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The Beagle Diary was used to write Darwin's famous book 'Voyage of the Beagle' (1839). The narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836. Darwin describes each day of the voyage, some in intimate detail, during the Beagle's circumnavigation of the globe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

wonderful read. the man in his own words
I have been reading a bit slowly to make it last longer.Darwin was unique and his writing is personal in this journal. Highly recommended for anyone who likes biology, nature and thinking about them. ... Read more

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Darwin's complete unabridged work of evolution with special introduction by Ray Comfort. Great for collectors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (175)

Origin of Species 150h Anniversary Edition

Only Ray Comfort could have written such an honest look at Darwin's Theory.

Pure Charlatanry
Great book, but the introduction is mere garbage. All of the arguments in the intro have been refuted time and time again, yet charlatans like Comfort continue to venerate them. Charlatanry at its rawest form. This supports my hypothesis that creationists no longer have any credibility whatsoever, and are now on their last leg with these pathetic attempts to undermine evolution.

Fair Presentation
"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation" - Herbert Spencer

Out of curiosity I just read the 150th Anniversary Edition of Origin of Species. I thought combining Comfort's Intro with the classic work was a worthy effort and fairly presents the two sides of the issue.

I'm not sure why Darwinists are are so afraid of Comfort's arguments. I've always had confidence in the ability of individuals to make up their own minds about such things. As with all things, this hopefully will be the launching point to dig deeper into the matter of understanding all sides of this issue. After all, it would seem to me, the stakes are eternal and worthy of our attention.

Glad I didn't have to pay for it!
Oh my, oh my. Where do I start?

Two copies of this book were sneakily passed on to myself and my husband as we left the Progressive Forum at the Wortham Center tonight--a book tour for Richard Dawkins' "The Greatest Show on Earth". A couple of normal, smart-looking people came walking the other way as we exited and a female asked, "Do you guys want some copies of 'the Origin of Species'?" We excitedly said "Well, yeah!", and took them, feeling like we'd just gotten really lucky. The couple were 20 feet away before my husband muttered, "Waitaminute..." as he looked at the cover: "Special Introduction by Ray Comfort".

Face-palm time.

What low-down, dirty tactics. The two of us were well aware that this "book" existed. An abridged (totally chopped up) version of Darwin's classic, the majority of the book in TINY, hard-to-read text with a FIFTY PAGE foreword by Banana Man Ray Comfort.

What saddens me most is that if the two who had handed us this book had actually not been too scared to come to this lecture, I have a feeling they wouldn't have been passing these books out.

Please, if you want to buy a copy of The Origin of Species, do yourself a favor and buy an official version on Amazon. Don't give this man any money if you wish to check it out--request a free copy from the kooks handing it out at college campuses and atheist talks.

I'm glad we got two copies, though. That's two less that will be foisted on naive young people.

Evolutionists grasp onto hope for a silly outdated theory
Even though micro/macro evolution doesn't prove or disprove god, it is always good to hear criticism from the other side.The banana man that everyone is talking about is, the same man that turned the "supposed" smartest man in the world Thunderfoot (religious hater) into Sergeant Stutter in a debate on youtube.Macro Evolution in regards to humans is the same old materalistic psudeo-science that cannot be observed with the human eye, but just speculated on is the same today as it was over 150 years ago.The secular supporters wanted to find SOMETHING to keep religion out of their laws and government so this book of speculation was the book that started it all with the new war of Creation Vs. Evolution.

Man made science against the creator at it's finest, with 1800's knowledge to boot.Beautiful writing from Charles Darwin, who devoted his life to find that kink in the armor and changed history as we know it.The camps were set after this, and the battle between men of science and men of religion had officially begun.You will notice the speculations in this book were very clever, and I think that Darwin wasn't alone in all of this.Well you be the judge, I just particularly liked this version because Ray Comfort has a little validity to his message.Most of it is obvious nonsense, but there are some good points he brought out into the open.I won't ruin it for ya, you decide.

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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The most accessible edition ever published of Darwin’s incendiary classic, edited by “as fine a science essayist as we have” (New York Times)

The Descent of Man, Darwin’s second landmark work on evolutionary theory (following The Origin of the Species), marked a turning point in the history of science with its modern vision of human nature as the product of evolution. Darwin argued that the noblest features of humans, such as language and morality, were the result of the same natural processes that produced iris petals and scorpion tails.

