Evolutionary Parasitology: The Integrated Study of Infections, Immunology, Ecology, and Genetics byPaul Schmid-HempelEvolutionary Parasitology: The Integrated Study of Infections, Immunology, Ecology, andGenetics by Paul Schmid-HempelReview by: Andrea L. GrahamThe Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 87, No. 1 (March 2012), p. 76Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/663909 .

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predators, pollinators, and seed dispersers, bats facenumerous threats, not least of which is human igno-rance. This well-researched, easily accessible book istherefore enormously valuable, both as a resourcefor scientists, and to help to dispel the myths sur-rounding these fascinating creatures.

Cassandra Miller-Butterworth, Biology, Pennsyl-vania State University-Beaver, Monaca, Pennsylvania

Wildlife of Southern Africa. Princeton PocketGuides.

By Martin B. Withers and David Hosking. Princeton(New Jersey): Princeton University Press. $19.95 (pa-per). 272 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-691-15063-5.2011.

Terrestrial Vertebrates of Pennsylvania: AComplete Guide to Species of ConservationConcern.

Edited by Michael A. Steele, Margaret C. Brittingham,Timothy J. Maret, and Joseph F. Merritt. Baltimore(Maryland): Johns Hopkins University Press. $55.00.xix � 507 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-8018-9544-9.2010.

Mammals of Colorado. Second Edition.By David M. Armstrong, James P. Fitzgerald, and Car-ron A. Meaney. Boulder (Colorado): University Press ofColorado. $55.00. xv � 620 p.; ill.; index. ISBN:978-1-60732-047-0 (hc); 978-1-60732-048-7 (eb).2011.

HUMAN BIOLOGY AND HEALTH

Evolutionary Parasitology: The IntegratedStudy of Infections, Immunology, Ecology,and Genetics.

By Paul Schmid-Hempel. Oxford and New York: OxfordUniversity Press. $126.00 (hardcover); $58.50 (pa-per). xviii � 516 p.; ill.; subject and taxonomicindexes. ISBN: 978-0-19-922948-2 (hc); 978-0-19-922949-9 (pb). 2011.

In this era of high-throughput data collection inbiology—such that data accrue more rapidly thanunderstanding accrues—it is both necessary andpleasurable to undertake integrative thinking. Suchthinking is essential, for example, to understand howsets of observations drawn from different disciplinesrelate to each other. As the title suggests, this bookaims to promote an integrative host-parasite biology(arguably a large slice of biology itself). The text ispitched to introduce advanced undergraduates and

early graduate students into the field, and to providea broad perspective for more specialized researchers.

The volume offers an astonishing breadth of cov-erage. The author begins by describing the naturalhistory of parasites (i.e., classical parasitology andmicrobiology) and of host defenses (i.e., classicalimmunology), followed by consideration of majorareas of evolutionary and ecological research onhost-parasite interactions: the evolution of virulence,sexual selection, gene-for-gene coevolution, ecologicalimmunology, and more. A primary strength of thebook is the explicit aim to link largely unconnectedareas of research. For example, Schmid-Hempel em-phasizes commonalities between vertebrate and inver-tebrate defenses (and often between plant and animaldefenses), and he introduces the section on ecologicalimmunology with an example of the genetic andenvironmental causes of variation among hosts inthe incidence of human malaria.

The cost of breadth, unsurprisingly, is depth, withsome subsections containing no more than three tofour sentences on a topic. However, the author pro-vides literature citations to seed follow-up reading.Indeed, the volume is illustrated with flow charts thatshow linkage among general concepts as well as re-printed figures of specific data from the primaryliterature. Teachers using this book as a frameworkfor courses will probably also assign primary readingsso that case studies can be examined in detail. Still,this volume succeeds in offering an integrative biol-ogy of host-parasite interactions.

Andrea L. Graham, Ecology & Evolutionary Bi-ology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey

Influenza and Public Health: Learning fromPast Pandemics. Science in Society Series.

Edited by Tamara Giles-Vernick and Susan Craddock;with Jennifer Gunn. London and Washington (DC):Earthscan. $99.95. xviii � 293 p.; ill.; index. ISBN:978-1-84407-896-7. 2010.

The volume under review represents a diverse col-lection of essays on the human interaction with theinfluenza virus. Perhaps its greatest strength is therecurrence of certain themes on the complexity ofinfluenza dynamics and the human attempts to con-trol it, allowing for a more complete and balancedperspective on the subject.

One such major theme, also evidenced in the re-sponse to the 2009 H1N1 pandemic in differentparts of the world, is the uncertainty of publichealth officials as to which control measures aresuitable for facing an influenza epidemic, as wellas difficulties in implementing those measures.That uncertainty ranges from limited interest inintervening, as shown in case of Barcelona in 1889(Rodrı́guez-Ocana), or reluctance to acknowledgethe importance of the 1918 epidemic in France amid

76 Volume 87THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY

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