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FOREWORD The word “unique” best describes the book The Foundations of Evolution: On the Origin of Kingdoms and its author, the historian Jan Sapp. Historians of biology typically focus on evolution à la Darwin. Yet, there is much to be understood about the evolutionary process that never met the Darwinian eye; and much more work to be done and biological systems to visit before science can say it “understands” evolution. I have struggled long and hard to convince biologists that biology owes both science and mankind a genuinely scientific study of the evolutionary process; and that the place to start is not with the birds, beetles and the bees all over again, where conventional evolutionary language shackles your thoughts before you begin. One starts with the microbial world; starts within the cell, not without; focuses on the origin and evolution of the cell’s universal molecular componentry, not the adaptive embellishments. And does not stick the label “made by natural selection” on anything. Here, in this new venue, is where we can begin to trace organisms back to their roots and begin to talk evolution in a new, non-anthropomorphic language. And finally! Along comes a book with a eye-popping title “The Foundations of Evolution: On the Origin of Kingdoms”; and it is about the microbial world. It is a book I never thought I’d see written by an historian. It says to historian and scientist alike: “Yes, there is evolution after Darwin; and here is what it’s going to look like!” It is impossible to understand the microbial world in any depth without considering the constant evolutionary current that flows through it. To account for the intricate and fascinating molecular structure within microbial cells or the organization of these cells into delicately fabricated microbial communities—so intimately interlinked with their environments— is a weaving of ecology, evolution, and organism, the likes of which are not seen in the larger world “above”. Dr. Sapp’s book recounts the story of a basically isolated scientific field struggling to define its venue, find itself, and take its proper place among the other biological disciplines. It is a story of how molecular evolutionists working in the microbial world were able to discover the large-scale structure of the tree of life, and in the process questioned some of the major evolutionary understanding such as the Doctrine of Common Descent, the notion that evolution only occurs in very small random steps, the idea that the organisms cannot “learn” from other organisms, share inventions with them. And it is a story of the discovery that there are not two primary lineages of living organisms on this planet, the eukaryotes (animals, plants, fungi and “protists”) and the microscopic prokaryotes, as everyone thought there to be, but actually three such. The so-called “prokaryotes” are not all related to one another, but comprise two great classes of (micro)organisms, which are less related to each another than we are to plants. These are the Archaea and the Bacteria, and between them they comprise the bulk of the biomass on this planet and by far the greatest cellular diversity. Prof. Sapp is as unique among historians of biology as his work is among theirs. His is not a recounting of biology and evolution past, of problems solved and tucked away. His is a story of bringing evolution and biology together, of a new science of biology in the making. Thus he finds his history on the unpaved trails of contemporary scientific exploration rather than safely recording his travels along the scientific superhighways of the past.