To convey the revolutionary importance of this groundbreaking book, renowned evolutionary science writer Carl Zimmer edited this special abridged edition—made up of nine excerpts, each one representing one of Darwin’s major themes—and wrote illuminating introductions to each section, as well as an overall introduction. Zimmer brilliantly places Darwin’s basic ideas in the context of the current understanding of human nature and twenty-first-century DNA research. By accessibly presenting Darwin’s thinking to a modern readership, Zimmer eloquently demonstrates Darwin’s ever-increasing relevance and amazing scientific insight. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

clean and concise.
I just used this edition for a report and I am thoroughly impressed by the quality of the publication. If you are looking for a copy of Descent for your own collection, I recommend this one.

Descent of Logic
By reading this book, you can develop an eye for illogic (Historians' Fallacies : Toward a Logic of Historical Thought, Black Swan: The Twelve Lessons of Abandonment Recovery). This book is riddled with errors such as:

* Cum hoc ergo propter hoc. (Fetal correlation, homology)
* Circular reasoning ("In order that primeval man, or the ape-like progenitor of man, should become social, they must have acquired the same instinctive feelings" 203)
* Anecdotal evidence (Muleteer story, 127)
* Hasty generalization ("A baboon ... as I have been informed", 121)
* Ad populum ("Everyone must have noticed ... Every sportsman knows" 160)

All of these informal fallacies could be spotted by a Philosophy 101 student, yet they make the wrap and woof of the book.

My favorite nonsensical sentence was part of Carl Zimmer's commentary:

"In some ways, we truly are unique, but underneath that uniqueness lies a common bond with other species." (108)

Spot the weasel words: "uniqueness," "in some ways unique," and "common bonds" are three contradictory concepts. Apparently, Darwin 's illogic infects his apologists.

Indeed, Zimmer's commentary updates The Descent of Man: The Concise Edition, but also spins the more racist and ethnocentric statements. This gets into the question of whether we can separate evolution (a broad theory) from Darwinism (a narrow interpretation of evolution, and a personal philosophy).

I don't think we can, given the lapses in logic. Popper (The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Routledge Classics)) asserted that all theories must be logical. This book fails the test--miserably.

So read Descent of Man, because it is a civilization classic. And then refute it.

Charles Darwin and his perceptive insight into the evoluition of life
Through Darwin's, "The Descent of Man" and his earlier "The Origin of Species" the reader is introduced to the power of the observations and the conclusions of this remarkable man. In what might have been the greatest "a ha" moments in the history of man, Charles Darwin gave us biological science and quite, literally, changed the way we understand the evolution of life on earth. He overcame the fear of rejection he knew his seminal work would cause by challenging all prevailing creationist theology. By doing so he freed man to think freely, and the world has not been the same since. ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing’s Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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Two hundred years after Charles Darwin's birth (February 12, 1809), this thoroughly illustrated, yet concise biography reveals the great scientist as husband, father, and friend.

Tim M. Berra, whose "Darwin: The Man" lectures are in high demand worldwide, tells the fascinating story of the person and the idea that changed everything. Berra discusses Darwin's revolutionary scientific work, its impact on modern-day biological science, and the influence of Darwin's evolutionary theory on Western thought. But Berra digs deeper to reveal Darwin the man by combining anecdotes with carefully selected illustrations and photographs.

This small gem of a book includes 20 color plates and 60 black-and-white illustrations, along with an annotated list of Darwin's publications and a chronology of his life.

Customer Reviews (7)

Concise and Easy to Read
This book is short and sweet ... you can read it all in a couple of hours, and you'll get a great perspective about a very consequential 19th Century man.

A perfect introduction to Darwin, the man
It's just a cliché, but sometimes very good things (besides jewelry) really do come in small packages.Another aphorism claims it is harder and more rewarding to write compactly than voluminously, and Prof. Berra has proved the point elegantly with this gem of an introduction to Charles Darwin's life and work.Spanning only 114 pages from Introduction through Index, and generously illustrated to boot, the book gave me a pleasant impression of being just right for acquiring an initial understanding of the legendary naturalist's character, the power of his ideas, and the tenor of his times.

Though mainly a descriptive biography, Berra's narrative also contains insightful explanations of Darwin's thought processes in discovering the historical fact of biological evolution and its integral mechanism of chance variation mediated by natural selection.Included are such key details as Darwin's own capsule definition of evolution (descent with modification), and his pioneering use of a "tree of life" diagram, the sole illustration in "On the Origin of Species."Darwin's rare missteps, such as his mistaken suspicion that acquired characteristics could be inherited, are neither ignored nor glossed over.

