Commemorating Darwin

Reviews / Votes

The eleven essays in Commemorating Darwin are well written, informative, and varied in their portrayals. They are also refreshingly original: Each author takes a different approach depending on their topic, and the final result provides the reader a new understanding of just how Darwin's scientific work impacted a wide range of societies across the world. -- Marsha Richmond, Wayne State University Joel Barnes, Ian Hesketh, and their colleagues press us to think seriously about the politics of the act of remembering. Revisiting key Darwin-related anniversaries, they show us that, in every instance, the celebrants created a moral meaning of 'Darwin' and 'Darwinism' that spoke to social, political, and cultural anxieties specific to their own time and place. They thus underline the contingent and creative nature of cultural memory. -- Piers J. Hale, University of Oklahoma From Darwin's day to our own, remembrance of him has been a complex, culturally potent business. Commemorating Darwin examines that business on a thrillingly global scale, exposing the intertwining scientific, religious, and political agendas at play whenever and wherever the man and his legacies have been memorialized. A landmark volume. -- Gregory Radick, University of Leeds