Evolution: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (Modern Library Chronicles) Reviews

• The trials of an idea

  
  By AJDYDG7YZY9QL on 2004-05-07
  Edward Larson has capped a fine string of publications on evolution with this history. A study of the idea of evolution and consideration of the mechanisms driving it, this book introduces you to the major thinkers and researchers involved. Each chapter focuses on an individual or a concept, explaining the rationales behind the idea and its supporters. Larson's evocative prose style keeps the account moving smoothly, even when disputants over an idea grow disruptive and acrimonious.

  Larson opens with consideration of the problem of deep time. With biblical authority decreeing a young earth and the immutability of species, the idea of change over time was deemed impossible, if not heretical. Ironically, the first scholar to open the notion of deep time was one of evolution's "staunchest foes" - Georges Cuvier. This French scientist was an early expert on comparative anatomy, stressing form resulted from functional use of an organ. His studies led him to argue that fossils truly represented extinct species. However, new species didn't evolve from the older ones, he argued, but were the result of an act of subsequent creation. Extinctions were due to some catastrophic event. The idea of species succession, however, introduced the notion of deep time - an Earth older than then supposed.

  From Cuvier, Larson logically moves to the ideas of another French scientist, Jean Baptiste Lamarck. Today, Lamarck's ideas are blithely dismissed, but Larson shows the significance of his contributions. Although the paleontological record provided spotty support, Lamarck rejected Cuvier's "fixed species" sequences for a form of continuous change. Thinking that changes to the body would be reflected in later generations, Lamarck developed the thesis of "acquired characteristics". Larson makes clear that Lamarck's ideas, although denounced today, were a needed foundation for Darwin's great insight.

  Larson's summary of Darwin's Beagle voyage and development of the concept of evolution by natural selection is clear and succinct. Except for Larson's insistence on calling it "evolutionism", thereby changing a scientific idea into an ideology, it's a fine synopsis. Larson is correct in concentrating on human evolution. No matter what Darwin wrote of pigeons or barnacles, people wanted to know how humans fit into the evolutionary scheme. More than one scientific and social issue depended on that pivotal point.

  Larson describes the years of challenge to natural selection and the rise of Mendelian genetics leading the assault. Objectors to natural selection came from more than just the ranks of Christian dogmatists. Lord Kelvin's calculation of the sun's waning heat denied evolution sufficient time to operate. Others argued that breeding species blended traits instead of separating them into new species. Later, the most important student of heredity, Thomas Hunt Morgan, rejected natural selection in favour of a mutation-driven mechanism. The turning point came with J.B.S. Haldane, Sewall Wright and Ronald Fisher's new "biometric" studies in population genetics. The merging of Mendelian genetics with Darwin's natural selection is now known as the "new synthesis" or "neo-Darwinism". That combination has proven the most lasting and meaningful aspect of thought on the idea of evolution. From it, Larson explains, arose E. O. Wilson's innovative concept of sociobiology. The behaviour of social insects offer insight into group interaction and are applicable to human evolutionary history.

  There are many books with information on the history of evolution as a concept. Why choose this one over any of them? The main reason is Larson's focus on evolution as an idea. The biological themes are discussed only briefly, keeping Larson free to relate the history of the concept. He describes some of the off-shoots of Darwin's original thesis, such as Gould and Eldredge's "punctuated equilibrium", but cautiously avoids any commitment to any of them. His purpose is relating how the idea came to dominate science. He also portrays its Christian opponents in the United States and how their strategies have been applied in driving education away from science to embrace religious themes, however disguised. As an overview, this book is an outstanding introduction. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
  
  

• A Litte of Everything

  
  By A3K1RVYM3JQZZS on 2004-06-19
  Edward J. Larson manages to pack this little book. The author goes beyond the usual small format of the Modern Library Chronicles series only a little in terms of page number but seems to cram much more information in than the readers of this dazzling series usually encounter. And the joy is that he does it so effortlessly, with scientific jargonize only sneaking in near the very end. The concept of evolution is covered from Cuvier in the Napoleonic era through Darwin and onto the modern 21st culture wars in America. Everything important is touched on in a manner that makes it relevant, understandable, and interesting, and the story flows quickly and intelligently. It is one of the better volumes of the series making the best use of the space allowed in order to introduce important historical ideas and events to the general reader. A highly recommended read.
  