Darwin's sudden realization in 1858 that he had a serious intellectual competitor, Alfred Russel Wallace, caused him great mental and physical distress.But it also had the beneficial effect of goading him into publishing "Origin" within a year.What might have become a bitter rivalry was peacefully handled by simultaneous presentations of the theory as a co-discovery.Berra includes an 1860 quotation from Wallace showing his remarkably unselfish admiration for the depth and quality of Darwin's work.

The author is careful to set things straight regarding Darwin's often-misunderstood religious views, including the apparently fictional deathbed conversion.Although his chief objective was simply to study and understand natural history, Darwin inadvertantly found himself in the position of having made the most important discovery since Biblical times bearing on the question of divine versus natural origins for living things.As a young man he had begun training for the ministry, so he fully appreciated the religious sensibilities of most people, including his beloved wife Emma.He was a keen observer and interpreter of all kinds of evidence, such as the many apparent cruelties built into nature and the seemingly senseless deaths of two of his own children.Perhaps the essence of Darwin's final attitude toward faith-based claims anticipated the conclusion voiced in 1959 by physicist Richard Feynman:"The religious theory of the world...doesn't fit with what you see."

Charles Darwin
I just recently finished reading a great novel created by the author, Tim M. Berra. Before I read this book, I knew nothing of the great scientist and discoverer, Charles Darwin. This book had many great and specific facts, and taught me almost everything of Charles Darwin and his famous work. The first part of the book taught me of his family's past. For example, one of his family members that I can recall is his grandfather. His name was Erasmus Darwin and he was a poet, a physician, and was fascinated with natural philosophy. Towards the middle of this educational and interesting book, it taught me mostly of Charles Darwin's life that had generalized summaries, but also had specific details, such as how Charles Darwin enjoyed going for a walk everyday with his dog Polly, rain or shine. It also discussed with the reader his important work, and his discovery of evolution, how he collected samples and how he figured out and realized his discovery. Finally, towards the end of the book, it was mostly about his publishing and his discoveries being released into the world. It also talked about Charles Darwin's last days. I throughly enjoyed this biography of Charles Darwin's discoveries, and various relationships in his life.

If you buy one book on Charles Darwin, this should be it
I highly recommend Tim Berra's short book on Charles Darwin to anyone wishing to learn about the life of this pivotal figure in human history.Berra's narrative is informative yet easy to read, a perfect book to take along on a trip or day at the beach.Scientists and science teachers will also benefit from reading this book.And, for example, I currently use tidbits harvested from this book in my biology lectures.

Charles Darwin: The Concise Story of an Extraordinary Man
A very nice job of summarizing Darwin's life.The illustrations are outstanding--really adding to the appeal of the book.Would be a very good supplementary book for any course dealing with evolution or the history of biology.

Also should be required reading for those who view Darwin as a devil--perhaps helping them realize that in addition to being a brilliant scientist, he was a very moral and compassionate person.

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Product Description
The box was Annie's treasured writing case. Annie was Charles and Emma Darwin's first daughter, and her death at the age of 10 broke their hearts. When Annie was a baby, Darwin doted on her, and thought about man's animal origins. As Annie grew into a lively child, Darwin worked secretly on his theory of evolution, but his ideas were just one part of the family's life. When Annie fell ill, Darwin was at her bedside, but could not save her. The acute pain of her loss cast deep shadows over his thinking about the natural world and the struggle for life. The author takes us into the family's private world and draws on a wealth of previously unseen material to tell Annie s story with rich and poignant detail. ''Science and humanity come together in this vivid portrait.'' Illus. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Insightful and informative
This being the anniversary year of Charles Darwin's birth in 1859 I cannot recommend this book enough.Annie was one of his ten children and one of three that died. But she died much later than her siblings, and Darwin admitted she was his favorite child.
The book also helps explain the agony Darwin experienced from the church and greater English society which was in a very staid religious era. Think Queen Victoria.His saving grace appears to be his wife Emma who being Unitarian minded, at least gave him a trusted intimate.

The Heart of Charles Darwin's "Insufferable Grief"
If you're curious about Charles Darwin, the man, look no further than Randal Keynes' touching biography of his great-great-uncle. It's all here:from the Darwin's marriage and first home in London to the details of life at Downe House, Emma's widowhood, and Annie's Box. The account spans from the time Darwin decided to "Marry - Marry - Marry. Q.E.D." in 1938, dipping into some history at Cambridge and aboard the Beagle, until Emma's death in 1896, and includes a deeply personal look at life along the way.

