The Dragons of Eden Audiobook By Carl Sagan cover art

The Dragons of Eden

Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

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The Dragons of Eden

By: Carl Sagan
Narrated by: JD Jackson, Ann Druyan
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The Pulitzer Prize Winner

Dr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great adventure, offering his vivid and startling insight into the brain of man and beast, the origin of human intelligence, the function of our most haunting legends - and their amazing links to recent discoveries.

©1977 Carl Sagan (P)2017 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Accolades & Awards

Pulitzer Prize
1978
Biological Sciences Pulitzer Prize Evolution & Genetics Thought-Provoking Science Evolution Psychology Nature & Ecology Inspiring Environment Psychology & Mental Health Outdoors & Nature Suspenseful

Critic reviews

"A history of the human brain from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, to the day before yesterday . . . . It's a delight." --The New York Times

“How can I persuade every intelligent person to read this important and elegant book? . . . He talks about all kinds of things: the why of the pain of human childbirth . . . the reason for sleeping and dreaming . . . chimpanzees taught to communicate in deaf and dumb language . . . the definition of death . . . cloning . . . computers . . . intelligent life on other planets. . . . Fascinating . . . delightful.” --The Boston Globe

“In some lost Eden where dragons ruled, the foundations of our intelligence were laid. . . . Carl Sagan takes us on a guided tour of that lost land. . . . Fascinating . . . entertaining . . . masterful.” --St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Thought-provoking Content • Insightful Perspectives • Beautiful Enunciation • Scientific Exploration • Clear Narration

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Great for students of all sciences. I really loved this book as a first year student of biology. It was helpful in solidifying material and gaining further insight to it.

Carl Sagan is my only god

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I learned a lot about things I didn’t know before. The last hour-ish felt a little like a Stephen King novel but nonetheless I enjoyed the other 8 or so hours. “hiyo silver, away!” I can picture hell being something like having a loudspeaker screaming this phrase to torture me for an eternity. Not that I believe in such a place.

Great book.

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The word "speculations" is indeed in the title yet it feels like it would also be easy to miss that point while reading this. Dragons of Eden is thought provoking and well researched but a great deal of it is in fact speculation and not hard science.

That said, Sagan presents in as approachable a way as is possible brain anatomy and cross-disciplinary research then extrapolates well into the realm of philosophy, especially phil. of ethics. In light of this, it's difficult to know how to evaluate this. As science? Philosophy? Psychology? It's a bit of all of these things but not extensive in any of them. In the end you're left with a FEELING of awe but not a great deal more actual knowledge.

Thought provoking but slightly misleading

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While some of the technical information of this book is apparently outdated, it was mentally stimulating and provided some very interesting ideas to chew on for a layman such as myself.

Broad-reaching and thought-provoking

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Carl Sagan is one of the truly beautiful minds of our age. As always, he provides a very insightful take on a wide variety of science, technology and morality topics so integral to our times. He makes intelligible what many would label "garble" offering a wide array of differing perspectives for our consideration.

Wonderfully thought provoking journey of the mind!

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