NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview (PDF) of Niles Eldredge's Extinction and Evolution: What Fossils Reveal about the History of Life (Firefly, 2014). The preview consists of the first pages of chapter 6, "Extinction," in which Eldredge explains, "Extinction is not news to a paleontologist. It is a fact of life ... One can't understand evolution, really, without understanding extinction."
Extinction and Evolution was praised by Donald C. Johanson as "a splendidly illustrated and thoughtfully constructed account of one of the greatest ideas ever conceived by the human mind — evolution." A curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History and a prolific author, Eldredge is a member of NCSE's Advisory Council and a recipient of its Friend of Darwin award.