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Darwin's Sacred Cause
An astonishing new portrait of a scientific icon.
There is a mystery surrounding Darwin: How did this quiet, respectable gentleman, a pillar of his parish, come to embrace one of the most radical ideas in the history of human thought? Darwin risked a great deal in publishing his theory of evolution, so something very powerful--a moral fire--must have propelled him. That moral fire, argue authors Desmond and Moore, was a passionate hatred of slavery. They draw on a wealth of fresh manuscripts, correspondence, notebooks, diaries, and even ships' logs to show how Darwin's abolitionism had deep roots in his mother's family and was reinforced by his voyage on the Beagle as well as by events in America. Leading apologists for slavery in Darwin's time argued that blacks and whites were separate species, with whites created superior. Darwin believed that the races belonged to the same human family, and slavery was therefore a sin.
There is a mystery surrounding Darwin: How did this quiet, respectable gentleman, a pillar of his parish, come to embrace one of the most radical ideas in the history of human thought? Darwin risked a great deal in publishing his theory of evolution, so something very powerful--a moral fire--must have propelled him. That moral fire, argue authors Desmond and Moore, was a passionate hatred of slavery. They draw on a wealth of fresh manuscripts, correspondence, notebooks, diaries, and even ships' logs to show how Darwin's abolitionism had deep roots in his mother's family and was reinforced by his voyage on the Beagle as well as by events in America. Leading apologists for slavery in Darwin's time argued that blacks and whites were separate species, with whites created superior. Darwin believed that the races belonged to the same human family, and slavery was therefore a sin.
475 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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552 people want to read
About the author
Adrian J. Desmond
18 books15 followersAdrian John Desmond (born 1947) is an English writer on the history of science.
He studied physiology at University College, London, and went on to study history of science and vertebrate palaeontology at University College London before researching the history of vertebrate palaeontology at Harvard University, under Stephen Jay Gould. He was awarded a PhD in the area of the Victorian-period context of Darwinian evolution.
Desmond is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Biology Department at University College London.
He studied physiology at University College, London, and went on to study history of science and vertebrate palaeontology at University College London before researching the history of vertebrate palaeontology at Harvard University, under Stephen Jay Gould. He was awarded a PhD in the area of the Victorian-period context of Darwinian evolution.
Desmond is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Biology Department at University College London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
December 11, 2012
Three comments:
1. I am astonished at the prevalence of racist thought, to the point of obsession, among Caucasians who inhabited the Atlantic world during the 19th century. The theory of plural origins, i.e. that God made the races in separate acts of creation - in opposition to the conviction of common origin of homo sapiens, phrenology leading to cranial science by which races were ranked by cranial capacity, the religious pro-slavery argument, and on and on dominated this thoroughly revolting discourse across the Atlantic world decade after decade.
2. Desmond also demonstrates quite nicely how institutional religion and the dominant life/earth sciences of the period amounted to little more than generators of ideology to serve the ambitions of the white man in an age of imperial expansion and colonial occupation, ideology that justified the extermination of indigenous peoples, extension in time of race-based chattel slavery, the exploitation of non-whites, and even of whites of the lower orders. I was entirely unaware that a rudimentary and extraordinarily crude "social darwinism" was fully developed and effective in justifying any variety of exploitative and murderous behavior before Darwin had published his first paper. I no longer wonder how Marx developed his thoughts regarding superstructure. He would have to have been illiterate, deaf, blind and mute to escape the unremitting intrusion of these justifying and exculpatory ideas from all sides round.
3. Darwin was a naturalist, socially embedded to a degree that no other biographical work that I've read - or remember reading - documents. He and his family were ardent abolitionists, who were fully convinced of the "brotherhood" of man arising from a "common stock" that came into existence through a single act of creation. After all, Darwin's grandfather, Josiah Wedgewood I, designed and manufactured by the tens of thousands the Jasperware medallion depicting the black man, kneeling, in chains, bearing the caption: "Am I not a man and a brother?" And Desmond argues, and convincingly so, that the fundamental presuppositions of Darwin's thoughts on evolution, i.e. differentiation of life forms that originate in common stock, derive from the fundamental ideological commitments of abolitionists and served to found those presuppositions in "science."
Extra point. If you, like I, happen to enjoy a "blood-boiling" page-turner, if you enjoy getting all sanctimonious and puffed up with righteous indignation from time to time, this book may be the ticket - so many villains!
At End.
Two additional points regarding this book as a work of biography.
1. Desmond and Moore's scholarship is prodigious. I really do not understand how they contrived to read through all those thousands of pages of what passed for "natural history," to extract just the most salient passages/arguments, to weave them all into a seamless narrative of events in this segment of the history of science. And to accomplish this feat without introducing the least suggestion of their research activity, per se. Of course, it shows if one bothers to read their notes and bibliography. But their scholarship is really quite unobtrusive.
