Fertility and Pregnancy: An Epidemiologic Perspective, is a lively overview of human reproduction: how it works, and what causes it to go wrong. Weaving together history, biology, obstetrics, pediatrics, demography, infectious diseases, molecular genetics, and evolutionary biology, Allen Wilcox brings a fresh coherence to the epidemiologic study of reproduction and pregnancy. Along the way, he provides entertaining anecdotes, superb graphs, odd tidbits and occasional humor that bring the topic to life.

The book is divided into two sections. The first lays the foundations - the...