"Between the many books on evolution, and Darwinism in particular, there is such a competitive struggle
that only those with a distinctive character and well adapted to their readership will survive. Edward Larson's
acclaimed gifts as a writer who can make the history of science exciting to a wide audience are visible again in
a captivating study that will assuredly be successful. How has the theory of evolution evolved from the time of
the French Enlightenment to the current geneticisation of culture? Larson's story, which takes seriously the cultural
meanings of new science, has many twists and turns and is told with humour and vivacity."
--John Hedley Brooke, Andreas Idreos Professor of Science & Religion, University of Oxford
"Larson has written a brilliant introduction to the history of evolution, equally sensitive to scientific,
religious, and social factors. It is, hands down, the most readable and reliable account available."
--Ronald L. Numbers, Hilldale and William Coleman Professor of the History of Science and Medicine. Department
of Medical History and Bioethics, University of Wisconsin
"Ed Larson is both a historian and a writer who knows how to bring his subject alive. In Evolution: The Remarkable
History of a Scientific Theory he combines the latest historical scholarship with an understanding of recent issues
in science, religion and social debate. This powerful book will help everyone understand the foundations of modern
evolutionary ideas and the origins of the latest controversies."
--Peter J. Bowler, Queens University Belfast
"An indispensable guide to the sometimes weird, but always wonderful, world of Evolution. Every species inhabiting
this contested territory is here: Darwinian materialists, Lamarckian progressivists, hopeful-monster mutationists,
theistic evolutionists, neo-vitalists, six-day creationists, mathematical geneticists, intelligent designers, molecular
reductionists and on and on. Yet this is no monochrome chronicle of disengaged scientific ideas. It is a rich and
compelling narrative portrayed in glorious technicolour, as grand and sweeping in scope as the theory of evolution
itself. In the struggle for shelf-life among publications on evolution, Edward Larson¹s book is superbly fitted
for long-term survival."
--David N. Livingstone, author of Darwin's Forgotten Defenders: The Encounter Between Evangelical Theology and
Evolutionary Thought
"...Larson's survey should make valuable reading for young people going into the sciences...."
--Publishers Weekly
Publisher Web Site, October, 2004
Summary
"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 is an expert, taut, and comprehensive history of a controversial
and important scientific theory.