2. This book was a real page turner for me. It turns out that the development of life/earth science beginning about 1830 involved high drama. Desmond and Moore never for an instant allow the details of one debate or another in conference after conference to obscure that drama and Darwin's leading role in it. Their narrative proceeds with a marvelous pacing, just the right amount of the right information in the right sequence, etc. to bring the clash of heros and villains into sharpest relief. At the same time, they manage to personalize the drama. After all, their subject is Darwin. So they manage to zoom in and zoom out, as it were, describe in each scene and act Darwin's participation and his responses to other participants and events through which the drama unfolded. Utterly masterful biography.
1. I am astonished at the prevalence of racist thought, to the point of obsession, among Caucasians who inhabited the Atlantic world during the 19th century. The theory of plural origins, i.e. that God made the races in separate acts of creation - in opposition to the conviction of common origin of homo sapiens, phrenology leading to cranial science by which races were ranked by cranial capacity, the religious pro-slavery argument, and on and on dominated this thoroughly revolting discourse across the Atlantic world decade after decade.
2. Desmond also demonstrates quite nicely how institutional religion and the dominant life/earth sciences of the period amounted to little more than generators of ideology to serve the ambitions of the white man in an age of imperial expansion and colonial occupation, ideology that justified the extermination of indigenous peoples, extension in time of race-based chattel slavery, the exploitation of non-whites, and even of whites of the lower orders. I was entirely unaware that a rudimentary and extraordinarily crude "social darwinism" was fully developed and effective in justifying any variety of exploitative and murderous behavior before Darwin had published his first paper. I no longer wonder how Marx developed his thoughts regarding superstructure. He would have to have been illiterate, deaf, blind and mute to escape the unremitting intrusion of these justifying and exculpatory ideas from all sides round.
3. Darwin was a naturalist, socially embedded to a degree that no other biographical work that I've read - or remember reading - documents. He and his family were ardent abolitionists, who were fully convinced of the "brotherhood" of man arising from a "common stock" that came into existence through a single act of creation. After all, Darwin's grandfather, Josiah Wedgewood I, designed and manufactured by the tens of thousands the Jasperware medallion depicting the black man, kneeling, in chains, bearing the caption: "Am I not a man and a brother?" And Desmond argues, and convincingly so, that the fundamental presuppositions of Darwin's thoughts on evolution, i.e. differentiation of life forms that originate in common stock, derive from the fundamental ideological commitments of abolitionists and served to found those presuppositions in "science."
Extra point. If you, like I, happen to enjoy a "blood-boiling" page-turner, if you enjoy getting all sanctimonious and puffed up with righteous indignation from time to time, this book may be the ticket - so many villains!
At End.
Two additional points regarding this book as a work of biography.
1. Desmond and Moore's scholarship is prodigious. I really do not understand how they contrived to read through all those thousands of pages of what passed for "natural history," to extract just the most salient passages/arguments, to weave them all into a seamless narrative of events in this segment of the history of science. And to accomplish this feat without introducing the least suggestion of their research activity, per se. Of course, it shows if one bothers to read their notes and bibliography. But their scholarship is really quite unobtrusive.
2. This book was a real page turner for me. It turns out that the development of life/earth science beginning about 1830 involved high drama. Desmond and Moore never for an instant allow the details of one debate or another in conference after conference to obscure that drama and Darwin's leading role in it. Their narrative proceeds with a marvelous pacing, just the right amount of the right information in the right sequence, etc. to bring the clash of heros and villains into sharpest relief. At the same time, they manage to personalize the drama. After all, their subject is Darwin. So they manage to zoom in and zoom out, as it were, describe in each scene and act Darwin's participation and his responses to other participants and events through which the drama unfolded. Utterly masterful biography.
April 20, 2023
We are apes. It is worth repeating that, as the debate on human origins all too often speaks of the "difference between" humans and apes. The fact is that humans are still primates. Such is the depth of the paradigm shift initiated by Darwin, and such its counterintuitive nature that this is so often missed. This is no small matter, as the debate with slavery had in Darwin's time become a shooting war in the USA and a scientific campaign to cast separate races as separate species. In a biblical world of separately created "kinds", a black man as a separate species could be cast as a natural slave - lacking the rights of "higher" man, unable to care rationally for his interests, subject to selective breeding as stock. Whether the Sons of Ham or an ape of the jungle, the black man could be seen as the loser in a contest for supremacy between the superior and the inferior nations and his defeat merely part of the God-given order of things. Not even to be lamented. Further back down the ladder, one could set one's boot upon him merely to get a better view. This biblically-justified view of life will echo unpleasantly with anyone who has read the pagan rhetoric of European fascism.
