""I often said before starting, that I had no doubt I should
frequently repent of the whole undertaking."" So wrote Charles
Darwin aboard "The Beagle," bound for the Galapagos Islands and
what would arguably become the greatest and most controversial
discovery in scientific history. But the theory of evolution did
not spring full-blown from the head of Darwin. Since the dawn of
humanity, priests, philosophers, and scientists have debated the
origin and development of life on earth, and with modern science,
that debate shifted into high gear.
In this lively, deeply erudite work, Pulitzer Prize-winning science
historian Edward J. Larson takes us on a guided tour of Darwin's
"dangerous idea," from its theoretical antecedents in the early
nineteenth century to the brilliant breakthroughs of Darwin and
Wallace, to Watson and Crick's stunning discovery of the DNA double
helix, and to the triumphant neo-Darwinian synthesis and rising
sociobiology today.
Along the way, Larson expertly places the scientific upheaval of
evolution in cultural perspective: the social and philosophical
earthquake that was the French Revolution; the development, in
England, of a laissez-faire capitalism in tune with a Darwinian
ethos of "survival of the fittest"; the emergence of Social
Darwinism and the dark science of eugenics against a backdrop of
industrial revolution; the American Christian backlash against
evolutionism that culminated in the famous Scopes trial; and on to
today's world, where religious fundamentalists litigate for the
right to teach "creation science" alongside evolution in U.S.
public schools, even as the theory itself continues to evolve in
new and surprising directions.
Throughout, Larson trains his spotlight on the lives and careers of
the scientists, explorers, and eccentrics whose collaborations and
competitions have driven the theory of evolution forward. Here are
portraits of Cuvier, Lamarck, Darwin, Wallace, Haeckel, Galton,
Huxley, Mendel, Morgan, Fisher, Dobzhansky, Watson and Crick, W. D.
Hamilton, E. O. Wilson, and many others. Celebrated as one of
mankind's crowning scientific achievements and reviled as a threat
to our deepest values, the theory of evolution has utterly
transformed our view of life, religion, origins, and the theory
itself, and remains controversial, especially in the United States
(where 90% of adults do not subscribe to the full Darwinian
vision). Replete with fresh material and new insights, Evolution
will educate and inform while taking readers on a fascinating
journey of discovery.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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