  

• Good, up to the second half of the 20th century

  
  By A2VZLJUS1IJIJA on 2004-07-19
  Larson is quite competent at describing the history of evolutionary thought up until recent decades. Then he becomes obsessed with Wilson's pop-sci "sociobiology" and completely misses the much more significant Zukerkandl & Pauling, Kimura, Jukes & Cantor, Walter Fitch, and the whole revolution in molecular evolution which brought evolution out of the swamps of mere "naturalism" and into serious molecular and genomic studies.
  
  

• Good for Adding Historical Context

  
  By A1VA170GUYGTB on 2004-08-21
  This book does a good job at placing evolution by natural selection into its historical context as an idea. I enjoyed seeing the comparison of Darwin's ideas with the competing ideas of scientists of his time. The historical approach makes it clear why Darwin's ideas have been so successful: they have plenty of predictive power. This book makes clear that the central problem with creationist theories is precisely their lack of predictive power. In Darwin's time creationists could still claim to be reputable scientists. Unfortunately, the creationist hypotheses, such as that species could not go extinct, turned out to be wrong. In our time, it's easy to say that God created something, but what does that explain about why plants or animals are the way they are? Not much.
  This book is for the college-level reader; it can be technical and a little slow-paced in places.
  
  

• Even more remarkable than he says

  
  By AR1AUGWIOB2DW on 2004-10-08
  
  On June 30, 1908, a remarkable event occurred in remote Siberia. A 60 meter diameter meteor exploded over the Tunguska River with an estimated force of 30 million tons of TNT, wasting an area the size of Belgium. Had the object entered the atmosphere a couple of hours later, St Petersburg and Stockholm would have been vaporized and recent history would probably have taken a course different than it did.
  
  The Tunguska event is one of many remarkable things unmentioned in Larson's reader-friendly narrative. Omissions are unavoidable when 250 years of science history are compressed into 286 pages of text. The author might have acknowledged this circumstance and declared the objectives that guided his selection. Alas, he elected not to take readers into his workshop, but his inclusions and omissions fall into patterns indicative of his intention. Let's start with Tunguska.
  