Keynes pays particular attention to Darwin as husband and father. Darwin, who adored his family, exhibited"a fine degree of paternal fervour" with his ten children, playing on his hands and knees with them, never silencing their "howls and screams," and even allowing them into his study while he worked. Of all the children, Darwin doted most on Annie, his cherished, eldest daughter, who was the apple of her devoted father's eye.

On April 22, 1851, just two days after Easter, Annie died, possibly from tuberculosis. Paradoxically, Darwin's religiosity suffered its final blow at this holiest time of year for Christians. Separated from his wife during Annie's demise, Darwin could not draw on Emma's religious fortitude to comfort him or to interpret Annie's death, and he could not find the consolation he needed from the Church. Although Darwin's theory of evolution was already well developed by the time Annie died, Keynes juxtaposes Darwin's darkening sense of nature (and his efforts to understand suffering and death) with his continued work on the Origin of Species.

Keynes' ultimate thesis is that Darwin's private "life and his science were all of a piece," which he aptly portrays. The narrative left me with a greater appreciation of an iconic, and often misunderstood, man, someone who was both a brilliant scientist and a loving human being who made time in life for the things that matter most: family and friends.

Roxanne Enman
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Product Description
This richly readable book is the product of Charles Darwin's amazingjourney aboard the Beagle where he made observations that led to hisrevolutionary theory of natural selection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

"Charles Darwin" and "Fun" can be in the same sentence...
History remembers Charles Darwin's time on the H.M.S. Beagle as his journey through the Galapagos Islands, but there was so much more to his amazing adventure.In The Voyage of the Beagle (1839), Charles Darwin recounts the five-year span over which he traveled throughout the world and made the observations that would be the foundation for his scholarly works for the rest of his life.This book takes you all over the world as you get to experience the geological and biological observations of Charles Darwin.

The detail with which this book is written provides an interesting insight into Darwin's thought process: you are able to see the world as he does, which is a remarkable thing.For example, I can still recall his vivid description of the fossilized shell that he encountered when crossing the Andes from Chile to Argentina as though it were something I personally witnessed.Though you may be wary to read something written by Charles Darwin if you've been exposed to his dry, meticulous writing style in his masterpiece, On the Origin of Species (1859), rest assured: this is a different sort of Charles Darwin.The Voyage is a fast-paced and fun read as you recount adventure after adventure with Charles Darwin to show you the way.

Good content (of course), but unfortunate editing
Although the main purpose of the Beagle's journey was to chart coastlines, it's most important result was probably the growth and development of Charles Darwin, whose experiences and opinions can be found in this book. Darwin's observational skills are evident in his writing, and both his style and subject matter are inviting to today's reader. Now, this is an abridged version, and when comparing it to complete editions, it will of course fall short; some of the sections that were removed were relatively uninteresting discourses on minutia, but some (in order to make it a significantly more manageable size) contain the accounts of days or even weeks of travel, the lack of which is both disappointing and confusing to the reader. This is especially the case when one is attempting to follow the travels closely and get an idea of the geography of the regions, because the edited parts are unexplained and lead to gaps of unknown size in the travelogue. This being said, the general idea and experience of the book is still the same-- we can still get to know Darwin and the places he visited through his descriptions of his interactions and exploits, and it is an entertaining and worthwhile read.

The Voyage of the Beagle
I ordered this book as a gift.It arrived on time and in new condition.I was happy to give it as a gift.

The Voyage of the Beagle
The Voyage of the Beagle: Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches (Penguin Classics)
IT was very new looking, the book had detailed information, more like a catologe of species(of course the book was charles darwin who it was based of, where it listed the new speciies he found), it was what my class needed....

Amazingly EXCITING!!!
I got it and read it in less than a month over Mexico and US while traveling birding.... even big small-letters book, the history and stories of Sir. Darwin in South America are awesome... inspiring!!....
a must read book!!!...

saludos,
Diego
www.colombiabirding.com ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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"Quammen brilliantly and powerfullyre-creates the 19th centurynaturalist'sintellectual and spiritual journey."--Los Angeles Times BookReviewTwenty-one years passed between Charles Darwin's epiphany that "natural selection" formed the basis ofevolution and thescientist's publication of On the Origin ofSpecies. Why did Darwin delay, and what happenedduringthe course of those two decades? The humandrama and scientific basis of theseyears constitute afascinating, tangled tale thatelucidates the character of a cautious naturalist who initiated anintellectualrevolution. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (32)

Superb story about the human side of science
There are books that are satisfying to those already interested in their subject, and books that are so wonderful that they interest readers in whole new fields. Like Dava Sobel's The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin does the latter. Writing in fresh and contemporary prose and lucid even when the topic at hand is most abstruse, Quammen evokes a Darwin that is fully, and quirkily, human. I was fascinated to discover how long the "Origin of Species" took to bring into the world, how close it came to being "scooped," and how many doubts and insecurities its creator brought to the enterprise. The world of nineteenth science is brought vividly to life, and so is Darwin's character, which is sometimes amusing and sometimes moving. This is a book that deserves all the praise it has gotten and more: a classic that will speak not just to those interested in the sciences but also to anyone fascinated by human creativity.

