T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone That Dominates and Divides Us

Evolutionary biologist Hooven separates testosterone fact from fiction in her comprehensive debut. While testosterone is commonly viewed as “the essence of masculinity,” both men and women produce the hormone, Hooven writes, and learning about it can be “satisfying, empowering, and even fun.” She surveys how society has long manipulated traits influenced by testosterone, such as by castration, used on animals to control farmyard breeding and, historically, to keep male voices high for choirs. (More recently, she writes, the hormone has been used in dubious supplements intended to fight aging and increase sexual potency.) Hooven also explores testosterone’s effects on aggression, and her consideration of its impact on athletic performance is provocative: apart from age and health status, she writes, “only T draws such a clear and consistent line between large groups of people who differ in athletic ability.” The scope of Hooven’s research is impressive—she takes readers to high-tech labs and on a day of “chimping” in Uganda’s Kibale forest—and her writing is refreshingly free of jargon. The result is an approachable introduction to an often misunderstood aspect of human biology. (July)