  It occurred at a timely moment-the year before evolution mandarins assembled to celebrate the jubilee of On the Origin of Species. These gentlemen (not a female scientist in sight) surveyed the progress of theory and discovery, congratulated themselves on their achievements, and papered over the profound conflicts among themselves with hymns to the Great Man. No mention of Tunguska. Some presenter-physicist Sir George Darwin comes to mind-might have used the event to reopen the case for catastrophism that for the Church of Darwin was heresy. The paper would have noted that the possibility of cometary and asteroid collisions had been recognized since Newton. Five hundred asteroids and many comets were known by 1900. Their orbits could not be exactly predicted, so one did not know how many earth-crossing loose rocks were out there. The few known impact craters would be discussed and the discarded evidence for catastrophes and mass extinctions revived and reassessed. However, this heresy had to wait another 71 years, when Nobel physicist Luis Alvarez proposed a K-T boundary impact that obliterated dinosaurs and much else. All hell broke loose; conditions remained turbulent for the two decades as geologists and evolutionists struggled to save their doctrines, Uniformitarian geology and Gradualist evolution, from the collateral damage of scientific progress. Larson by-passes this theory-defining controversy, but it comes up indirectly in his discussion of the Gould-Eldredge punctuated equilibrium (PE) model of the fossil record. PE replaces postulated continuous gradual evolutionary change by observed long periods of stasis, followed by rapid evolution of new species and higher taxa. Gradualism is incompatible with stasis because it postulates continuous change that isn't in the fossil record. Gradualism explains away sudden emergence of new species and higher taxa by pleading that the evidence of transitional species hasn't been preserved. Catastrophe-induced mass extinctions refute Gradualism by disproving its claim that extinctions are due solely to the `struggle for existence' (which is why Darwin and his successors loathed catastrophe theory). Stasis refutes Gradualism by showing that competitive struggle does not of itself induce adaptive change. (This fact was often pointed out to Darwin. The converse-species defining differences that have no adaptive function-was also pointed out to him. Larson passes these interesting points by). How does Larson handle this conflict about the fundamentals of evolutionary theory? As I've indicated, he's silent about the demise of sacred Uniformitarianism and its replacement by modern catastrophism based on planetary science, geophysics, and paleoclimatology: planet Earth's place in the cosmos isn't quite the benign Mother Earth assumed by optimistic Victorian geologists. The silence enables Larson to demote PE from an alternative non-Darwinian paradigm to a dispute among paleontologists that leaves Neo-Darwinism in tack. Finally, the author insinuates that PE can be equated with S J Gould and then polishes off both by quoting Maynard Smith's poison barb that Gould is `so confused as to be hardly worth bothering about'. That put-down is the essence of the furious responses of the faithful to up-starts who question Neo-Darwinism. Larson doesn't contrast it with the vast outpouring of eulogies to Gould on his demise. Nor does he reflect on the meaning of this schism in the science consensus for the laity, especially students. This is an opportunity missed, for he devotes a chapter to culture wars incident to the Creationist assault on evolution teaching in secondary schools. The tone of that chapter is set by his statement in its opening paragraph that `scientists [in 1959 were] all but agreed on how evolution operated'. In 1959, yes. But not any more.
  
  Larson's book is yet another postponement of recognition that Neo-Darwinism is well past its use-by date. Perhaps in the second edition he will pause to consider the most remarkable thing of all: the belief that a theory of organic development devised by a couple of naturalists 150 years ago could possibly survive the stupendous advance of knowledge since that time. For this one needs a powerful will to believe. Larson appropriately dedicates his book to Ernst Mayr, whose life-long Darwin worship is second to none. Teachers who share Mayr's faith will find Larson's narrative to be a wholesome guide for their students through a very troubled terrain.
  
  
  
  
  
• You Say You Want a Real Solution
  By A2A0U27BHHWOES on 2005-06-18
  Figuring out how we arrived at this particular biological juncture gets to the heart of what it means to be human. The stakes in getting the explanation right have been, and continue to be, enormously important. This gracefully written book makes you appreciate the power of evolution as an explanation of life on earth and as a way of looking at the world. Professor Larson doesn't shirk the science; he carefully chronicles the brilliant, sometimes heroic efforts of scientists to fill in missing pieces of the biological story. But the real purpose of his book is to show us what happens when the physical record intersects with human agendas.
  
  What's fascinating in Larson's account is how much political context and force of personality affected the acceptance of evolution. After Darwin published On the Origin of the Species in 1859, T. H. Huxley's passionate and effective advocacy contributed as much to its positive reception as the cogency of Darwin's ideas. On the negative side, intellectual mutations of evolution have been used to justify racism, cut-throat capitalism, and the forced sterilization of human beings.
  
  How natural selection actually worked remained an intellectual thrash for most of the nineteenth century until Mendel's genetic experiments with peas were revived from obscurity. Evolution and heredity made a beautiful couple, and by the 1930s became the received wisdom of the neo-Darwinian synthesis. In the second half of the twentieth century, molecular biology, which decrypted the human genome, and sociobiology, which analyzes the dance of organisms on the world stage, formed an uneasy but fruitful alliance.
  
