John Alcock reviews the controversy that has surrounded evolutionary studies of human social behavior following the 1975 publication of E.O. Wilson's classic, Sociobiology, the New Synthesis. Denounced vehemently as an ideology that has justified social evils and inequalities, sociobiology has survived the assault. Twenty-five years after the field was named by Wilson, the approach he championed has successfully demonstrated its value in the study of animal behavior, including the behavior of our own species. Yet, misconceptions remain. In this objective approach to the sociobiology debate, animal behaviorist John Alcock illuminates how sociobiologists study behavior in all species. He confronts the chief scientific and ideological objections head on, with an analysis of case histories that involve such topics as sexual jealousy, beauty, gender difference, parent-offspring relations, and rape.

"A pungent play of ideas with a big heart. Yellow Face brings to the national discussion about race a sense of humor a mile wide, an even-handed treatment and a hopeful, healing vision of a world that could be."--Variety

"Charming, touching, and cunningly organized as well as funny, [with] an Ibsenite reach and stature far beyond any issues of Hwang's self-image."--The Village Voice

"It's about our country, about public image, about face," says David Henry Hwang about his latest work, a mock documentary that puts Hwang himself center stage as it explores both Asian identity as well as race in America. The play begins with the 1990s controversy over color-blind casting for Miss Saigon, before it spins into a comic fantasy, in which the character DHH pens a play in protest and then unwittingly casts a white actor as the Asian lead. Yellow Face also explores the real-life investigation of Hwang's father, the first Asian American to own a federally chartered bank, and the espionage charges against physicist Wen Ho Lee. Adroitly combining the light touch of comedy with weighty political and emotional issues, "Hwang's lively and provocative cultural self-portrait lets nobody off the hook" (The New York Times).

David Henry Hwang is the author of the Tony Award-winning M. Butterfly, a finalist for the 1988 Pulitzer Prize. Other plays include Golden Child, FOB, The Dance and the Railroad, and Family Devotions; his opera libretti include three works for composer Philip Glass. He was appointed by President Clinton to the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

Drawing on true stories told by his Chinese grandmother, Hwang's 1997 Obie Award-winning play invokes the age in which his great-grandfather broke with Confucian tradition by converting to Christianity and unbinding his daughter's feet.

David Henry Hwang has the potential to become the first important dramatist of American public life since Arthur Miller, and maybe the best of them all. -"Detroit News"

David Henry Hwang has created an extraordinary body of work over the last twenty years: the Tony Award-winning play, "M. Butterfly"; the OBIE Award-winning and 1998 Tony nominated "Golden Child"; the libretti to "The Voyage" (included here) and "1000 Airplanes on the Roof" (both for composer Philip Glass); and the book to "Aida," which he coauthored. He has received fellowships from the Rockefeller and Guggenheim foundations, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts and The Pew /TCG National Artists Residency Program.

This eight-play collection includes:

"FOB" "fresh off the boat" explores the conflicts between old and new worlds
"The Dance and the Railroad" a haunting play about the inhuman conditions of railroad workers in the 1860s American West
"Family Devotions" a biting work which probes the religious conflicts in a modern Chinese-American family
"The Sound of a Voice" a meditation on the traditional roles of man and woman set in feudal Japan
"The House of Sleeping Beauties" a reworking of a novella by Yasunari Kawabata
"The Voyage" the libretto to the opera by Philip Glass, which examines Columbus's arrival in America
"Bondage" a one-act set in an S&M parlor, which examines racial stereotypes and sexual myths
"Trying to Find Chinatown" a two-person play, in which two Asian-American men-one searching for his Asian heritage, the other trying to shake himself free-meet by chance in New York City

"David Henry Hwang knows America-its vernacular, its social landscape, its theatrical traditions. He knows the same about China. In his plays, he manages to mix both of these conflicting cultures until he arrives at a style that is wholly his own. Hwang's works have the verve of the well-made American stage comedies and yet, with little warning, they bubble over into the mystical rituals of Asian stagecraft. By at once bringing West and East into conflict and unity, this playwright has found the perfect

Originally published in 1957, The Flower Drum Song was a groundbreaking work of popular literature. An immediate bestseller, it inspired the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. This charming, bittersweet tale of romance and the powerful bonds of family tells the story of Wang Ta, who wants what every young American man wants: a great career and a woman to love. Living in San Francisco's Chinatown—with his widowed father, Old Master Wang, who misses the old way of life in China, and his younger brother, who just wants to be a normal American teenager—Wang Ta becomes involved with a series of women as he searches for love and the American dream. Comic, poignant, and sexy, The Flower Drum Song is an astute portrayal of immigrants struggling with assimilation. This edition features a new introduction by David Henry Hwang.