, as the stereotype has it, women may well have evolved for a restless sort of promiscuity, the better to confuse issues of paternity and thus heighten their children's chances of survival in the hazardous, half-cocked company of men. -- Natalie Angier (O Magazine )
Photo chimp reading TWTNE by J. Wallis
More information is available at Amazon.
Infanticide: Comparative and Evolutionary Perspectives.
G. Hausfater and S. Hrdy, eds.
(2008 Aldine/Transaction paperback edition)
“In some ways, the most striking conclusion that emerges from this book is the depth of human denial and refusal to consider infanticide, despite evidence of its frequency…Yet we persist in teaching family sociology courses in which the unconditional good will of parents towards offspring is taken for granted and exceptions are treated as deviants. Evolutionary theory provides a basis for a more realistic view of human nature, both in the impulses of parents to be selective in their investments, and in the moral-ethical-aesthetic tendencies that lead us to evaluate infanticide as repugnant and to reject and deny its existence. Few sociologists will find their assumptions unchallenged and their theoretical framework unimproved in its precision by an acquaintance with the contents of this book.”
--Nancy Howell in Contemporary Sociology
Five explanations [PDF] proposed for infanticide, and predictions based on them.
Excerpted Comments on Infanticide [PDF].
More information is available at Amazon.
The Langurs of Abu
“The Langurs of Abu is one of the first attempts to apply sociobiological theory to the behavior and social structure of wild primates.”
--James Loy, Science
“Seldom in a field report have new facts, information from the literature, and theory been so well integrated, the data so lucidly presented, and the text so skillfully written. Since the langur saga may 'unmask misconceptions about ourselves', it is hoped that Hrdy will reach a broad audience. The Langurs of Abu is the best book on primates I have read.”
--George Schaller, American Scientist
More information is available at Amazon.
Black-Man of Zinacantan: A Central American Legend
“While most recent analysis in anthropology would move toward ecology or social structure to further interpretation, this analysis shows boldness and 
originality in rooting much of the interpretation in the culture history of the Maya people, even before the Spanish conquest.”
-- Renato Rosaldo, American Scientist
More information is available at Amazon.