Preview: Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 266 pp., Isbn 978-3-540-75956-0, Price: € 139.95 Prof. Andrew F.G. Bourke, School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. E-mail: a.bourke@uea.ac.uk Myrmecol. News 11: 200 (online 25 July 2008) Issn 1994-4136 (print), Issn 1997-3500 (online) Received 24 June 2008; accepted 25 June 2008 The theory of kin selection explains the occurrence of altruism as a function of relatedness and the numbers of offspring gained and lost through altruistic acts (benefit and cost). It follows that genetic factors (affecting relatedness) and ecological ones (affecting benefit and cost) must simultaneously be considered to understand social evolution fully. For this reason there is no real disagreement between those pursuing genetic studies of social evolution and those pursuing ecological ones; none has a monopoly of scientific righteousness, though the ecologists probably get muddier. Since Hamilton first proposed it forty-five years ago, however, the intellectual history of kin…