Darwin's Sacred Cause: How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution
- ISBN-10
- 0547527756
- ISBN-13
- 9780547527758
- Category
- Biography & Autobiography
- Pages
- 448
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2014-11-11
- Publisher
- HMH
- Authors
- James Moore, Adrian Desmond
Description
An “arresting” and deeply personal portrait that “confront[s] the touchy subject of Darwin and race head on” (The New York Times Book Review). It’s difficult to overstate the profound risk Charles Darwin took in publishing his theory of evolution. How and why would a quiet, respectable gentleman, a pillar of his parish, produce one of the most radical ideas in the history of human thought? Drawing on a wealth of manuscripts, family letters, diaries, and even ships’ logs, Adrian Desmond and James Moore have restored the moral missing link to the story of Charles Darwin’s historic achievement. Nineteenth-century apologists for slavery argued that blacks and whites had originated as separate species, with whites created superior. Darwin, however, believed that the races belonged to the same human family. Slavery was therefore a sin, and abolishing it became Darwin’s sacred cause. His theory of evolution gave a common ancestor not only to all races, but to all biological life. This “masterful” book restores the missing moral core of Darwin’s evolutionary universe, providing a completely new account of how he came to his shattering theories about human origins (Publishers Weekly, starred review). It will revolutionize your view of the great naturalist. “An illuminating new book.” —Smithsonian “Compelling . . . Desmond and Moore aptly describe Darwin’s interaction with some of the thorniest social and political issues of the day.” —Wired “This exciting book is sure to create a stir.” —Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University, and author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2009-01-29
- 528 pages
- Paperback
- Penguin UK
-
- 2009
- 484 pages
- Paperback
- Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Similar books
-
Reading Darwin in Arabic, 1860-1950
By Marwa ElshakryThe book also acquaints readers with Muslim and Christian intellectuals, bureaucrats, and theologians, and concludes by exploring Darwin’s waning influence on public and intellectual life in the Arab world after World War I. Reading ...
-
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanins of Life
By Daniel C. DennettOffers a wider perspective on Darwin's scientific theory of natural selection, explaining how it extends beyond biology, analyzing current controversies over the origins of life and inherent biases, and challenging popular philosophies
-
Huxley: From Devil's Disciple to Evolution's High Priest
By Adrian J. DesmondHis modern godless universe, intriguing and terrifying, millions of years in the making, was explored in his laboratory at South Kensington; his last pupil, H. G. Wells, made it the foundation of twentieth-century science fiction.Touching ...
-
Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth
By Tony HissBeginning in the vast North American Boreal Forest that stretches through Canada, and roving across the continent, from the Northern Sierra to Alabama's Paint Rock Forest, from the Appalachian Trail to a ranch in Mexico, Tony Hiss sets out ...
-
Charles Darwin: Destroyer of Myths
By Andrew Norman... 57 Christ's College, Cambridge, 8, 12-14, 20, 282 Collier, John, 156 Colp, Dr Ralph, 6, 189, 198, 200-1, 203, 205, 207 Comte, Auguste, 219 Concepción, Chile, 42-3, Confucius, 222 Conway, Revd Daniel Moncure, 284-5, 296, 299 Cook, ...
-
Darwin and the Making of Sexual Selection
By Evelleen RichardsIn unfurling the history of sexual selection, Evelleen Richards brings to vivid life Darwin the man, not the myth, and the social and intellectual roots of his theory building.
-
Debating Darwin
By Michael Ruse, Robert J. RichardsRobert J. Richards, Michael Ruse. figUre 13. Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913). Oil over photograph by Thomas Sims, circa 1863–66. Von den Ur-Theilen des Knochen- und Schalengerüstes (1828). Carus, Von.
-
The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine, and Reform in Radical London
By Adrian Desmond"The Politics of Evolution is intellectual dynamite, and certainly one of the most important books in the history of science published during the past decade."—Jim Secord, Times Literary Supplement "One of those rare books that not only ...
-
Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love
By Elizabeth A. JohnsonAsk the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love leads to the conclusion that love of the natural world is an intrinsic element of faith in God and that far from being an add-on, ecological care is at the centre of moral life.
-
Louis Agassiz: Creator of American Science
By Christoph IrmscherKirkus Reviews Reading this book is a pleasure the writing is engaging and witty, while always intellectually rewarding . . .