Well written but the thesis fails
Mr. Quammen confesses that he is not a scientist at the opening of this book and that is ultimately the book's greatest problem.This is not to say that a journalist is not qualified to write a book on Darwin, but rather that his lack of understanding of science and scientists prevents Mr. Quammen from understanding the flaws in his thesis.Indeed, his thesis fails and the book becomes self-serving.

It starts predictably with a long lament about just how absolutely awful it is that so many Americans don't "believe in evolution."This very phrase betrays the theological underpinning of this book. Scientists do not need to "believe" in evolution - we know it works.Evolution is not an article of faith; it is a valuable tool essential to research like the second law of thermodynamics or the Keplerian ellipticity of an orbit.The fact that many Americans don't "believe" simply reflects the fact it really does not affect their daily lives.Flogging this issue is only important to proselytizers on both sides of the question, trying to shove either intelligent design or evolution down the throat of others to reinforce the "truth" of their own religious view and assuage their own inner doubts.So the book then turns into a fawning encomium to Darwin laced with overstatement, meaningless conjecture and hyperbole designed to prosecute a purely atheistic view of evolution.Like Richard Dawkins and a whole army of others, Mr. Quammen is on a mission to convince all the luddites of the random meaninglessness of life and the uselessness of God.But in the end the only real weapon he can hurl at those who believe in theistic evolution is repetition of the emphatic "NO" Darwin scribbled in his copy of Wallace's book beside the passage arguing for Divine intervention in variation.That fight is and will remain an epistemological draw and its arguments are out of Mr. Quammen's weight class.

The thesis of the book is old and tattered; to wit, the long delay between Darwin's initial formulation of his theory of evolution and his publication of "On the Origin of Species" was the consequence of his fear of recrimination from all those religious Victorian fuddy-duddies.This is nonsense on several levels.First, Darwin was well and safely cocooned among atheists and agnostics including his father, his brother, his cousin Francis Galton (founder of the eugenics movement) and one of his best friends and supporters Thomas Huxley (first and most vocal proponent of the `Darwin has killed off God idea').Since the French Revolution atheism had been downright chic. There would be some tut-tutting in a few parlors, but no one was going to burn Darwin at the stake like Bruno or put him under house arrest like poor old Galileo.He was also in close correspondence with Asa Gray, an influential and quite religious American intellectual, who did not reject or even tut-tut evolution prior to publication or Origin.Quammen is very selective in his portrayal of Gray, lest it damage his flawed thesis.Second, Darwin was working on a detailed manuscript when Wallace forced his hand; he had every intention of publishing.Quammen's idea that he prepared a shorter manuscript earlier and bequeathed it to his wife in case of his early death secretly hoping it would be published posthumously so as to avoid controversy is poppycock in light of Darwin's obvious love for life and his family. Third, if you read it carefully enough, Darwin himself tells us in Origin the reason for the delay; he was a scientist and he truly felt he had to gather enough hard cold facts to support his idea and anticipate all possible criticism before he could publish a truly scholarly work.His worst problem was that he had no mechanism for genetic variation within a species; he knew this was a gap in his theory.Prior to Wallace's work he simply was not ready to publish.It had nothing to do with the fear of societal disdain Mr. Quammen constantly implies.In 1859, Darwin was a confident wealthy recluse who contrary to this warn-out thesis lived out the rest of his life basking in popular acclaim and worldwide fame.

That said, in the places where the book is a biography and not an atheist apologia it is not bad if taken with more than a few grains of salt.It is a decent distillation of longer more authoritative biographies and is full of tidbits you will not readily find elsewhere.Mr. Quammen may have a distorted understanding of Darwin but he has certainly read him including the treatise on earthworms (which is quite good actually).The sentences are lively and the text flows well and for the most part chronologically.The phrases can be a little overworked and cutesy at times and the vocabulary is 8th grade, but Mr. Quammen is a pretty good writer.You do get some feel for Darwin the man, husband, and father if not a real feel for Darwin the scientist.