So the issue of whether races were species was a question upon which the spilling of blood turned. Riverulets, freshets, cascades of blood. When the 19th Century dawned, a crew could weight down 200 innocent people and throw them over the side of a ship in response to drop in the price of "stock", and then claim insurance on ther loss. A child could be dragged from its parents and sold, a runaway lynched, men and women beaten bloody for a sloppy job of work and even an abolitionist senator publically beaten unconscious in the State House to reinforce the message that abolitionists could be thrashed like any slave. Darwin took this filthy edifice and burned out its foundations. When all living things are brothers, all men are brothers. Variety, species, genus - all these became a matter of degree. The slave became a brother and a man, not merely as a moral aspiration but as a matter of scientific orthodoxy uniting an entire science.
You might ask whether this revolution was Darwin's intent, or merely a happy consequence of his better-known alteration of the foundations of Western thought. The authors have devoted what must be prodigious effort to understanding Darwin based on primary sources - his own letters and notes. Their answer is that, yes, Darwin's attack on the roots of scientific racism was intentional and perfectly conscious. Out of thousands of telegraphic footnotes and the correspondence of decades, they forge a context. That context, indeed, is quite a thing, for Darwin did no less that to sweep away the foundations of scientific racism. Quite a thing for so retiring and cautious a man, but perhaps not such a surprise in a fellow who fondly remembered learning taxidermy from a black freedman.
These things are never as simple as they appear, of course. A foundation of scientific racism was phrenology, which has achieved the status of a footnote on pseudoscience in most modern histories of science. Yet it represented an advance. The brain was studied for the first time in terms of its macroscopic structure. Before it was typically diced by dissecters! Just so for the political aspects. Darwin provided a theoretical weapon to drive a stake through the heart of slavery, but he married a Wedgwood, and Wedgwood was the bank behind the abolitionist movement in Britain. The Royal Navy's blockade and the courage of abolitionists in the USA played decisive roles, and of course a full-scale civil war settled the issue in the English-speaking world. But Darwin's shift of the ground under our feet may have been the crack that toppled the stinking intellectual house and made sure slavery stayed dead.
It is odd reading of the Britain of the early 19th Century having grown up in a climate of casual racism in 1970s England. The lot of the freedman appears to have been good in the first half of the 19th Century, with this book's black players reaching intellectual and responsible positions which seem to have been closed to black people later on. It is sad to read this and dwell upon the time that seems to have been squandered.
This beautifully-written book may make you rage such as to storm the very gates of heaven, but it is also never less than engaging, and puts the record straight about the position of one of the greatest men of science, and one of the half-dozen greatest Englishmen. A grand achievement.
So the issue of whether races were species was a question upon which the spilling of blood turned. Riverulets, freshets, cascades of blood. When the 19th Century dawned, a crew could weight down 200 innocent people and throw them over the side of a ship in response to drop in the price of "stock", and then claim insurance on ther loss. A child could be dragged from its parents and sold, a runaway lynched, men and women beaten bloody for a sloppy job of work and even an abolitionist senator publically beaten unconscious in the State House to reinforce the message that abolitionists could be thrashed like any slave. Darwin took this filthy edifice and burned out its foundations. When all living things are brothers, all men are brothers. Variety, species, genus - all these became a matter of degree. The slave became a brother and a man, not merely as a moral aspiration but as a matter of scientific orthodoxy uniting an entire science.
You might ask whether this revolution was Darwin's intent, or merely a happy consequence of his better-known alteration of the foundations of Western thought. The authors have devoted what must be prodigious effort to understanding Darwin based on primary sources - his own letters and notes. Their answer is that, yes, Darwin's attack on the roots of scientific racism was intentional and perfectly conscious. Out of thousands of telegraphic footnotes and the correspondence of decades, they forge a context. That context, indeed, is quite a thing, for Darwin did no less that to sweep away the foundations of scientific racism. Quite a thing for so retiring and cautious a man, but perhaps not such a surprise in a fellow who fondly remembered learning taxidermy from a black freedman.
These things are never as simple as they appear, of course. A foundation of scientific racism was phrenology, which has achieved the status of a footnote on pseudoscience in most modern histories of science. Yet it represented an advance. The brain was studied for the first time in terms of its macroscopic structure. Before it was typically diced by dissecters! Just so for the political aspects. Darwin provided a theoretical weapon to drive a stake through the heart of slavery, but he married a Wedgwood, and Wedgwood was the bank behind the abolitionist movement in Britain. The Royal Navy's blockade and the courage of abolitionists in the USA played decisive roles, and of course a full-scale civil war settled the issue in the English-speaking world. But Darwin's shift of the ground under our feet may have been the crack that toppled the stinking intellectual house and made sure slavery stayed dead.
It is odd reading of the Britain of the early 19th Century having grown up in a climate of casual racism in 1970s England. The lot of the freedman appears to have been good in the first half of the 19th Century, with this book's black players reaching intellectual and responsible positions which seem to have been closed to black people later on. It is sad to read this and dwell upon the time that seems to have been squandered.