  Of course, there have always been those who divine the hand of a Prime Mover in the origin and progress of life on earth. Larson documents the history of creation science and intelligent design, ongoing rear guard actions against evolution theory. Although the vast weight of the experimental evidence is on the side of evolution, there is as yet no definitive scientific explanation for what put the first twitch of life in those very first cells at the start of life on earth (estimated by scientists to have occurred four billion years ago). Since we can't prove how we got launched on this path, it's still conceivable that evolutionary science, rather than providing ultimate answers, is deconstructing some Prime Mover's master design.
  
  Creation Science got mired in biblical literalism and has been largely dismissed as a credible explanation of life on earth. Intelligent Design is more subtle in its approach. Without negating evolution as a partial explanation of how species evolve, ID asserts its inadequacy as a complete explanation for human existence. For example, intelligent design posits that certain biological functions, such as blood clotting, work on an all or nothing basis. The functionality could not have evolved one step at a time as evolution would have it. (Like a mousetrap, which cannot function if any of its parts are missing, to use an oft-cited ID analogy.) Also, geologic eras such as the Cambrian, where an explosion of major new life forms occurred, might be proof against the type of gradual, incremental change that Darwin described. While intelligent design advocates use paleontology and molecular biology instead of the Book of Genesis to discredit evolution, many scientists and secularists still believe that besides being bad science, intelligent design is a Trojan horse to smuggle god into American classrooms.
  
  The political resurgence of intelligent design in spite of the massive accumulation of scientific evidence for evolution testifies to widespread discomfort with the idea that humans are the random result of a contingent and evolving design. According to Larson, surveys show that about 40% of the American people - and close to that percentage of scientists - prefer to put a god somewhere in the equation. (According to a recent article in the Economist magazine, two thirds of Americans believe humans were created directly by god.) Ascribing our existence to a Master Maker leads to other intellectual conundrums, though; for instance, why would any intelligent and all-powerful deity design in bilharzia, leukemia and infanticide?
  
  Darwinian evolution provides the comfort of an answer for those not inclined to theistic solutions and meets the scientific criteria of finding answers from the physical evidence without the timely intervention of a Deus Ex Machina. To be a member in good standing of the Evolutionary Church, you have to accept the constraints of the scientific process, which embraces problems but eschews mysteries. And you can't be anxious over the fact that we have some interesting theories but no definitive proof about how life started. Any orthodoxy at some point requires a leap of faith.
  
  Larson clearly accepts the evolutionary explanation, but his thoughtful, even-handed survey will help you form your own opinion about this contentious theory of who we are and how we got here.
  
  
  
  
• Solid Concise Treatment
  By A2UIXU97JYCPZG on 2005-09-24
  This is a concise treatment of the history of evolutionary theory, beginning with the great French morphologists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and finishing with some recent developments in the application of evolutionary theory to behavioral questions. Larson is a very good writer and accomplished scholar who lays out the primary narrative very well. He also deals well with important and related historical phenemona like the emergence of eugenics, the anti-evolution movement in the USA, and the nature of social Darwinism. There is a nice bibliographic essay recommending further reading, though I was surprised to see Michael Ruse's excellent book The Darwinian Revolution not mentioned.
  Part of the Modern Library Chronicles series, this book is supposed to be concise and within these limits, Larson does an excellent job. My only substantial criticism concerns the last chapter, entitled Post-Modern Developments. Modern in this case refers to the so-called modern synthesis of the 1930s and 1940s, the great reconciliation of Darwinian theory, modern genetics, and paleontology. In his discussion of post-modern developments, Larson doesn't discuss the major impact of DNA sequencing, experiments concerning selection, or discoveries in developmental biology that amount to establishing a molecular version of Haeckel's biogenetic law. These developments providing continuing major support for one of the most successful theories in the history of science.
  
