Darwin's Ghosts
The Secret History of Evolution
by Rebecca Stott
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Pub Date Jun 12 2012 | Archive Date Sep 01 2012
Random House Publishing Group | Spiegel & Grau
Description
Christmas,1859. Just one month after the publication of On the Origin of Species, CharlesDarwin received an unsettling letter. He had expected criticism; in fact,letters were arriving daily, most expressing outrage and accusations of heresy.But this letter was different. It accused him of failing to acknowledge hispredecessors, of taking credit for a theory that had already been discovered byothers. Darwin realized that he had made an error in omitting from Origin ofSpecies any mention of his intellectual forebears. Yet when he tried totrace all of the natural philosophers who had laid the groundwork for histheory, he found that history had already forgotten many of them.
Darwin's Ghosts tells the story of the collective discovery ofevolution, from Aristotle, walking the shores of Lesbos with his pupils, toAl-Jahiz, an Arab writer in the first century, from Leonardo da Vinci,searching for fossils in the mine shafts of the Tuscan hills, to Denis Diderotin Paris, exploring the origins of species while under the surveillance of thesecret police, and the brilliant naturalists of the Jardin de Plantes, findingevidence for evolutionary change in the natural history collections stolenduring the Napoleonic wars. Evolution was not discovered single-handedly,Rebecca Stott argues, contrary to what has become standard lore, but is an ideathat emerged over many centuries, advanced by daring individuals across theglobe who had the imagination to speculate on nature's extraordinary ways, andwho had the courage to articulate such speculations at a time when to do so wasoften considered heresy.
With each chapter focusing on an early evolutionary thinker, Darwin's Ghostsis a fascinating account of a diverse group of individuals who, despite thevery real dangers of challenging a system in which everything was presumed tohave been created perfectly by God, felt compelled to understand where we camefrom. Ultimately, Stott demonstrates, ideas-including evolution itself-evolvejust as animals and plants do, by intermingling, toppling weaker notions, anddeveloping over stretches of time. Darwin's Ghosts presents agroundbreaking new theory of an idea that has changed our very understanding ofwho we are.
RebeccaStott is a professor of English literature and creative writing at theUniversity of East Anglia in Norwich. She is the author of the novels TheCoral Thief and Ghostwalk and a biography, Darwin and theBarnacle, and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio. She lives inCambridge, England.
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Advance Praise
"Thisextraordinarily wide-ranging and engaging book rediscovers evolutionaryinsights across a great span of time, from the famous, such as Aristotle andthe Islamic scholar Al-Jahiz, to the 16th-century potter Palissy, the18th-century merman-believer Maillet and the transformist poet and botanist,Rafinesque - as well as from Diderot, Lamarck, Darwin's grandfather Erasmus andhis contemporary Wallace. And these are just a few of the figures who emergefrom the dark into the glow of Stott's attention. Each of them is evoked withan intimacy that is also clearheaded about the way ideas get stuck, or provewrong-headed, but can't be parted with. Stott can make the nuances of ideasemerge in descriptions that suddenly bring the person close.... Gripping as wellas fair-minded... Darwin's Ghosts is a book that enriches ourunderstanding of how the struggle to think new thoughts is shared across timeand space and people."
-The Telegraph (UK)
"Stott's research is broad and unerring; her book is wonderful.... Stott'sconstellation of biographies is an exhilarating romp through 2,000 years offascinating scientific history."
-Nature
"Beautifully written and compelling...These mavericks and heretics put theirlives on the line. Finally, they are getting the credit they deserve."
-The Independent (UK)
"Impressively researched... A gripping and ambitious history of science whichgives a vivid sense of just how many forebears Darwin had."
-The Times (UK)
"Stott does a superb job of setting the scene for her protagonists, whether onthe island of Lesbos, 18th-century Cairo, or revolutionary Paris. But her realstrength lies in intellectual history. She demonstrates conclusively thatevolutionary ideas were circulating among intellectuals for many centuries andthat, for most of that time, those who promoted these ideas found themselvesunder attack by religious and political leaders. Darwin's scientific breakthrough,therefore, did not occur in a vacuum, but rather provided the most fullyconceptualized theory. Stott has produced a colorful, skillfully written, andthoughtful examination of the evolution of one of our most important scientifictheories."
-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A lively account of the ‘pathfinders, iconoclasts, and innovators' whowere Darwin's spiritual kin.... Stott masterfully shows how Darwin, bydiscovering the mechanism of natural selection, made a unique contribution, buthe did not stand alone-nor did he claim to."
-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The history of science comes alive as a drama of vibrant personalitieswrestling with a dangerous idea."
-Booklist
"Charles Darwin provided the mechanism for the evolution of the exquisiteadaptations found in plants and animals, but the awareness that species canchange had been growing long before him. With wonderful clarity Rebecca Stotttraces how ideas about biological evolution themselves evolved in the minds ofgreat biologists from Aristotle onward. Darwin would have loved this brilliantbook-and so do I."-Sir Patrick Bateson, president of the Zoological Society ofLondon
"Clever, compassionate, and compellingly written, Darwin's Ghosts interweaveshistory and science to enchanting effect. The evolution of the theory ofevolution is a brilliant idea for a book, and Rebecca Stott has realized itwonderfully."-Tom Holland, author of Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of theRoman Republic
"From Aristotle onward, evolutionists have-thank God-always been a quarrelsomelot, and not much has changed. Rebecca Stott shows how dispute, prejudice, andrage have accompanied their science from the very beginning. Darwin's Ghostsis a gripping history of the history of life and of those who have studied it,with plenty of lessons for today-perhaps for today's biologists most ofall."-Steve Jones, author of Darwin's Ghost: The Origin of Species Updated
"The concept of evolution was not created fully formed and placed in the gardenone day for our delight and terror but, as Rebecca Stott demonstrates in herinspiring book, evolved as much as we did. Darwin's Ghosts is abeautiful tribute to the buried tradition of curious, courageous observers who,before Darwin explained how evolution worked, witnessed the mutabilityof species for themselves and recorded what they saw."-Jonathan Rosen, authorof The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature
"A lively account of the ‘pathfinders, iconoclasts, and innovators' who wereDarwin's spiritual kin . . . Stott masterfully shows how Darwin, by discoveringthe mechanism of natural selection, made a unique contribution, but he did notstand alone-nor did he claim to."-Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781400069378 |
| PRICE | $27.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 416 |
