The Selfish Gene is that rarest of things: an outstanding work of scholarship that has seeped into popular culture. Richard Dawkins's contentious notion that organisms are survival mechanisms for 'selfish genes' has helped shape the debate in evolutionary biology for almost 40 years. Continuously in print since its first publication in 1976, The Selfish Gene remains a work of tremendous depth and subtlety, whose often misunderstood arguments are expertly unfolded in this accessible analysis.