If you are on a quest to understand Darwin and evolution, I would suggest that you not start here."Evolution" by Edward J. Larson is a much better book.Origin itself is good, but remember it is an old science book written for old scientists; it can be a bit of a slog.If you are really serious see Douglas Futuyma's text titled, well what else, "Evolution".Then, if you have nothing better to do on a rainy Sunday, you might consider this book (with a salt cellar close at hand).

Good science, mediocre theology
I was interested to learn more about how Darwin developed his theory and on that score this is an excellent account. He is a fine writer and the chapters on the development of Alfred Wallace's work and on the writing of Origin of the Species are especially good--real page turners in fact.. The author conveys a convincing portrayal of an exacting scientist who also was an honorable man who dearly loved his family.

Why three stars? I was put off by the author's frequent forays into theology. I am not a person of strong belief and the author's claims about Darwin's own religiosity are persuasive. The problem is his not very veiled view that belief in Darwin's theories is incompatible with religiou belief. He backs off from saying that directly, but essentially says it nonetheless. To make that claim convincing he would need a much stronger footing in contemporary theology than he appears to have. It is quite possible that he has no interest in acquiring that knowledge, of course, but he should understand that the nature of religious faith is not a constant--the same for everyone today as it was in Darwin's rather different world. While the issue is not mentioned on the dust jacket or referred to in the index, it is clearly a strong subtext for the author, but one over which he would have done well to exercise some Darwin-like restraint.

Still, I am very glad I read the book and it has made me want to read Origin of the Species.

excellent background to the theory
This book is excellent for those who want not only to understand evolutionary thinking, but also to have some insight into how that thinking developed.

The book is concerned mainly with the period between Darwin's return from the voyage on the Beagle to when On The Origin of Species was published.The author discusses Darwin's life at home and his interactions with other scientists and naturalists, directly and by mail.

I was left with the feeling that I had a much better understanding of Darwin as a person, and how personal factors (especially his relationship with his wife and children) affected his whole approach to the subject.I also got some insight into Darwin's development as a scientist, and both the experiences and the people that were most influential.

Brash but compelling Darwin reading
David Quammen's The Reluctant Mr. Darwin fills an interesting niche within Darwin biographies, falling somewhere in between the brevity of Janet Browne's Darwin's Origin of Species and more comprehensive undertakings like Adrian Desmond and James Moore's Darwin.Clearly drawing upon his skills as a popular science writer, Quammen's candid and colored portrayal of Darwin is equal parts fascinating and divisive. While the narrative Quammen crafts is delightfully dense with Darwin's idiosyncrasies and the various contexts surrounding the development of his work, his unapologetic interpretation of events may turn off some readers.

Quammen begins the book right after the Beagle voyage, dropping the reader into Darwin's rush to situate his life in London.The first third of the book thus focuses on the interaction of the different factors that influenced the ideas eventually supporting the Origin of Species.Yet there are also plenty of details regarding the incubation of the ideas behind Darwin's Origin of Species.He was consumed by meetings with Lyell and Gould to identify specimens from the voyage and working out concepts in his notebooks that would form the basis for his theories on transmutation and natural selection.His reading of Malthus provided Darwin with the key to evolution via natural selection, while his meetings with Joseph Hooker and Lyell gave him the confidence to tighten his ideas of transmutation.Quammen does a good job of balancing this narrative with glimpses into Darwin's personal life; we see his rationality at work in his weighing of the pros and cons of marriage, as well as the common thread of genuineness that pervaded both his interactions with his wife Emma and his writing.

The middle third of the book is devoted mostly to the major points of contention regarding Darwin's Origin of Species.Quammen's commentary throughout is insightful but often inconsistent; his instincts as a popular science writer can be both a strength and a detraction.For example, his framing of the controversy between Wallace and Darwin works well, crafting a compelling underdog narrative that brings Darwin's flaws regarding pride into sharp focus and provides the rationale for the kickstarting of the Origin. He also makes good points when trying to justify the twenty year gap between the start of writing and the Origin of Species, noting that it is not about which factors were most responsible but about how the factors interact.

Yet there are several instances where Quammen makes sensationalized assertions regarding Darwin's life and detracts from the integrity of the narrative.His various discussions on the role of religion in Darwin's life are certainly guilty of this.Quammen makes sure to emphasize the theme of religion's incompatibility with Darwin's work; even in the beginning Darwin is depicted leading a double life of subverting religion, working out his ideas in his "seditious notebooks."It gets worse later on, when, in his analysis of the argument in the Origin of Species, he says that Darwin's conception of evolution is not challenging the existence of God but the special status of man.It is a fascinating idea and true to some extent, but it does not warrant the undoing of the effort he spent to establish the incompatibility of Darwin's ideas with religion.Such instances exemplify how Quammen's flair for the dramatic can undermine a solid narrative.