This beautifully-written book may make you rage such as to storm the very gates of heaven, but it is also never less than engaging, and puts the record straight about the position of one of the greatest men of science, and one of the half-dozen greatest Englishmen. A grand achievement.
November 17, 2015
Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were both born on February 12, 1809 and both men spent years of their professional lives fighting slavery in Europe and the Americas. Lincoln with politics, war, and the Emancipation Proclamation; Darwin with science, facts, and two books: "The Origin of the Species", and "The Descent of Man." Lincoln argued against slavery on moral grounds, while Darwin argued that all humans, black or white, are descended from the same ancestor and are equal, one should not be enslaved by the other, or degraded by the other.
Authors Desmond and Moore incorporate a ridiculous amount of research in this book pulling from political and historical documents, vast correspondence between anti-slavery and pro-slavery advocates on both sides of the Atlantic, and hundreds of newspaper articles, journal essays, research publications, and books of natural scientists around the world. They explain in detail the history of the Darwin family's fight against slavery--Darwin's grandfather and his wife, Emma's grandfather were among the first anti-slavery proponents in Great Britain, creating societies and pamphlets and literature against both the buying and selling of humans and against their being owned. (The British Empire officially outlawed the trading of slaves in 1807, but slaves were not emancipated until 1830. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the United States in 1863, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865.
Desmond and Moore carefully lay out the political and social landscape on both sides of the Atlantic in regards to buying and selling human beings throughout the century. And to exhaustive detail they point out how during the mid-19th century scientists, scholars, and theologians were debating against each other on the truth behind race, creation, humanity, and our origins. The pro-creation sect argued that all colored humans were animals, and therefore could be owned and sold. The pro-evolution/natural selection sect argued that all humans were descended from the same common ancestors and should be equal (with a little Victorian hogwash in there about women being inferior to men, don't worry, I made lots of angry notes around those paragraphs). Keep in mind, these arguments were all happening before genes and Mendel's discoveries, they were based on skeletons, fossils, and--for Darwin--two decades of research on domesticating and breeding pigeons, dogs, sheep, and horses. SO. FASCINATING!
I also realize that at nearly 500 pages it is not for the feint of heart or the casual reader. But I absolutely loved it. A book about Darwin AND abolition?! Sign me up.
Authors Desmond and Moore incorporate a ridiculous amount of research in this book pulling from political and historical documents, vast correspondence between anti-slavery and pro-slavery advocates on both sides of the Atlantic, and hundreds of newspaper articles, journal essays, research publications, and books of natural scientists around the world. They explain in detail the history of the Darwin family's fight against slavery--Darwin's grandfather and his wife, Emma's grandfather were among the first anti-slavery proponents in Great Britain, creating societies and pamphlets and literature against both the buying and selling of humans and against their being owned. (The British Empire officially outlawed the trading of slaves in 1807, but slaves were not emancipated until 1830. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the United States in 1863, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery in 1865.
Desmond and Moore carefully lay out the political and social landscape on both sides of the Atlantic in regards to buying and selling human beings throughout the century. And to exhaustive detail they point out how during the mid-19th century scientists, scholars, and theologians were debating against each other on the truth behind race, creation, humanity, and our origins. The pro-creation sect argued that all colored humans were animals, and therefore could be owned and sold. The pro-evolution/natural selection sect argued that all humans were descended from the same common ancestors and should be equal (with a little Victorian hogwash in there about women being inferior to men, don't worry, I made lots of angry notes around those paragraphs). Keep in mind, these arguments were all happening before genes and Mendel's discoveries, they were based on skeletons, fossils, and--for Darwin--two decades of research on domesticating and breeding pigeons, dogs, sheep, and horses. SO. FASCINATING!
I also realize that at nearly 500 pages it is not for the feint of heart or the casual reader. But I absolutely loved it. A book about Darwin AND abolition?! Sign me up.
November 14, 2019
The power of Darwinism fascinates. The theory of evolution through natural selection devastated every secular and sacred shibboleth held tightly for millennia. What has most impressed me is the utter victory of naturalism over super naturalism and, as logic inevitably demands, the complete redefinition of man's place in the universe. Even 150 years after its arrival on the intellectual stage the controversy rages, not among scientists certainly, but in the desperate and fragile efforts to disparage it by proponents of creationism and intellectual design. To my mind, the reality of naturalistic origins does not allow any foot hold for supernatural first causes. But, to me, this does not lead us to nihilism, but suggests a path of optimism for the future of the planet.
In On the Origins of Species, Darwin was cautious about explicitly expressing the implications of his theory on the matter of man's place in existence. He was certainly aware that such a conclusion would immediately be drawn and most certainly it was. Even such a stalwart scientific supporter as Asa Gray could not abandon the anchor of divinity as the ultimate first cause.
