Darwin's Enduring Genius
How the Origin of Species Changed Our World
Will be published approx. on 31. March 2027
Book
Hardback
464 pages
978-1-009-72789-1 (ISBN)
Description
This extensively illustrated commentary on Darwin's Origin of Species offers a comprehensive, modern analysis of his revolutionary argument, situating his ideas within the evolutionary research and debates they inspired. Building on an unfinished manuscript by the pre-eminent evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, the book draws on more than 1,500 scholarly sources to expand on Darwin's revolutionary insights and to assess over 160 years of subsequent scientific progress. Each of Darwin's chapters is examined in detail, clarifying his reasoning while showing how his ideas have been refined, revised, or confirmed by later discoveries. In doing so, this new work highlights the enduring power and sweeping implications of Darwin's theoretical framework. More than 100 historical and scientific images illuminate Darwin's era and the central findings of evolutionary research, bringing the Origin vividly to life. The result is an authoritative analysis and synthesis of the most important scientific book ever written.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
ISBN-13
978-1-009-72789-1 (9781009727891)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Frank J. Sulloway is a Research Associate in the Department of Psychology at University of California, Berkeley and a MacArthur Fellow. Harvard trained, he authored the award-winning Freud, Biologist of the Mind (1979) and Born to Rebel (1996), and has published influential research on Darwin and in evolutionary psychology and evolutionary biology. Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) was an evolutionary biologist and often called the 'Darwin of the 20th century' for his seminal contributions to evolutionary theory. Mayr is also renowned as a taxonomist, ornithologist, philosopher of science, and historian of science. He was the recipient of 17 international prizes, including the National Medal of Science and the Balzan Prize.
Content
Introduction; Part I. Natural Selection: 1. Variation under domestication; 2. Variation under nature; 3. The struggle for existence; 4. Natural selection; 5. Laws of variation; Part II. Difficulties Confronting the Theory of Evolution: 6. Difficulties on theory; 7. Instinct; 8. Hybridism; 9. On the imperfection of the geological record; Part III. The Evidence for Evolution: 10. On the geological succession of organic beings; 11. Geographical distribution; 12. Geographical distribution-continued; 13. Mutual affinities of organic beings: morphology, embryology and rudimentary organs; 14. Recapitulation and conclusion; 15. Darwin's scientific genius and legacy; Appendix A. Darwin's controversy with Moritz Wagner; Appendix B. Modern challenges to the biological species concept; Appendix C. Evolution by creeps or jerks: criticisms of Darwin's continuity argument; Appendix D. Systems of biological classification; List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; Glossary; References.