A small book which covers a range of issues unknown to those who only got a glimpse of the man Charles Darwin trough his Origin of Species book. The background for the Origin of Species is all there : the influences he got from many people on his frame of mind and on his very particular way of thinking and of experimenting with things, the convivial relationship he had with some of the greatest men of his time, Herbert Spencer included, the love of hunting he later hesitatingly abandoned, the love his sisters devoted to him and the difficult relationship he had with his authoritarian (and rich) father, rich to a point that Charles knew that he never would have to fight for his own survital,etc...
It is interesting to know, for instance, that the first answer he got from his father Robert when Charles asked for his permission to the famous Beagle voyage was a resounding NO. And amazing as it seems, Charles in no way was against his father decision. Were not for the help of his beloved uncle, brother of his father, who was very much in favor of the trip and convinced Charles'father to revert his earlier decision, the world would wait some more time for his revolutionary theory of the evolution of the species trough Natural selection of the fittest.

A very interesting book, which has value added to it by the many letters included as appendices that treat on many interesting issues of Charles' life: the so-called Butler controversy, the letters refering to the first refusal of Charles Darwins father to his Beagle voyage and many others. I am sure you will not be disappointed.

Don't be put off by the rather grim portrait of Darwin that adorns this edition -and be aware that there are SEVERAL editions of the AUTOBIOGRAPHY, including a somewhat "censored" one in which Darwin's wife took out bits that she didn't like -perhaps the most interesting editions are the ones that put these bits back in but italicize or bold them so that you can get a sense of what wasn't "proper" in Emma's mind. This is by no means a definitive Life of Darwin (for that I strongly encourage you to read Janet Brown's excellent 2 part series)but it does give us a gentle portrait of Darwin as he saw himself in late middle age, and it has provided lots of grist for the historians & psychohistorians in their speculations about what Darwin felt about religion, his parents, etc. For my part it only reinforces my impression of a truly wonderful man who was constantly puzzled in a pleasant way with the diversity of life & living, and while he may have had personal demons to grapple with (don't we all?) he was still able to enjoy both his science and his friends and his family. It is primarily this enjoyment that I walk away with after reading this book. Oh yes, the grim portrait on the cover. I doubt that Darwin thought of himself like that, he was FUN, and I think he mostly HAD fun, apart from the periodic bouts with illness. My favorite "portrait" of Darwin is the fantasy picture of young Chas "hanging out" in high top sneakers that adorns Phil Darlington's too-long-out-of-print EVOLUTION FOR NATURALISTS.

I enjoyed reading the autobiography. It is written in a simple and straightforward manner; the human side of the author emerges from the text clearly. Darwin was a simple man and an eminent scientist; there was nothing complex about him. He loved what he did for science and naturally wanted to be recognised for his contributions. Evolution was in the air in his time but probably not the way he presented it. He was responsible for formulating the concept of 'natural selection' which makes a whole deal of difference in the theory of evolution. As a scientist, he felt vulnerable perhaps like Newton who did not like to get embroiled in controversies and disputes with Robert Hooke and others. Newton refrained from publishing his work for a long period of time in order to avoid scientific disputes which however muddled the priority claim, later on, with Leibniz for the development of 'calculs'. Darwin hated to deal directly with similar situations such as the argument with Butler. Darwin depended on the advice of his family and friends for handling the argument with Butler. Curiously, however, a dispute on priority of developing the concept of natural selection that could have arisen with Wallace did not happen and both of them (Darwin and Wallace) stayed friends through out their lives. According to Reveal et al: "The story of interrelationship between the two men over their professional careers is one of gentlemanly: Darwin, the Country squire, living off inherited wealth and sound investments on a small estate working leisurely in the pursuit of evolution, and Wallace, the committed socialist, saved ultimately from abject poverty by Darwin and his friends who arranged a Crown pension, laboring seemingly forever in other's shadow".