This fascinating book focuses on the relationship of Darwin's work to his strong abolitionist beliefs and to the debate raging on the morality of slavery. Darwin, his family and circle were among the staunchest abolitionists in England, advocating vigorously for emancipation in the Commonwealth and the Americas. Darwin's scientific logic compellingly supported the notion that the races of human kind had a unitary ancestor and were not distinct species. The so-called polygenisists held that the races were created separately and as species distinct from each other could be placed in a hierarchy of superiority without moral qualms. Great store was placed on the discernible differences among the races, but Darwin's work said these were not species differentiation but rather variations caused by environmental factors. The most obvious evidence for species commonality was the success of inter-racial reproduction.
In the context of the intense and ugly racism of the 19th century, Darwin's view was scorned by other scientists and polemicists who were determined to prove the racial superiority of Caucasians and, hence, the morality of subjugating the lesser species, principally blacks. America's renowned scientist, Louis Agassiz, was the foremost of the scientists making this claim. The aura of this pseudo science was eagerly grasped by those who sought to counter the growing intensity of moral opposition to slavery. This inevitably led its adherents down the primrose path of ascribing to genetic differences the futility of the "lessor" races ever being able to achieve the lofty heights of culture and progress achieved by the Anglo-Saxon race.
Thus to Darwin we owe another debt of gratitude. By impelling us to accept our less than divine status he has opened up the potential for diminishing the effects of our hubris on the earth. Recognizing the commonality of all humans points us toward a moral stance that best positions the perpetuation of our species. After all, isn't morality a successful and highly important evolutionary trait?
In On the Origins of Species, Darwin was cautious about explicitly expressing the implications of his theory on the matter of man's place in existence. He was certainly aware that such a conclusion would immediately be drawn and most certainly it was. Even such a stalwart scientific supporter as Asa Gray could not abandon the anchor of divinity as the ultimate first cause.
This fascinating book focuses on the relationship of Darwin's work to his strong abolitionist beliefs and to the debate raging on the morality of slavery. Darwin, his family and circle were among the staunchest abolitionists in England, advocating vigorously for emancipation in the Commonwealth and the Americas. Darwin's scientific logic compellingly supported the notion that the races of human kind had a unitary ancestor and were not distinct species. The so-called polygenisists held that the races were created separately and as species distinct from each other could be placed in a hierarchy of superiority without moral qualms. Great store was placed on the discernible differences among the races, but Darwin's work said these were not species differentiation but rather variations caused by environmental factors. The most obvious evidence for species commonality was the success of inter-racial reproduction.
In the context of the intense and ugly racism of the 19th century, Darwin's view was scorned by other scientists and polemicists who were determined to prove the racial superiority of Caucasians and, hence, the morality of subjugating the lesser species, principally blacks. America's renowned scientist, Louis Agassiz, was the foremost of the scientists making this claim. The aura of this pseudo science was eagerly grasped by those who sought to counter the growing intensity of moral opposition to slavery. This inevitably led its adherents down the primrose path of ascribing to genetic differences the futility of the "lessor" races ever being able to achieve the lofty heights of culture and progress achieved by the Anglo-Saxon race.
Thus to Darwin we owe another debt of gratitude. By impelling us to accept our less than divine status he has opened up the potential for diminishing the effects of our hubris on the earth. Recognizing the commonality of all humans points us toward a moral stance that best positions the perpetuation of our species. After all, isn't morality a successful and highly important evolutionary trait?
March 15, 2016
Scholarly read. Gives an interesting perspective on how racial ideology of the day influenced Darwin in his evolutionary theories. It was interesting that Darwin believed all men descended from a common ancestor yet I get the sense he was a racist. Further proof that science and morality are in different circles of thought.
February 19, 2009
See my full review in the Washington Post (on the cover of the final issue of Book World, RIP): http://is.gd/jwZT
"In Darwin's Sacred Cause, Adrian Desmond and James Moore contend that abhorrence of slavery inspired and shaped Darwin's theory of evolution. To grasp his grand project, we have first to understand one of the great scientific battles of the mid-19th century. "Polygenists," such as the American physician Samuel George Morton, held that the human races were each a distinct species, and each the result of a separate act of creation. They considered Anglo-Saxon whites superior in every way to the "debased" and "savage" darker races, which were relegated to a supposed natural position of servitude. Darwin, a man of his time, also believed in the superiority of whites. But he was convinced that all humans were one species, and that those not born to English manners could be improved through education. With growing horror, he observed slavery in Brazil and the genocide of indigenous peoples in Argentina, and decried both in his Voyage of the Beagle: "It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty," he wrote in the 1845 edition of his popular travelogue.
...
Two hundred years after his birth, Darwin has been vilified by some, sanctified by others and, perhaps, misunderstood by most. Rich in detail, remarkably readable and engaging, Desmond and Moore's reassessment may do no more than other books to convince evolution's deniers of the grandeur of Darwin's view of life. But by revealing the motive behind his work, Sacred Cause is the finest birthday tribute to Charles Darwin in many years."
