When the impact hypothesis of the end-Cretaceous extinction was advanced in 1980, it sparked a massive debate among scientists. The articles included in The Mass-Extinction Debates attempt, in the words of its editor, to "take up the philosophy of those ideas, the logic and mode of their argumentation, and the behavior of the scientists involved." Contributors include William Glen, Elisabeth S. Clemens, Digby J. McLaren, J. John Sepkoski Jr., David M. Raup, S. V. M. Clube, Herbert R. Shaw, Leigh M. Van Valen, Kenneth J. Hsü, and John C. Briggs; interviews with William A. Clemens and Stephen Jay Gould are also included.