Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution

3.9/5 ( ratings)

A fresh look at Darwin's most radical idea, and the mysteriously slow process by which he revealed it.
Evolution, during the early nineteenth century, was an idea in the air. Other thinkers had suggested it, but no one had proposed a cogent explanation for how evolution occurs. Then, in September 1838, a young Englishman named Charles Darwin hit upon the idea that "natural selection" among competing individuals would lead to wondrous adaptations and species diversity. Twenty-one years passed between that epiphany and publication of "On the Origin of Species," The human drama and scientific basis of Darwin's twenty-one-year delay constitute a fascinating, tangled tale that elucidates the character of a cautious naturalist who initiated an intellectual revolution.
"The Reluctant Mr. Darwin" is a book for everyone who has ever wondered about who this man was and what he said. Drawing from Darwin's secret "transmutation" notebooks and his personal letters, David Quammen has sketched a vivid life portrait of the man whose work never ceases to be controversial.

Language: English

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Release: July 01, 2006

ISBN: 0393059812

ISBN 13: 9780393059816

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution

3.9/5 ( ratings)

A fresh look at Darwin's most radical idea, and the mysteriously slow process by which he revealed it.
Evolution, during the early nineteenth century, was an idea in the air. Other thinkers had suggested it, but no one had proposed a cogent explanation for how evolution occurs. Then, in September 1838, a young Englishman named Charles Darwin hit upon the idea that "natural selection" among competing individuals would lead to wondrous adaptations and species diversity. Twenty-one years passed between that epiphany and publication of "On the Origin of Species," The human drama and scientific basis of Darwin's twenty-one-year delay constitute a fascinating, tangled tale that elucidates the character of a cautious naturalist who initiated an intellectual revolution.
"The Reluctant Mr. Darwin" is a book for everyone who has ever wondered about who this man was and what he said. Drawing from Darwin's secret "transmutation" notebooks and his personal letters, David Quammen has sketched a vivid life portrait of the man whose work never ceases to be controversial.

Language: English

Pages: 304

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Release: July 01, 2006

ISBN: 0393059812

ISBN 13: 9780393059816

More books from David Quammen

Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic

4.4/5 ( ratings)

The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions

4.2/5 ( ratings)

The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind

The Flight of the Iguana: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Ebola: The Natural and Human History of a Deadly Virus

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature

4.1/5 ( ratings)

The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder

4.1/5 ( ratings)

Wild Thoughts from Wild Places

The Chimp and the River: How AIDS Emerged from an African Forest

4.1/5 ( ratings)

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2000

3.9/5 ( ratings)

Yellowstone: A Journey through America's Wild Heart

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Notes from The Century Before: A Journal from British Columbia

3.9/5 ( ratings)

The Kiwi's Egg: Charles Darwin And Natural Selection

Perché non eravamo pronti

3.7/5 ( ratings)

الفيض: أمراض الحيوانات المعدية و جائحة الوباء التالية بين البشر- الجزء الأول

Architecture by Birds and Insects: A Natural Art

4.1/5 ( ratings)

الفيض: أمراض الحيوانات المعدية و جائحة الوباء التالية بين البشر - الجزء الأول

4.3/5 ( ratings)

Perché non eravamo pronti

3.8/5 ( ratings)

When the Wild Comes Leaping Up: Personal Encounters with Nature

3.6/5 ( ratings)

Rate this book!

Write a review?