"In Darwin's Sacred Cause, Adrian Desmond and James Moore contend that abhorrence of slavery inspired and shaped Darwin's theory of evolution. To grasp his grand project, we have first to understand one of the great scientific battles of the mid-19th century. "Polygenists," such as the American physician Samuel George Morton, held that the human races were each a distinct species, and each the result of a separate act of creation. They considered Anglo-Saxon whites superior in every way to the "debased" and "savage" darker races, which were relegated to a supposed natural position of servitude. Darwin, a man of his time, also believed in the superiority of whites. But he was convinced that all humans were one species, and that those not born to English manners could be improved through education. With growing horror, he observed slavery in Brazil and the genocide of indigenous peoples in Argentina, and decried both in his Voyage of the Beagle: "It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty," he wrote in the 1845 edition of his popular travelogue.
...
Two hundred years after his birth, Darwin has been vilified by some, sanctified by others and, perhaps, misunderstood by most. Rich in detail, remarkably readable and engaging, Desmond and Moore's reassessment may do no more than other books to convince evolution's deniers of the grandeur of Darwin's view of life. But by revealing the motive behind his work, Sacred Cause is the finest birthday tribute to Charles Darwin in many years."
November 24, 2019
"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution." - Theodosius Dobzhansky.
As a trained biologist, this quote, and the vital importance of Darwin's intellectual contributions, is something I think about almost every day. So I really wanted to be wowed by this book, as someone who sees a dearth in conversation about the social contexts in which science is performed and the inherent political and social character of science. This is an interesting book, that recasts some of the famous revelations of Darwin in a better historical context, showing the fierce academic and political debate over slavery that played a critical role in how he developed his theory of evolution. I would say my main critique was the book didn't grapple with the infamous 5th chapter of The Descent of Man, when Darwin advanced a form of cultural evolution that others would later use as scientific justification for colonialism, xenophobia, and eugenics. I think any conversation of Darwin, evolution, and the social context evolution was proposed under should grapple with that, but unfortunately, that was relegated to the last chapter of the book and not as thoroughly detailed as more charitable writings and actions of Darwin. Overall, an important piece of scholarship, just not quite what I was hoping.
As a trained biologist, this quote, and the vital importance of Darwin's intellectual contributions, is something I think about almost every day. So I really wanted to be wowed by this book, as someone who sees a dearth in conversation about the social contexts in which science is performed and the inherent political and social character of science. This is an interesting book, that recasts some of the famous revelations of Darwin in a better historical context, showing the fierce academic and political debate over slavery that played a critical role in how he developed his theory of evolution. I would say my main critique was the book didn't grapple with the infamous 5th chapter of The Descent of Man, when Darwin advanced a form of cultural evolution that others would later use as scientific justification for colonialism, xenophobia, and eugenics. I think any conversation of Darwin, evolution, and the social context evolution was proposed under should grapple with that, but unfortunately, that was relegated to the last chapter of the book and not as thoroughly detailed as more charitable writings and actions of Darwin. Overall, an important piece of scholarship, just not quite what I was hoping.
November 25, 2019
An excellent book describing Charles Darwin and the basis for his rather progressive views towards other peoples, especially in regards to slavery. Some readers may carp about the fleshing out of what could have been a much shorter book, and they would be correct to do so given the inordinate amount of history about phrenology. Still, I appreciated the bulk of material as this book tries--and succeeds--to offer more than a hypothesis: it is also a somewhat decent biography of the man. As there is a shelf-bending amount of bios about Darwin, any one that offers a different tack is welcome. Be warned, however. There is some touchy language that demonstrates while Darwin was willing to acknowledge the equal biological natures of different races, and the respect and treatment therefore afforded them, Darwin was also a cultural elitist. A man far ahead of his time in most ways, he was also a man completely of his time--an Englishman at ease with the idea that White/Western culture was supreme to all others in all ways.
Grade: B+
Grade: B+
April 15, 2009
Based on a painstaking study of Darwin's private papers -- correspondence, notebooks, journals, ship logs, and even scribbled remarks in the margins of books and pamphlets he had read -- this compelling book endeavors to redeem and humanize the often misunderstood man. Critics uniformly praised Darwin's Sacred Cause, describing it as thoroughly researched, absorbing, and even "thrilling" (Independent). Only a few had misgivings: some critics noticed that the authors gloss over evidence of prejudice -- practically a hallmark of polite Victorian society -- in Darwin's writings, and others questioned the success of the authors in proving their claims. So was Darwin a benevolent humanitarian or an impartial scientist? Readers of this articulate and engrossing book will have to decide for themselves.
This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.
