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E-mail Message: I thought you might be interested in this item at http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/65400177 Title: The reluctant Mr. Darwin : an intimate portrait of Charles Darwin and the making of his theory of evolution Author: David Quammen Publisher: New York : Atlas Books/Norton, ©2006. ISBN/ISSN: 0393059812 9780393059816 9780393329957 039332995X OCLC:65400177

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The reluctant Mr. Darwin : an intimate portrait of Charles Darwin and the making of his theory of evolution

Author:	David Quammen
Publisher:	New York : Atlas Books/Norton, ©2006.
Series:	Great discoveries.
Edition/Format:	Print book : Biography : English : 1st edView all editions and formats
Summary:	"Charles Darwin was by nature a homebody, a breeder of pigeons, a close student of barnacles--in short, a cautious and deeply shy man. Yet he found himself burdened with a profoundly radical insight. This elusive character, whose theories have had such a revolutionizing impact on our understanding of nature, remains as misapprehended as his most wondrous, frightening idea: "natural selection," the primary mechanism
Rating:	based on 2 rating(s) 2 with reviews
Subjects	Darwin, Charles, -- 1809-1882. Natural selection. Naturalists -- England -- Biography. View all subjects
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Details

Genre/Form:	Biography collective biographies Biographies
Named Person:	Charles Darwin; Charles Darwin; Charles Darwin; Charles Darwin; Charles Darwin
Material Type:	Biography, Internet resource
Document Type:	Book, Internet Resource
All Authors / Contributors:	David Quammen Find more information about:
ISBN:	0393059812 9780393059816 9780393329957 039332995X
OCLC Number:	65400177
Description:	304 pages ; 22 cm.
Contents:	Home and dry : an introduction -- The fabric falls : 1837-1839 -- The kiwi's egg : 1842-1844 -- Point of attachment : 1846-1851 -- A duck for Mr. Darwin : 1848-1857 -- His abominable volume : 1858-1859 -- The fittest idea : 1860 to the future -- The last beetle : 1876-1882 -- Source notes -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index.
Series Title:	Great discoveries.
Responsibility:	David Quammen.
More information:	Table of contents Table of contents

Abstract:

"Quammen brilliantly and powerfully re-creates the 19th century naturalist's intellectual and spiritual journey."--Los Angeles Times Book Review Read more...

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WorldCat User Reviews (2)

Good biography of Darwin, gentle enough for high school

by vleighton (WorldCat user published 2013-06-07) Excellent

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The prose of this book is smooth and lets you read effortlessly. This well-told tale is light enough that it could be enjoyed by a high schooler or by a vacationer on the beach. The Darwin story is one that already has a good plot, and Quammen tells it well. Since the 1980s, there has been a great deal of scholarship on Darwin as more accurate and complete editions of his letters and journals have been published. Janet Brown in particular has written a multi-volume comprehensive biography of Darwin. Quammen has benefited from this recent scholarship, and he has boiled it down to a page-turner.

Here is a sample sentence to show Quammen's style: "Essentialism and natural theology were as thick in the air of Darwin's world as coal smoke and the scent of horse manure" (p. 33).

One aspect of recent scholarship that Quammen has glossed over is the evidence that Darwin agreed with the creepier ideas of Herbert Spencer's Social Darwinism and eugenics. Instead, the book ends with the passing of a lovable, eccentric old man who doted on his grandchildren and had, in the end, gotten it right. For a book that examines the darker side of Darwin before deciding that his positive qualities outweigh that darker side, read Levine's Darwin Loves You .

Quammen largely skips the early half of Darwin's life and begins when the Beagle returns to Britain. This makes sense, as the later Darwin is why we know about Darwin at all: it is where the intellectual struggle over evolution begins. Quammen does spend time on the theories of evolution and natural selection themselves, and he presents the evidence for them well enough to give the reader a sense of how strong that evidence is. In other words, this book would be good for someone flirting with creationism. The next to last chapter chronicles how the theory of natural selection failed to convince many scientists until the development of the Modern Synthesis in the mid-20th century.

Reluctant is careful with its sources and provides good notes, bibliographies, and an index, so it can be the launching off point for the budding scholar. In preparing for this book, Quammen read most of Darwin's other writings, and he comes to the conclusion that the only two books that hold up well today are the journal of the Beagle (the 1845 edition, called Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology ... arranges the Galapagos evidence with an eye toward the theory of evolution) and Origin of Species . Quammen even reviews the editorial differences among the many editions of Origin of Species , and he advises readers to look for a facsimile of the first edition.

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The Reluctant Mr. Darwin

by VA (WorldCat user published 2007-10-30) Excellent

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A very personal look at Charles Darwin and his reluctance to publish. Included are glimpses at the amount of correspondence and long time frame in the pre-computer age. The intrigue between Darwin and his friends in the scientific community to get Darwin's work published before Wallace's. This is...
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