REFERENCE "The Darwin - Wallace 1858 Evolution Paper", Introduction, prepared by James L. Reveal, Paul J. Bottino, and Charles F. Delviche, Mohammad A. Gill

With Darwin's publication of the Origin of the Species in 1859, two thousand years of church doctrine--that God created the species on earth in divine acts of separate creation and that Genesis is a literal description of this creation--came into direct conflict with scientific research. Darwin, himself a theologian, was reluctant to reveal his acceptance of evolution, saying that "denial of a literal interpretation of the biblical account of creation felt like 'confessing a murder.'"

This erudite and literate novel purports to be a found manuscript from an unknown author writing in 1883 from an island in the Java Sea. Telling of "Bobby" Darwin's early life and background, the speaker reveals his love for Bobby, his fascination with Bobby's explorations on the Beagle, and his influence on Bobby to accept the Theory of Evolution. The speaker, who "cannot remember ever having a God," also claims to have been the source of Alfred Russel Wallace's knowledge of The Theory. His depiction of Wallace as a self-promoting and arrogant trader of beetles and butterflies provides a bit of humor and suggests a rationale for Wallace's rush to promote his view of evolution simultaneously with that of Darwin.

Alternating fast-paced personal narrative and characterization with vibrant descriptions of fascinating, largely imaginary flora and fauna on the Java Sea island (now vanished after a volcanic eruption), the speaker focuses on the interdependence of plant and animal species on each other. The gentle gadzocks eat the salty sargassum weed, misseltow feeds on the blood of noddy chicks, crabs fell trees in order to get to coconuts, and the mystical golden scarab depends on the guano of bats. These descriptions of dependence give a thought-provoking slant to the treatment of evolution, provide numerous parallels with the human relationships in the story, and stimulate the reader's imagination about possible vanished species and the need for conservation. This is a novel of huge reach, with a full-circle, religiously suggestive conclusion. Some sections are a bit pedantic, and not all readers will enjoy the alternating focus of intimate personal revelations and descriptions of nature, but the book provides much food for thought, and, perhaps, a new view of Darwin and his achievements.

I just finished reading Nicholas Drayson's debut novel, 'Confessing a Murder.' The title comes from Charles Darwin's remark that the, to him, heretical religious implications of his Theory made him feel a little like he was 'confessing a murder.'

The premise of the book is that it purports to be the newly discovered journal of a (fictional) early Victorian gentleman, intimately associated with Darwin's family, who is exiled to the South Pacific, and after making a fortune in trade in Australia, ultimately finds himself on an island, also fictional, near Java, where he makes discoveries that suggest what later becomes Darwin's Theory of Evolution, much of which he communicates to Darwin by letter. The journal is addressed of 'Bobby', as he has called Darwin since childhood. He is obsessed by beetles and makes observations that are fascinating in their peculiarities--he reports closely observed behavior and characteristics of beetles that bespeak Drayson's familiarity with entomology. Drayson is a former curator of the National Museum in Australia and his invented details of the peculiarities of the flora and fauna of his island, while bizarre, have their own logic and are thus pretty convincing. It's 'Origin of Species' imaginatively admixed with 'Robinson Crusoe'. There's even a murder and plenty of Darwin family intrigue.

For anyone not familiar with the inner working of the Theory, there is a good deal of painless and quite clear explanation of the main points of the Theory.

This novel is a delightful piece of revisionist history concerning the formultion of the Theory of Natural Selection. The narrator, an old man marooned on an island in the Java sea when we meet him, claims to have given the main ideas that became the basis of Darwin's famous theory to both Darwin as a young man and, at least indirectly, to Wallace who came to the same idea about the same time. The title is a quote from Darwin who said that expounding the theory of evolution was like "confessing a murder" - a phrase that comes to have multiple meanings.

The narrator is an avid naturalist and comes to be obsessed with finding a golden beetle which takes him on the quest that ends on the island. The island is populated with remarkable plants and animals. They have evolved to have traits that are realistic but just a little "over the top". There is, for example, a mistletoe that is parasitic not on trees but on nestlings that happen to be nearby. The mistletoe saps their blood but far from been detrimental to the birds, the mistletoe confirs increased immunity and parasitized birds survive and grow better than their unparasitized nestmates. This book is filled with examples that will delight anyone who has studied a little animal behavior. Drayson, who was a curator at a Natural History museum in Australia, uses his knowledge artfully and imaginatively. His imaginary species support the hypotheses of behavioral ecology and their physiology are almost - but not quite - realistic.