March 30, 2015
Scholars call Desmond and Moore's book controversial because it takes a different approach to Darwin's motivations for his evolution work, but I found the book detailed, well researched, and quite convincing. I also noticed that some scholars argued that the social atmosphere and slavery / anti-slavery debate in Great Britain and America received too much attention in the book...but I felt that when you are placing Darwin within this context, it is important to understand his influences and surroundings... Darwin was insular and very private with his thoughts... he was out an outspoken activist, but someone who proceeded with a great deal of anxiety, but Desmond and Moore point out the deep passionate feelings Darwin had about slavery in his personal writing and his annotations in books he read during the period... it makes sense that he would work against pro-slavery racial science in a quiet, clandestine, and scientific way... I found the book engaging and convincing.
June 4, 2015
This was a difficult read for me, sometimes turgid and tedious, but information rich. Therefore it was worth the effort, if not always a pleasure.
I love the irony of the fact that the hideous practice of American plantation slavery was vigorously advocated and defended by the religious community while Darwin was just as vigorously against it. Science v. Religion indeed. It is a sad but humbling truth that much of the defense of slavery in America was done in the guise of science. We who practice, understand that Science is really a verb, an activity, not a noun-fixed and static item. As a practice, it claims not infallibility. This is left for other non-scientific cliques.
Any biologist who thinks they know the Darwin historical context should probably read this book. I knew and read a lot of Darwin's historical narratives but this book filled in a lot background for me. I suspect it will for others too.
I love the irony of the fact that the hideous practice of American plantation slavery was vigorously advocated and defended by the religious community while Darwin was just as vigorously against it. Science v. Religion indeed. It is a sad but humbling truth that much of the defense of slavery in America was done in the guise of science. We who practice, understand that Science is really a verb, an activity, not a noun-fixed and static item. As a practice, it claims not infallibility. This is left for other non-scientific cliques.
Any biologist who thinks they know the Darwin historical context should probably read this book. I knew and read a lot of Darwin's historical narratives but this book filled in a lot background for me. I suspect it will for others too.
December 25, 2017
I found this book a bit of a slog, and I think I need to do some further reading before reading it again. First, I'm going to reread The Mismeasure of Man. I read (or partly read; I can't remember exactly) this book some years ago. As I recall it covers a lot of the same territory as this book, and is more readable. Then I will reread The Origin of Species, which I slogged through when I was way to young to appreciate it. And then finally I will read, if I can make it through, The Descent of Man. So I'm figuring I will reread this book—maybe sometime in 2020? Or maybe not.
September 3, 2025
Subtitle in UK is actually "Race, Slavery and the Quest for Human Origins". With extensive reference to unpublished family correspondence, manuscripts and other rare works, the authors of the celebrated 1991 biography of Darwin, Adrian Desmond and James Moore, argue that Darwin was inspired to develop his theory of evolution in part because of his family's deeply held commitment to the abolition of slavery. It was, for instance, one of his grandfathers, Josiah Wedgwood, who bankrolled much of the fight against the slave trade and minted the famous medallion of a shackled slave saying 'Am I not a man and a brother?' Thus, like his abolitionist friend Wilberforce, and contrary to those scientists who asserted that black and white races had been separately created, Darwin passionately believed the Bible taught the common descent of mankind. To quote from chapter one: 'To understand why [Darwin] started thinking about the roots - the origin - of black and white races, we have to appreciate his moral anchorage in the noontide of the British anti-slavery movement. It is the key to explain why such a gentleman of wealth and standing should risk all to develop his bestial 'monkey-man' image of our ancestry in the first place...Where slave-masters bestialized blacks, Darwin's starting point was the abolitionist belief in blood kinship, a 'common descent'. Adamic unity and the brotherhood of man were axiomatic in the anti-slavery tracts that he and his family devoured and distributed. It implied a single origin for black and white, a shared ancestry. And this was the unique feature of Darwin's peculiar brand of evolution.'
December 31, 2024
The authors argue that Darwin's writing influenced his family's abolitionist beliefs and activities. The evidence is there, but the influence on the Origin of Species may not be as relevant as it was for The Descent of Man, whose publication is where Desmond and Moore end. Standard biographical elements are present, and the first few chapters add little to prior biographies. A large section focuses on the publication of The Origen of Species, like so many other biographies of Darwin. The communication between Darwin and the scientific community is much more interesting, especially between the publication of the two books. Darwin's other books are ignored, nor does the biography take on Darwin's death or the deaths of most family members.
December 18, 2020
This is a religious Christainc Republican tract, not serious.
June 10, 2025
Very interesting ideas, but the execution felt a bit dry. My brain might have been a bit too smooth for this one.
February 19, 2014
This incredibly detailed book sheds light on the physical, mental and emotional toll
Darwin's theories had on him. It explores his committement to the abolition of slavery and the drive this gave him to prove without doubt, the origin of all races came from a common ancestor.
At times, I found myself frustrated at Darwin's hesitation to publish his theories of evolution but this book shows the struggles and battles he was up against. The sheer horror of such acute racism and elitism in the majority of Caucasians was utterly repellent. There are some real gutsy characters in here many of them, women, the Wedgewood sisters, Martineau, really fighting for the abolition movement.