The final third of the book finds Quammen rushing through the legacy of the Origin of Species and an overview of evolutionary biology.His survey of the Origin of Species wants to be too much for the space it is allotted; it wants to be critical and reverent but cannot pursue either to the fullest extent.The discussion of Mendel and evolutionary biology also seemed unfinished; while there is a good deal of background on Mendel's experiments, Quammen skims over how Mendel's work translated into the modern synthesis that revitalized Darwinism in the 20th century, offering instead a comprehensive but ultimately non-informative equivalent of a reading list.

Despite these shortcomings, Quammen does manage to craft a nuanced and intriguing portrayal of Darwin, acknowledging him as the genuine and benevolent man he was in his life and writings yet refusing to shy away from his flaws.The Reluctant Mr. Darwin provides an ultimately flawed but well-researched and accessible complement to the more neutral biographies available on Darwin.If you do decide to pick up this book, however, I would also recommend reading Janet Browne's Darwin's Origin of Species, as it provides a more unbiased perspective on the events in Darwin's life and fills in some of the time gaps left in Quammen's book.
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Customer Reviews (2)

The next million lies
I tried top read online this trash-book, here in Brazil. This book was writen by Sir Charles Galton Darwin (1887-1962), a grandson of Charles Darwin. And such as Charles Darwin, he was an eugenist.
And this book was writen in 1950 decade, when the eugenists became claiming that they were now under then new titles of "malthusianists" or "neo-malthusianists". This trash-book is divided into eleven parts. The first is the introduction and the last is the epilogue. Second part has as title "population". The third part has as title "The four revolutions".
The introduction is a strange misture of nothing with value, lies and believes.
In the chapter about population, page 37, the author follows the same weird believes preached today by Greepeace and WWF. He is cleary against the improvements of live of persons, by a construction of a dam in India.
Even, when it anything with value, there's flaws.
One example is when he talks, about celibacy in Catholic Church. Repeating decades old eugenics' arguments against celibacy, while he forgest that European Catholic countries became far better than China, that had a system with his admiration.
The chapter about limitation of populations, he claims sterilizations for Malthusian reazons, while remembering eugenics. In fact,the author was a knowed eugenist. Malthusian lies are spread in all this book. The author also tells dozens of agronomical lies, repeated today by mafias such as Greepeace.
The last chapter is the epilogue and is even worse that the chapters. The author is pessimisticand wrong, about the world's future.

FUTURE CONTROL:CONTROLLING YOU
Charles Galton Darwin,the author of "The Next Million Years," was a physicist and eugenicist and the grandson of Charles Darwin.Published in 1952, Mr. Darwin's book is amazingly prescient about what the next fifty years would bring:energy shortage (oil), food shortage, and the "pressures" of overpopulation.While the author speculates what the remedies can or might be implemented for resolution of these problems, Mr. Darwin is primarily interested in the essential problem -Man -- and how his essential problematic human nature can be perfected from the wild animal that he is to one that is controlled and perfected so as to reach his or her maximum effectiveness in a world of limited resources.Thus, it is not until Chapter VIII of this 11-chaptered work that the general dullness and mechanical verbal probity of the rhetoric disappears and the reader is palpably confronted with a horrifying but superficially scientific creed which asserts that inheritable wealth comes from the inherited ability ofsuccessful and wealthy families, and that because these wealthy familes, generation after generation, have proven themselves "successful" because of their consistent "success" through time, they, therefore, must be of superior intelligence and ability over the rest of mankind, and, concomitantly, these families, and the individual members of these families, alone are fit to be the elite and to rule over and control the rest of the human race.

Charles Galton Darwin foresees a future in which human beings are farmed and bred like animal stock (page 184), each to a specialized purpose (including the use of drugs and artificial use of hormones to remove the sexual desire out of "inferior" human beings), completeley controlled by the so-called successful elite.In this new creed, it will be necessary to revise the old doctrine of the sanctity of the individual human life as well and to create policies that would allow the very unlucky in life (including babies) not to survive and not selfishly waste limited, precious, natural resources needed by the functional upper classes.