Most biographies are geared towards illustrating the life of a famous figure for the purpose of presenting or revisiting the accomplishments. This biography, however, does not give the central focus to the writings and finds of Charles Darwin; the thesis deals more with Darwin being a possible hypochondriac.

The preface and appendix discuss recent research regarding Darwin's being an invalid during parts of his life. Some research deals with a disease that he may have picked up in South America while on the voyage of the HMS Beagle; some research says that Darwin was merely obsessed with being sick and therefore created a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This brings us to the text. Although Darwin's life is shown to us, as well as some additional information on family and colleagues, the life is covered in regards to his worst periods of sickness. By plotting this out for us, Bowlby shows us that many of these periods are preceded by deaths of family members close to Darwin and by fierce scrutiny of his discoveries and writings.

Another idea is the family's way of dealing with intense emotion. Rather than express this emotion by crying or mourning, it was internalized. This internalization led to depression, which led to sickness.

This biography is written less as a narrative of Darwin's life, but more as a proof for the author's thoughts on Darwin's sickness. As a result, there are many points where the author becomes more noticeable.

This is still an intriguing book, and I would recommend reading it.

The life and times of Darwin are masterfully brought to our attention by child emotional development expert and pioneer John Bowlby. Darwin's biography and upbringing are masterfully revealed and how they relate to his lifelong behavior, health, choices, and decisions in life. A most interesting aspect of this book is how evolution unknowingly affected Darwin's behavior as he himself is formulating and writing his famous theories on evolution. Because of the voluminous and extremely revealing written personal and professional correspondence by Darwin and his acquaintances a very good record of his health can be deduced from it. A must for those interested in more details on Darwin's life and how evolution affected the emotions and behavior of the main founder of evolution himself; and written by child emotional development pioneer Bowlby. It is a very detailed and well written book. For a complete definitive traditional biography of Darwin you may want to go to a plethora of other books available on the subject.

My title probably says it all, but I will elaborate. I still think that janet Browne has made the best START to a biography, I just wish she would finish by giving us Vol. 2! In the meantime we have Bowlby and that isn't half bad. Full of interesting background material and written with a lively pace A NEW LIFE manages to steer through some of the perils of "psychohistory" that have damaged other authors and gives us an interesting and at times provocative look at Darwin and Darwin's time. Well worth the read.

One reviewer said that this will take "most college students with religious backgrounds that study the sciences to the very same place," that place being a disbelief in evolution. Well, I was raised very strictly religious and I'm majoring in zoology and this book certainly didn't shake my knowledge (notice that that word is not "faith" as the creationists would like me to say) of the truth of evolution one little bit.

Another reviewer said that this book made him laugh out loud. Well, it made me laugh out loud too, in consternation and disbelief that anyone this uneducated about the facts would purport to write a book about it. At least the book "Darwin's Black Box" is intelligently written and makes you think. This book just panders to the religious right with total disregard for the facts.

I do admit that it was amusing in some places, such as the passage that reads, "I told Effie if the little guy and the fat lady showed up, to usher them right in. Usher she did, at exactly 9:00 A.M." That's a nice little creationist joke for ya.

I picked it up, seeing the word "Darwin" in the title and being intrigued by a fiction novel dealing with Darwin. I was sorely disappointed to find that it was basically a religious tract about the dangers of evolution and the evilness of atheism, with some remarks about the horrors of abortion and birth control and women not accepting their proper place in society thrown in to boot. The biggest surprise of the book was that there were no anti-homosexuality passages, though the fact that one of the evil atheists was a man who wore perfume may be a underhanded allusion to that.

No, this book is not well-written, life-changing, or accurate in the least. It's only value lies in illustrating the impressive amounts of silliness fundamentalists can create despite having their heads so far down in the sand that they're in danger of striking oil.

I have not given much thought about the Theory of Evolution. I have always thought that it takes more faith to believe everything was created randomly rather than by a Creator.

After reading this book, I now have a better picture about how the false doctrine of evolution has negatively effected every facet of our society.