This book is an amazing achievement, chronicling the thought processes and ideas (fleeting or otherwise) that led Darwin to his conclusions of the Origins of the Species. Outstanding.
Darwin's theories had on him. It explores his committement to the abolition of slavery and the drive this gave him to prove without doubt, the origin of all races came from a common ancestor.
At times, I found myself frustrated at Darwin's hesitation to publish his theories of evolution but this book shows the struggles and battles he was up against. The sheer horror of such acute racism and elitism in the majority of Caucasians was utterly repellent. There are some real gutsy characters in here many of them, women, the Wedgewood sisters, Martineau, really fighting for the abolition movement.
This book is an amazing achievement, chronicling the thought processes and ideas (fleeting or otherwise) that led Darwin to his conclusions of the Origins of the Species. Outstanding.
January 22, 2015
It was really interesting to read this. I've been very familiar with the scientific side of Darwin's work, but not the historical side. This book lays out (in great detail) the conditions and contexts into which Darwin was born, and how he became so dedicated to the anti-slavery cause.
And, it's a good reminder that science isn't carried out by "objective observers" - science is carried out by human beings, with opinions and points of view. The work isn't invalidated by it, but enriched by it. (The validation, of course, comes later with other scientists with different ideas and opinions finding the same thing.)
Anyway, if Darwin, or evolutionary biology is an interest of yours, this is a worthy read. I really enjoyed it.
And, it's a good reminder that science isn't carried out by "objective observers" - science is carried out by human beings, with opinions and points of view. The work isn't invalidated by it, but enriched by it. (The validation, of course, comes later with other scientists with different ideas and opinions finding the same thing.)
Anyway, if Darwin, or evolutionary biology is an interest of yours, this is a worthy read. I really enjoyed it.
May 26, 2010
Finally we meet the real Charles Darwin, not simply the scientist but the man who was influenced by the strong antislavery sentiments of his family (the Wedgewoods and the Darwins) and applied what he saw to interpreting evolution. Both Darwin and Lincoln were born on the same day in 1809 and were destined in a strange way to influence social and and political history. Here is the detailed study of how a naturalist became captive to the currents of history and the winds of change. This is a volume to be perused with care as it is a carefully crafted and scholary work, but one that will reward the reader with a richer understanding of human and cultural evolution.
February 25, 2010
A brave and interesting thesis that unfortunately never gets much further than that. Moore and Desmond rescue scientific Darwinism from its (not always unfounded) reputation as racism's scientific apologia by way of biographical investigation and cultural exploration. But having established a solid horizontal framework, they never succeed in building vertically to a definite and convincing conclusion. The book is also plagued by cursory considerations of phrenology and biology that, while germane to the thesis, never lead anywhere.
A letdown.
A letdown.
November 27, 2013
Quite a slog to get through but worth it. It helped illuminate the challenges Darwin faced to publish, and revealed his disgust with slavery and the use of science to justify it. Part of what made it a difficult read was the vast number of people to keep track of. If I had known, I might have started a list to help keep them all straight. Overall, a good window into two of the most interesting developments of the 19th century.
Read
September 9, 2009Darwin's marriage and the love he had for his wife put a great distancer between himself and his beliefs. His wife was a faithful Christian and did not share his beliefs and cautioned him and many of his concepts and ideas were not fully expressed because of the love and respect he had for his wife during their marriage. I admire him for that.
December 29, 2009
This book would have made a good 12 page essay. Through redundancy after redundancy the authors stretched the defense of their thesis to a 400+ page book. Yawn. The title suggests some moral imperative motivating Darwin's researches but I thought the narrative pointed more toward the motivators of curiosity and the desire to be right.
Want to read
January 20, 2010Off this review by Rowan Hooper,
The authors come up with something astonishing: a radical new explanation of the force that drove Darwin. It shows how he was motivated by the great moral cause of his day: opposition to slavery.
The authors come up with something astonishing: a radical new explanation of the force that drove Darwin. It shows how he was motivated by the great moral cause of his day: opposition to slavery.
May 24, 2009
It is a fascinating study of this driving force behind Darwin's researches.
Read
March 30, 2010fantastic insight into what drove darwin to write the origin. its an unpalatanble read due to the contextual language. but you will see that it is necessary.
April 6, 2016
I really enjoyed reading Darwin's Sacred Cause. It was good to read that Charles Darwin and his family were so against slavery, though a great shame so many were taken in by it.
August 10, 2011
I was amazed, a thoroughly thought provoking book.
September 4, 2011
Excellent revelatory book - combination of science historical biography and political activism in the mid nineteenth century anglo american politics of anti-slavery.
September 11, 2014
Now I just want to read Darwin's books. I think I would rather determine what he meant for myself than have some other author do it and perhaps jump to conclusions.
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