  
• Even More Remarkable than He Says
  By A3T6KX2QMH17UV on 2006-02-09
  On June 30, 1908, a remarkable event occurred in remote Siberia. A 60 meter diameter meteor exploded over the Tunguska River with an estimated force of 30 million tons of TNT, wasting an area the size of Belgium. Had the object entered the atmosphere a couple of hours later, St Petersburg and Stockholm would have been vaporized and recent history would probably have taken a course different than it did.
  
  The Tunguska event is one of many remarkable things unmentioned in Larson's reader-friendly narrative. Omissions are unavoidable when 250 years of science history are compressed into 286 pages of text. The author might have acknowledged this circumstance and declared the objectives that guided his selection. Alas, he elected not to take readers into his workshop, but his inclusions and omissions fall into patterns indicative of his intention. Let's start with Tunguska.
  
  It occurred at a timely moment-the year before evolution mandarins assembled to celebrate the jubilee of On the Origin of Species. These gentlemen (not a female scientist in sight) surveyed the progress of theory and discovery, congratulated themselves on their achievements, and papered over the profound conflicts among themselves with hymns to the Great Man. No mention of Tunguska. Some presenter-physicist Sir George Darwin comes to mind-might have used the event to reopen the case for catastrophism that for the Church of Darwin was heresy. The paper would have noted that the possibility of cometary and asteroid collisions had been recognized since Newton. Five hundred asteroids and many comets were known by 1900. Their orbits could not be exactly predicted, so one did not know how many earth-crossing loose rocks were out there. The few known impact craters would be discussed and the discarded evidence for catastrophes and mass extinctions revived and reassessed. However, this heresy had to wait another 71 years, when Nobel physicist Luis Alvarez proposed a K-T boundary impact that obliterated dinosaurs and much else. All hell broke loose; conditions remained turbulent for the two decades as geologists and evolutionists struggled to save their doctrines, Uniformitarian geology and Gradualist evolution, from the collateral damage of scientific progress. Larson by-passes this theory-defining controversy, but it comes up indirectly in his discussion of the Gould-Eldredge punctuated equilibrium (PE) model of the fossil record. PE replaces postulated continuous gradual evolutionary change by observed long periods of stasis, followed by rapid evolution of new species and higher taxa. Gradualism is incompatible with stasis because it postulates continuous change that isn't in the fossil record. Gradualism explains away sudden emergence of new species and higher taxa by pleading that the evidence of transitional species hasn't been preserved. Catastrophe-induced mass extinctions refute Gradualism by disproving its claim that extinctions are due solely to the `struggle for existence' (which is why Darwin and his successors loathed catastrophe theory). Stasis refutes Gradualism by showing that competitive struggle does not of itself induce adaptive change. (This fact was often pointed out to Darwin. The converse-species defining differences that have no adaptive function-was also pointed out to him. Larson passes these interesting points by). How does Larson handle this conflict about the fundamentals of evolutionary theory? As I've indicated, he's silent about the demise of sacred Uniformitarianism and its replacement by modern catastrophism based on planetary science, geophysics, and paleoclimatology: planet Earth's place in the cosmos isn't quite the benign Mother Earth assumed by optimistic Victorian geologists. The silence enables Larson to demote PE from an alternative non-Darwinian paradigm to a dispute among paleontologists that leaves Neo-Darwinism in tack. Finally, the author insinuates that PE can be equated with S J Gould and then polishes off both by quoting Maynard Smith's poison barb that Gould is `so confused as to be hardly worth bothering about'. That put-down is the essence of the furious responses of the faithful to up-starts who question Neo-Darwinism. Larson doesn't contrast it with the vast outpouring of eulogies to Gould on his demise. Nor does he reflect on the meaning of this schism in the science consensus for the laity, especially students. This is an opportunity missed, for he devotes a chapter to culture wars incident to the Creationist assault on evolution teaching in secondary schools. The tone of that chapter is set by his statement in its opening paragraph that `scientists [in 1959 were] all but agreed on how evolution operated'. In 1959, yes. But not any more.
  