This is a very entertaining way to get a lot of background on the creation and perpetuation of a lie that many have believed.

Excellent read [5 stars] I also highly recommend "The Nephilim Seed" (also by Mr. Bell)

I gave this book fives stars because it struck a very familiar chord deep within me. I am very fortunate to have been given a good church oriented childhood. Years later in my second or third year in collage, while I was studying for a degree in Biology with a minor in Physical Science, the inevitable epiphany occurred. After detailed exposure to the evidence for theory of evolution in plants and animals I began to ask myself some very troubling questions.

This book by a very well known Christian novelist will take most college students with religious backgrounds that study the sciences to the very same place. It will take them there because it is a well-written novel. The endnotes, however, give the reader the impression that this book is actually a non-fiction book not a novel, which is the intent of the author.

Without commenting on the scientific or historical accuracy of this "novel" let's return to those inevitable troubling questions that I asked myself so many years ago.

How is it that the same science that put a man on the moon, performs open heart surgery, cures terrible diseases, builds a computer that makes the internet possible and can routinely send the space shuttle to the International Space Station and back - yet somehow - "miss the boat" on evolution?

Can I now trust the religious authors that write about my religion?

When you arrive at this dangerous place - stay active in your church. Not all scientists are atheists, as this book would imply.

The overwhelming evidence indicates that people who attend church regularly tend to be healthier and livelonger. So, take your faith to church and then take your intellect and curiosity to college. The church and the laboratory are two different sanctuaries. Take your heart to one and your mind to the other.

How can you do this? Because as the Bible says: "faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen". However, science is all about the evidence.

Some readers will find this book comforting and a confirmation of their belief. Some readers may eventually ask questions.

The CD version of this book is very easy to use and the search function is wonderful. HOWEVER there is no way to copy text off the screen so you can paste it into other applications. I find this very frustrating and a big disappointment.

The CD version of "The Origin of Species" suffers from the same problem. Beware.

This was not the best choice for listening to in the car: too much tedious detail, and I found my mind wandering too often. Still, it was interesting, and I learned a lot.

Darwin was a promising but obscure student at Cambridge when he was suggested for the trip. By the time he returned, his reputation was made. It's not hard to see why: this book is packed with careful observations and attention to detail, as well as thoughtful analyses of topics from species extinction (though not origins at this stage) to the formation of coral atolls. Darwin is clearly very well-read and makes frequent references to the noted authorities of the time, sometimes supporting them and sometimes disagreeing.

I hadn't actually realized that the voyage of the Beagle was as long as it was. I saw it as a year or so, going from England to South America and back again. It was in fact a five-year, round-the-world cruise, covering the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, and numerous other locales as well as the well-known South America and the Galapagos.

My favorite parts are actually the more human anecdotes. Darwin is less than enchanted with New Zealand and Australia, and is not afraid of saying so, noting that most of the citizens are ex-convicts. My favorite single anecdote, though, is about the South American governor who is so dedicated to the rule of law that he has himself put in the stocks when he violates one of his own laws. Darwin also indicates his dislike of slavery and admits to feeling shame when he accidentally causes a male slave to flinch when he makes a threatening gesture to him. So much for that creationist conceit.

There are two appendices not written by Darwin. One is a summary of the orders given to Captain Fitzroy about the mission of the Beagle, which is very telling of the naval issues of the time. It focuses on getting accurate locations of known ports as well as the possible finding of new ones. As a Hornblower fan (and therefore with some interest in naval trivia), I found this very interesting.

The other appendix is Captain Fitzroy's attempt to construe their geological observations to be evidence of the Noachian Deluge. This is not on the same intellectual level as Darwin's writings, and I found it mostly of intellectual interest as evidence that creationist arguments have changed hardly at all in the last 175 years.

All in all, it's an interesting book and a classic of natural history, though not something I'd recommend listening to unless one has a passion for the subject.

