Charles Darwin: The Man and his Influence

by Peter J. Bowler, Sally Gregory Kohlstedt (Editor), David M. Knight (Editor)

Upon publication, Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species excited much debate and controversy, challenging the foundations of Christianity, nonetheless underpinning the Victorian concept of progress. It still evokes powerful and contradictory responses today. Peter Bowler's study of Darwin's life, first published in 1990, combines biography and cultural history. Emphasizing in particular the impact of Darwin's work, he shows how Darwin's contemporaries were unable to appreciate precisely those aspects of his thinking that are considered scientifically important today. He also demonstrates that Darwin was a product of his time, but he also transcended it by creating an idea capable of being exploited by twentieth-century scientists and intellectuals who had very different values from his own.

Genres: Science, History, Nonfiction

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Peter J. Bowler, FBA, is a historian of biology who has written extensively on the history of evolutionary thought, the history of the environmental sciences, and on the history of genetics.

Reviews

[Summer Seeds · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was torn whether or not to give this two or three stars. In the end I settled on two, because, honestly, this is probably one of the worst biographies I have read. I did not care for the style Bowler writes in. He asks a lot of rhetorical questions and then proceeds to only halfway answer them. Also, he is constantly repeating himself. Which is fine, if in summary or emphasis on a particular point or to expound on what was previously said. However, Bowler seems to actually copy and paste lines from the intro of the text to later chapters. It was not good. Everything he says is very generalized, as well. He does not provide any new insight. In addition, he keeps saying things like "Darwin would never..." or "Obviously Darwin... If only..." No. You cannot put words in Darwin's mouth. There is no way Bowler could possibly know what Darwin would or would not have done if he had read Mendel or if he had a functioning understanding of genetics, because he simply did not have that knowledge. It was frustrating to read.

Another problem, Cambridge did a terrible editing job. There were words that were literally only half italicized. For shame, Cambridge, for shame.

[Andrés Cabrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente libro, narrra la vida de un genio, no sólo desde la perspectiva autobiográfica, sino también científica...