  Larson's book is yet another postponement of recognition that Neo-Darwinism is well past its use-by date. Perhaps in the second edition he will pause to consider the most remarkable thing of all: the belief that a theory of organic development devised by a couple of naturalists 150 years ago could possibly survive the stupendous advance of knowledge since that time. For this one needs a powerful will to believe. Larson appropriately dedicates his book to Ernst Mayr, whose life-long Darwin worship is second to none. Teachers who share Mayr's faith will find Larson's narrative to be a wholesome guide for their students through a very troubled terrain.
  
  
  
• Another Success for the Modern Library Chronicles
  By A1ZX41YURDUMD9 on 2006-08-12
  I really enjoyed this book, as I have all the Modern Library Chronicles that I have read. I am a Christian; moreover, a evangelical, fundamentalist who am a deacon in my church, and I believe that this is a book that high school students (undergrads at least) should read.
  
  In this book, Professor Larson follows the theory of evolution from its earliest beginnings to the modern day. This book reveals the different twists the theory has undergone throughout the years, and points out some of the problems still facing the theory. The book also shows the attacks many have made on the theory, attacks unfortunately based on passion, not science.
  
  From the race between Darwin and Wallace as to who obtained credit for the theory of evolution, Huxley's arguments supporting the theory, Lamark's rise and fall, the Scopes-Monkey Trial to Gould's punctuated equilibrim, this book explains the various twists and theories of evolution is a easy to understand and readable manner; and unlike many treatistes, this book is a readible 368 pages.
  
  This book is exactly what it claims to be; it is a HISTORY of the theory of evolution. If you are looking for a book that denegrates creationists or evolutionists, this is not for you. Neither is this book a strong tool for converting others to believe in evolution.
  
  I still do not believe man evolved, or that one species can become a new species-i.e.-I do not believe in macro-evolution, but I would strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in learing more about the theory of evolution-believer or not.
  
  
• Excellent Historical Overview
  By A34PCCROYXQM77 on 2006-08-10
  Larson in this book provides an easy to read (or as in my case, to listen to on tape) history of the development of Evolution as a theory and how it moved and weaved not only through scientific circles, but also through society.
  
  In this regard, Larson is indeed very nuetral and soft-spoken in relating the "story" of evolution in a clear and easily traceable manner that any interested reader (or listener) can follow. It helps tremendously to have this overview and to understand the historical, social, philosophical and religious implications covered in this manner.
  
  Far too often any conversation including the topic evolution can "evolve" into an argument very quickly, in large part because the term has come to encompass so many thoughts, values and ideas that people, even if their positions are similar, talk past each other and fail to define their terms and indicate the scope of how they are using the term.
  
  Larson's book does a wonderful job in many ways demonstrating how that has come to be such an issue. Evolution spans far more than science though science may be its primary home. Many of the same battle taking place now have taken place in varying capacities throughout the past 150 or so years since Darwin's Origin of Species exploded into the world. Eugenics, socialism, Nazism are all touched on in part in this tome in addition to tracing how the concept of Evolution metamorphasized through time to the current era.
  
  COmments are made throughout the book that touch upon creationism as well. It is not highly thorough in that regard and as might be expected, where there is some claim toward bias in examining the positions and history of interacting with creationism, it does take on some bias despite it's generally good record elsewhere.
  
  For a good focus with a narrower scope in terms of this topic solely within the context of America with equal footing given to creationism, a good companion volume or follow up to it would be Larry Witham's, "Where Darwin Meets the Bible: Creationists and Evolutionists in America". Witham covers similar ground and includes a little more balance or neutrality in some areas in my opinion.
  
  On the whole, however, an excellent introductory book and well worth the time to read or listen!
  
  
• Excellent General History of a Great Idea
  By AM2XQVLJNTIJ4 on 2006-09-06
  I can't add a lot to the other reviews here. I encourage you to read some of the other reviews to get a summary of the book's contents - I won't repeat those here. I recommend skipping the couple of reviews that are by people simply pushing an agenda. I applaud the Deacon, who while not believing in evolution, still read the book and gave it a fair and honest review (his review proves that fair-minded people can disagree with an author but still give an intellectually honest evaluation).
  