Remember this says "Journal" and that is what it is. It is his first parson adventures on and off the Beagle. He even includes stories about the people on the ship, the ship's life, and maintenance. He is always going ashore and venturing beyond the ship charter to go where no Englishman has gone before. He makes friends with tyrants and the down trodden. Once, to get an animal to come to him, he lay on his back and waved his arms and legs in the air. Whatever you do, do not turn your back on him. He is always knocking something on the head and taking it back for study. It is fun trying to match the old names for places with the new.

This book is very good for practitioners who need to look up something they have forgotten. It can be useful for beginning students, but as far as understanding concepts is concerned, MacGregor's is the best. For a beginner, Nilson's book sometimes gets too cluttered. MacGregor's book covers almost everything in Nilson's book, but with greater emphasis on conceptual understanding.

The USA is 5% of the world population. That market statistical condition should dictate that the metric system is to dominate and move (drag) the USA into the metric system. Yet, the dinosaur lives on.

i,would like to thank DR. NILSON for his great effort to submit
concrete design in a very simple and professional way.
i like this book and i have last four editions .
i am waiting mor from our great DR NILSON .

I read the original version of "The origin of Species" a few years ago. As a naive secondary year student, I beleived in most of its contents. After that, when I started to think how animal behavor is programmed and how mutation (s) in such program can completely null the system as a whole, I started to ask myself how, then, these creatures (Ants, Bees,......etc) were the source of another more evoluted species or how they evolved from lower species. Actually, mutations can not attribute to the origin of such behavor(work in group, assigning the job to specific members...etc). Meanwhile, in the lab. scientists could not transform cyanobacteria to algae or bacteria to yeast.........etc. The only appreciated points of Darwin were his observations; modifications and variation. Science so far was not able to prove that life has evolved from nothing; the idea of the first cell (the first anscetor) still controversial. Meanwhile biochemical analyses proved that all creatures contain the same organic elements (N, C, H) and inorganic ones (P, S,...etc). Surperisingly, these analyses proved that Mud contain all of these elements and do not contain any toxic elements that are toxic to humans, for example. If anybody looked carefully to the DNA and how this molecule is well-arganized and how many enzymes are keeping this molecule in its normal conformation and maintain its function, He/She could get the point that cells generally are elaborately programmed; exaclty in a manner resembles that computer programs. Cells excute these programs starting from their brith to death and any change in this program cause serious problems. Fossils showed insects with the same compund eyes exactly like that insects that are surviving nowadays. Some fossils, also, showed different species, which are supposed not to be together, in the same historic era. we know also now that must of the mutations are harmful and fatal to the organisms(for example, in humans mutations cause sever diseases). Meanwhile research on HIV showed that mutations in this virus never originate a new viral species, but result in defective HIV viruses that could not replicate, assemble, and therefore not able to re infect its host to survive. Actually, similarity among the species can not prove they originated from each other(if we argue that sequence homology between Mankey and human, for example, is so close and so they are relative, this is not true). My opinion does not refute the book; it contains very old concepts that should be revised and corrected.

NOTE that this is a review of the Harvard University Press facsimile of the first edition of "On the Origin of Species" (intro by Ernst Mayr). This is NOT a commentary on Darwin's text.

I blithely bought and began reading the Modern Library's "Origin", then came across this facsimile of the first edition in the library. Hmm, I wondered. I used the quotations in the front of my copy to deduce that I was reading the sixth (and last) edition, rather than the first. While that, too, has its considerable interest in illustrating the twists and turns of Darwin's thought during those years, the evolution revolution was made by the first edition. As Ernst Mayr says in his introduction, "When we go back to the Origin, we want the version that stirred up the Western world, the first edition." Besides which, if one is going to do any historical research, one needs this edition, for contemporary references use the first edition's pagination.

But most importantly, this is the firstborn of Darwin's mind, long gestating, and contains his most confident and positive statement of his thesis. He had tried to anticipate all the major objections to his theory and answer them preemptively here. Still, at the time of this writing he had no critics, so the tone and content display none of that waffling that mar, to a certain extent, the final edition.

This volume was put together in 1964, and Ernst Mayr's introduction dates from that time. It is a good historical introduction to Darwin and his contribution, and some more specific remarks on the first edition, its general approach and some of its path-breaking arguments. Also included in the extra matter is a bibliography of Darwin's published works, plus current works on evolution, as of 1964. There is also a quite comprehensive index of the text, which should make the book considerably more usable to us than it was to Darwin's original readers.

