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Loading... In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of Historyby Michael Shermer
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This autobiography of Alfred Russell Wallace spends a great deal of time on the arrangement that was set up in 1858 by friends of Charles Darwin to retain Darwin's priority in the face of Wallace's independent discovery of the same theory that Darwin had been working on for 20 years. This book is a much needed corrective for the vituperation that has surrounded Darwin in the past few years, as people clamor to try to turn him into a vicious, back-biting publicity hog. Shermer explores the many ins and outs of this particular situation, and tries to resurrect Wallace from the dustbin of history without relegating Darwin to the sidelines where he does not, in fact, deserve to be. ( ) no reviews | add a review
Virtually unknown today, Alfred Russel Wallace was the co-discoverer of natural selection with Charles Darwin and an eminent scientist who stood out among his Victorian peers as a man of formidable mind and equally outsized personality. Michael Shermer rescues Wallace from the shadow of Darwin in this biography. Here we see Wallace as perhaps the greatest naturalist of his age-spending years in remote jungles, collecting astounding quantities of specimens, writing thoughtfully and with bemused detachment at his reception in places where no white man had ever gone. Here, too, is his supple and forceful intelligence at work, grappling with such arcane problems as the bright colouration of caterpillars, or shaping his 1858 paper on natural selection that prompted Darwin to publish (with Wallace) the first paper outlining the theory of evolution. Shermer also shows that Wallace's self-trained intellect, while powerful, also embraced surprisingly naive ideas, such as his deep interest in the study of spiritual manifestations and seances. Shermer shows that the same iconoclastic outlook that led him to overturn scientific orthodoxy as he worked in relative isolation also led him to embrace irrational beliefs, and thus tarnish his reputation. As author of Why people believe weird things and founding publisher of "Skeptic" magazine, Shermer turns his judgment and analysis to Wallace's life and his contradictory beliefs, aiming to restore a leading figure in the rise of modern science to his rightful place. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)508.092Natural sciences and mathematics General Science Natural historyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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