  I enjoyed the book because it is exactly what it says it is: the history of an idea. It is not a primer on evolution itself. This book would best be read by those who are already familiar with evolution (but not experts) and aware of the broad outlines of the history of the concept of evolution. This book will then provide a concise, enthralling review of the roots of evolution in late 18th, early 19th century thought all the way through to the status of evolutionary thinking today. You don't get an in depth treatment of any one topic, but Larson covers all the major players and sub theories and competing theories in just the right level of detail. If you have read a lot about aspects and episodes in the history of science and evolution, as I have, this book pulls it all together wonderfully.
  
  By comparison, Gould gives a similar "history of evolutionary thinking" in his mammoth _Structure of Evolutionary Theory_. Larson's is far better organized, far clearer, and way more concise than Gould's rambling treatment. Gould's history is interesting and accurate, but much, much harder to get through. The "Notes on Further Reading" at the end of this book is very helpful (though I wish it was even more extensive).
  
  In short, if you are interested in the origins of one of the greatest ideas in human history, or interested in how it battled to preeminence over the last 150 years, this is an excellent choice. Thank you Mr. Larson!
  
  
• Excellent Survey of the Evolution of a Theory
  By A2ECPW4RA7NWMP on 2005-05-30
  For those committed to knowing how the theory of evolution itself evolved through the past 200 or so years, this neat text will provide you with all the highlights and some intriguing details. From Cuvier, the French naturalist who in 1796 was writing about speciation, through Richard Owens' 1861 delineation of geologic eras, periods, and epochs, Darwin's release in 1859 of "On the Origin of Species," and all the cultural and intellectual wars ensuing, Larson's straightforward presentation keeps you in the drama. The drama heats up considerably as a backlash against Darwin and T.H. Huxley throws the theory against Genesis and Christianity, a battle still raging in parts of the US today. Lest we forget, Larson points out how Francis Galton and Ernest Haeckel set the stage in the nineteenth century for "eugenics" and selective breeding in human populations, which fed the raging racism, sterilization programs (even in the U.S.), and extermination camps of the twentieth century. Others who signed on to a reductionist view of "survival of the fittest" felt all social programs to help the poor and weak were against the natural order of things and in fact were adulterating the survival of the strong. These views too are still with us, in conservative circles in particular. The Scopes trial of 1925 is given good coverage here, and one wonders what today's fundamentalists would say to Clarence Darrow's examination of their views.
  It is clear by the end of this account that the theory of evolution is still in transition, and its development has still to be played out. Highly recommended history that will fill in the gaps on how we got to where we are in our "modern" view of this sweeping theory.
  