My only gripe is that Harvard University Press only offers a paperback, although it used to have a hardcover edition. The paperback version is readable enough at 5.5 by 8.2 inches, yet it's too thick for its size, and, while definitely not of poor quality, vulnerable to the binding breakage typical of the breed, so serious scholars of the work might find themselves literally pulling it apart. For you and me, though, it should be just fine.

A lot of unanswered questions of Darwin's age have been answered today, but still one does not fail to see the genius behind the logical derivations and counterweighted arguments.

In this edition, Darwin expresses himself much more boldly than in the later editions, when he was countered and threatened by the ridiculous religious groups simply because ir doesn't support 'their' theory.

(This is for the anti-theorists) A theory is always a theory, it can't be proven like a mathematical formula, it may have gaps in understanding, it may not be able to explain everything under the sun, but that does NOT provide a good reason to throw the whole theory out. For the ones attentive to the nuances, it is NOT a hypothesis, it's a theory, and in spite of not being provable by deductive logic, this provides a good insight on how the species might have evolved, and very interestingly, the role of mankind in it.

One of the reason behind my liking this book is that the author is aware of the weak areas and mentioned what kind of proofs (fossils and the like) would substanciate the theory, and in many cases such pieces of proof were found much afterwards. The book is really a masterpiece.

This is a great lightweight book on Darwin's life and the development of the idea of evolution. Though it would be a shame to stop an exploration of natural selection here, it's a great starting point because it provides the context in which Darwin's thoughts came to be. It also discusses objections and criticisms of natural selection, how it has been misunderstood and abused, and how Darwin himself treated problematic aspects of the theory. I don't know that the illustrations and such are very revealing or useful, but they definitely make the book easy and fun to read, though the last few pages become more text-based. Overall, it's a well executed introduction to a very influential and oft misinterpreted person. But though this book is for beginners, please don't stay one... go and read "Origin of Species."

This lively, clever, humorous little book IS accurate -- "scientifically correct," in the words of Dr. Tim M. Berra of Ohio State University (author of "Evolution and the Myth of Creationism," 1990, Stanford University Press). I agree with him that it would be a great gift for students to give to their parents to help them understand evolution. The illustrations, many of which are worth a thousand words, are at once engaging, informative, and great fun. Solid history and science in superlative format.

An illustrated narrative tells, all too briefly, the story of Darwin the man and his revolutionary discovery of how the living world came to be. Thanks to its amusing, but informative, cartoon style exegesis, this little gem is a uniquely powerful antidote to creationist propaganda in the classroom. The best introduction to Darwin and his ideas you're likely to see.

Many people know more about Charles Darwin's hypothesis about the origin of species than about how he arrived at his conclusions. Unless you are a devoted scientist, you will probably never read his book, The Origin of Species, his journals, or his autobiography. Alan Moorehead has done a valuable service in providing an entertaining popular introduction to Darwin's work in this book (available now as an audio cassette).

Darwin's life is full of ironies, which are nicely developed in this book. His grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, was a well-known physician who espoused some elementary ideas about biological evolution. Is finding evolution a heritable trait?

Charles Darwin had been a poor student, and seemed only competent to become a country curate.

The position of naturalist on the Beagle was cooked up because the captain was subject to mental illness, and hoped the companionship of another educated person would help him keep his senses.

Darwin initially turned the job down because his father was opposed, and was only able to persuade his father to let him pursue this when a relative aggressively intervened.

Darwin's main qualification for the position was that his family could afford the 500 pounds it would cost to be on the voyage while conducting this unpaid position.

Also, Darwin got horribly sea sick, which meant that he sought out opportunities to be on land as much as possible (this was fortunate for the future of biology).

Finally, Darwin was a believer in strict creationism when he started the voyage. He saw his job, in part, as finding evidence for Noah's flood.

The voyage of the Beagle lasted five years, and involved circumnavigating the globe. The primary purpose of the Beagle's trip was to map coastlines for the admiralty.

Most people know about Darwin's finches (whose beaks developed in different ways in various islands in the Galapagos to reflect the local food supplies), but do not realize that he only spent a few days in the Galapagos.

He had many other important experiences in South America and on other Pacific islands that led him to appreciate how geological processes of mountain building and ocean depressing impacted species. The fossils he found in Uraguay and Argentina of extinct animals began to undermine his belief in the literal meaning of the Bible on these points. Finding other fossils from ocean creatures at 12,000 feet high in the Andes further stretched his mind. Seeing extreme volcanic action and the effects of tidal waves in Chile added to the picture.

This material would be ideal for a young person trying to find what interests them. It will encourage the idea of being open to new experiences, and learning from what you observe. Many young people would like scientific careers if they ever tried one. High school and college science classes give an incomplete and poor impression of what working in science is all about. This book nicely captures the excitement of field work and trying to figure out what the data mean.

I graded the book down for being too popularized and a little too repetitive. Readers can absorb more substantive information than Mr. Moorehead included here.

A good way to apply what you learn in this book is to observe a group of animals over time. Take notes on what you see. Find a way to determine patterns from your notes. Then consider reasons why these behaviors could be beneficial to the animals. Then ask yourself what genetic and behavioral influences may bear on this behavior. You have now created a hypothesis. How can it be tested?

An excellent book about our modern understanding of Darwin's work can be found in The Beak of the Finch, which is the first published work on how natural selection works in practice from observing many generations of Darwin's finches.

Be open to all that is around you . . . to get the most out of life!

Darwin and the Beagle is Alan Moorehead's re-telling of Charles Darwin's famous voyage around the world. It is first of all an adventure story, the sort of adventure that would intrigue a young man fresh out of school, with little ambition about his future but with abiding interest in the natural world.

The chance to sail with Captain Fitzroy and crew was an opportunity that would change young Darwin's life forever and that would transform his hobby into a vocation. It would also plant the seeds for his theories of evolution and expand his interests into zoology, botany, and geology. I was surprised to learn that Darwin had been a hunter -- of birds, no less. As resident naturalist aboard the Beagle, Darwin turned his cabin into a lab for various species of insect, bird and reptile, many found for the first time, as well as fossils of prehistoric animals.

I was impressed by Darwin's clarity and disinterest. His powers of unjaundiced observation were uncorrupted by any desire to intervene or alter the course of natural development. This was evident not only in his examinations of wildlife but in encounters with primitive, often savage, people, where the Western temptation to interfere can be very great.

Although he spent much of the trip seasick and homesick, woefully miserable and depressed, he never lost the scientific curiosity that caught fire on board the Beagle. His interests are the key to Moorehead's book, second only to reading Darwin's own firsthand account of the voyage.

After this trip, Darwin never circumnavigated the globe again. Ill-health kept him close to home, occasionally embroiled in the melodramatic debates over his discoveries. Moorehead touches on the beginnings of these conflicts, as in the occasional skirmishes with the fundamentalist Captain Fitzroy. I don't find the clash between science and religion to be all that much of a conflict -- both seek the truth -- and anyway that is not the subject of the book.

It should be read, and I think was meant to be read, as an adventure, a specific kind of adventure in which a young man, moved by pleasure, begins to find his way in the world.

Moorehead's book is a re-telling of Charles Darwin's voyage around the world. It is the sort of an adventure that would entertain a young man fresh out of school, with little ambition about his future but with abiding interest in the natural world.

The chance to sail with Captain Fitzroy and crew was an opportunity that would change Darwin's life and that would transform his hobby into a vocation. It would also plant the seeds for his theories of evolution and expand his interests into zoology, botany, and geology. I was surprised to learn that Darwin had been a hunter -- of birds, no less. As resident naturalist aboard the Beagle, Darwin turned his cabin into a lab for various species of insect, bird and reptile, many found for the first time, as well as fossils of prehistoric animals.

I was impressed by Darwin's clarity and disinterest. His powers of unjaundiced observation were uncorrupted by any desire to intervene or alter the course of natural development. This was evident not only in the case of wildlife but in encounters with primitive, often savage, people. Although Darwin was a 19th century Englishman, he was able to be a dispassionate observer, with a great ability to judge and measure up a situation. He spent much of the trip seasick and homesick, but I suspect he never lost the holy curiosity that caught fire on board the Beagle.