  
• How Darwinism made headway among Christians
  By A24DTVSHSWZVR5 on 2006-11-23
  If, as Edward Larson says, Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" "dealt a body blow to traditional Western religious thought," then how in the world did it succeed as quickly as it did in a society that was, to put it mildly, staunchly devoted to Christianity?
  Larson, a professor of both law and history at the University of Georgia, has been trying to explain that for years. "Evolution" is the third and last volume of that study. The second volume in his saga, "Summer of the Gods," which covered the Scopes "Monkey Trial," won the Pulitzer Prize.
  It may come as a surprise to many Americans, especially anti-evolutionists, who typically treat Darwin as having arisen complete, sort of like Athena rising from the head of Zeus, that Biblical creationism was moribund by the time Darwin wrote.
  "By 1859," Larson says, "the idea of evolution did not seem as foreign or threatening as it once did to members of Britain's rising elite."
  Yet, "by the end of the 19th century, Darwinism was on the ropes."
  Nothing evolves faster than evolutionism, and today Darwinism is all triumphant. Unlike, say, cosmology, where there are research programs that are based on views radically different from the prevalent Big Bang explanation, in biology it is all Darwinism.
  There is some political agitation for a form of creationism called Intelligent Design, but there is no research program to explore the implications of Intelligent Design, nor does Intelligent Design propose any testable ideas.
  Although antidarwinians often allege that Darwinian evolution is "not science" because it does not make testable predictions, this is incorrect.
  The biggest prediction, one that mystified Darwin until his death, was that his theory required inheritance of characters to be particulate rather than blending.
  That is, a child with a blue-eyed mother and a brown-eyed father would not (always) have green eyes, but (usually) blue or brown.
  The discovery of the gene around 1900 provided the mechanism for particulate inheritance. Until then, doubts about Darwinism had begun to conquer the academy.
  By 1942, the "modern synthesis" had solved most of the puzzles of "descent with modification," as Darwin had called his idea.
  "The synthesis," Larson writes, "generated a seemingly endless stream of testable deductions about how populations should act under controlled conditions and in the wild. Time and again the theory passed these tests."
  Although Darwin said he had difficulty in composing the idea of a benevolent god with the observed cruelty of life, Larson opines that, "In practice, acceptance of the modern synthesis coexisted with all manner of religious faith" by the centenary of "Origin" in 1959.
  In the generation since, public opinion in America (though not elsewhere) has become increasingly antagonistic to evolution, though no one has been able to mount a credible challenge to the science of it.
  Larson is not a controversialist. His "Evolution" is presented, as the subtitle says, as "the remarkable history of a scientific theory." His tale is an evenhanded account of a "theory that ripped through science and society, leaving little unchanged by its force," with both the ups and the downs given thoughtful attention.
  If there's a fault to "Evolution" the book, it is that too much is compressed into a mere, though clear, 300 pages.
  
  
  
  
• A Highly Useful Introduction to Evolution
  By A211GMNT1HY28Q on 2006-11-08
  Edward Larson's book on Evolution I found to be extremely useful and a valuable resource. Larson is the author of a fine study of the Scopes Trial called "Summer for the Gods." This Modern Library book in its 300 pages is chock full of useful information on this topic. This is not a book just about Darwin, though of course he is the central character, but more about what preceded Darwin and what went on after the Darwinian breakthrough, all the way to the present, in Europe and the U.S. In other words, this book places Darwin within a highly useful framework, what occurred before the "Origin of Species" and what transpired thereafter. An initial chapter focuses on pre-Darwinian developments beginning with the Enlightenment in biology and geology among other fields, including individuals such as Lamarck, Agassiz, Lyell, and Hutton. The next several chapters deal with Darwin and his argument, including the later "Descent of Man." A really superb chapter on the "Ascent of Evolutionism" discusses the debates that ensued after Darwin announced his theory, including non-Darwinian theories of evolution. Subsequent chapters deal with the "missing link" problem; the evolution of genetics; the development of eugenics; and the religious opposition (principally in this country) to evolution, including the Scopes trial and "intelligent design." The book concludes with an analysis of the most current theories relating to evolution, including the tremendous impact of DNA technology. Excellent notes, outstanding illustrations, and Larson once again demonstrates his ability to explain complicated scientific concepts to the layperson--a rare talent. A treasure trove of information on this topic presented in a highly attractive format--i.e., it is just fun to read.
  
  
• Excellent historical treatment
  By AXGAUUWA6V3W0 on 2005-08-02
  This is a cogent, well-researched and well-written account of the history of how the idea of evolution evolved. It deals with all the major players (and some not so major ones) from Cuvier to Darwin to Morgan to Watson and Crick. The author, who has written a previous book about the Scopes trial, describes the history of the anti-evolution movement in the US as well.
  
  

• Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion
• Black in Selma: The Uncommon Life of J.L. Chestnut Jr. (Fire Ant Books)
• Evolution: The History of an Idea
• The Forest People
• Luther