In fact, he would never circumnavigate the globe again. Ill-health kept him close to home, occasionally embroiled in the melodramatic debates caused by conclusions about his discoveries. Moorehead touches on the occasional conflict between the fundamentalist Captain Fitzroy and the skeptical Darwin. But that early clash between science and religion, which I find to be not much of a conflict, is not the subject of the book. It should be read, and I think was meant to be read, as an adventure, a specific kind of adventure in which a young man, moved by pleasure, begins to find his way in the world.

Before reading this book, I loved Darwin, disliked Marx and hated Wagner (how could you not!). After this book, nothings changed except that I actually found myself defending all three against Barzun's onslaught.

This book can read two ways. First as a biographical synopsis of the three writers and their cultural backdrop, and second, as an outdated diatribe. The reader should ignore Barzun's polemic (?) and read it as a history. This, of course, is Barzun's strength and he does not fail to meet high expectations.

The polemic is of course outdated. The whine over materialism taking the magic and mystery out of life has been rehashed too many times. He is especially hard on Darwin, who he seems to think can be blamed for Herbert Spencer.

Read the book anyway. Not only is the writing superb, the point of view is interesting and if anything it will challenge you. Though not an easy one, it's terser than most authors could do given the subjects.

I picked up "Darwin, Marx, Wagner" at a used book store while in the middle of Barzun's latest tome "Dawn to Decadence." In "Darwin" a much younger Barzun argues with passion against the arrogant materialism prevalent at the turn of the century. "Nature is a sieve, and it works"--this is Barzun's pithy summary of Darwin, Marx and Wagner. For Darwin the sieve is kill-or-be-killed survival of the fittest, and "it works": humanity is the pinnacle of evolution (and not just the human species, but the most powerful of humanity). For Marx the sieve is an inevitable class struggle, which "works" when it produces a utopia for the working class. For Wagner the sieve will sift out all previous art forms in favor of his own pure self-important music drama. Read this book and consider the philosophical implications of realistic materialism and its cruel might-makes-right vision of progress--in science, politics and art.

Jacques Barzun's book was first published first in 1941, which is almost the moment the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis came into being and made the expression of Darwin doubts or criticism such as are manifest here virtually impossible in a university humanist. And yet sixty years later, at a time when Ernst Mayr, one of the original 'synthesizers' can unrepentantly produce his "What Evolution Is", Barzun's critique reads as insultingly fresh as the day it was written, with a putdownish suggestion that Darwin wasn't too swift. The Darwin propaganda machine has almost made thinking obtuse here, and Creationist red-herrings can be as reprehensible. The Darwin debate has left everyone befuddled, and this essay on Darwin (and Marx), agree or not, shows a clarity that is unusual.
His work seems out of place now for a man who was prominent in a major university, but if one reads Bowler's The Eclipse of Darwinism, describing the waning of Darwinism at the turn of the century, it will perhaps evoke the perspective that Barzun still reflects in this book. (In fact, the same can be said of the Marx essay, which reflects the Marx debate, perspectives almost forgotten after the Bolshevik revolution). In fact, even by the late 1860's Darwin himself knew he was in trouble with natural selection.
It is noteworthy how little science Barzun discusses, which makes the book suspect for some, or certainly open to challenge. But in reality it bespeaks a certain clarity that has been lost, and which was clearly present in the decades of the appearance of Darwin's book, when even many of Darwin's supporters, even Huxley, realized they had a hypothesis to deal with, not a certain dogma.
The quote below is as cogent for the current Darwin debate as it was originally. Note how little anything changes.

"Some obviously feared that ifnatural selection were discarded evolution would be endangered. They thought the twotheories inseparable and foresaw a rebirth of superstition. But dropping natural selectionleaves the evidence for evolution untouched. It was not even a question of droppingnatural selection, for natural selection is an observed fact. It was a question of seeing--as Darwin came to see--that selection occurs after the useful change has come into being... "