The author concludes, presciently as well, that China will be the civilization emblematic of the future the elite are planning as it not only has endured for century after century, longer than the Roman Empire, but the very way of life in China, socially crowded and politically cowed, is a good paradigm for what the future of the entire world shall broadly look like in the 21st century with its provinces, dynasties, and collectivism spearheaded under one central head or world government owned and run by future descendants of the Darwin family and other "successful" familes in addition. ... Read more

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This Halcyon Classics ebook contains Charles Darwin's THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE, his account of his multi-year journey which led to his ideas on evolution.Following THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE is THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES DARWIN, assembled and edited by his son, Francis Darwin.

This ebook is DRM free and includes an active table of contents.
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Charles Darwin was an English naturalist, eminent as a collector and geologist, who proposed and provided scientific evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors through the process of natural selection. Darwin’s discovery remains the foundation of biology, as it provides a unifying logical explanation for the diversity of life.

Customer Reviews (2)

Brilliant scientific insights
Works of Charles Darwin including "On the Origin of Species" (1st, 2nd, and 6th editions) The Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, ... & more. Published by MobileReference (mobi)

Charles Darwin was open, honest, and genuinely concerned about advancing human knowledge about the natural world. He present himself clearly and in an exemplary manner. He packs his presentation with supportive facts. He presents tentative laws to explains what he observed and then sees how well this explain the data he had collected. He points out his assumptions, raises doubts about them and responds sincerely to those doubts.

Best Kindle Edition of Darwin's Works
This particular collection published by MobileReference is by far the most complete and useful. Thanks for the Table of contents! ... Read more

Product Description
More Letters of Charles Darwin - Volume 1 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Charles Darwin is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Charles Darwin then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

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In 1831, Charles Darwin embarked on an expedition that, in his own words, determined my whole career.The Voyage of the Beagle chronicles his five-year journey around the world and especially the coastal waters of South America as a naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle. While traveling through these unexplored countries collecting specimens, Darwin began to formulate the theories of evolution and natural selection realized in his master work, The Origin of Species. Travel memoir and scientific primer alike, The Voyage of the Beagle is a lively and accessible introduction to the mind of one of history's most influential thinkers.
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Customer Reviews (9)

Diagrams, sketches would help.
The book is - as far as I know - complete in the same way as the one I have in my Kindle.I purchased it hoping to have more graphics; simple maps, drawings.I do not like paperback books, so the book as such is less than satisfactory.The text is as good as the contents, in which case this book is excellent.

You can't tell me he wasn't having fun
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.

'sokay
the pages of the book are a bit thin and i get teh feeling that in a decade's time this book will be warped and yellowed... we'll see.

as an ev. psych fanboy for years, i gotta also say, this tome's a little dull at times. haven't made nearly as much headway into it as i'd hoped. (might have to stick to shorter magazine articles on the subject ) ;^_^

Voyage of the Beagle
I received the book promptly and it was in very good
condition to be used. Now I need to find time to read
it.
thanks for the good service.P.S.The postage was very
reasonable too.

A sentimental scientists
The Voyage of the Beagle is filled with exquisite detail about the plants, insects, animals, and people that Darwin encountered during his journey.I was amazed at how much he had observed and compared/contrasted.My favorite parts, however, were for the most part not these descriptions.I most enjoyed the comments Darwin made that showed how he felt and what personal obstacles he encountered.Despite having the purpose of sharing his observations (which it most successful accomplishes), The Voyage showed a more personal side of Darwin.The personal comments that Darwin included and the poetic imagery he so often used gave the impression that Darwin had a sentimental side beyond the pure scientist.Even the depth of the many observations demonstrated his child-like curiosity and excitement about science, nature, and seeing the world.

If you were looking for a fast-paced plot, this is not your book.If you were looking for wonderful descriptions made by a keen observer and to gain a better understanding of the scientist, this book is definitely for you. ... Read more

Product Description
More Letters of Charles Darwin - Volume 2 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Charles Darwin is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Charles Darwin then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

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Evolutionary theory ranks as one of the most powerful concepts of modern civilization. Its effects on our view of life have been wide and deep. One of the most world-shaking books ever published, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, first appeared in print over 130 years ago, and it touched off a debate that rages to this day.

Every modern evolutionist turns to Darwin's work again and again. Current controversies in the life sciences very often have as their starting point some vagueness in Darwin's writings or some question Darwin was unable to answer owing to the insufficient biological knowledge available during his time. Despite the intense study of Darwin's life and work, however, many of us cannot explain his theories (he had several separate ones) and the evidence and reasoning behind them, nor do we appreciate the modifications of the Darwinian paradigm that have kept it viable throughout the twentieth century.

Who could elucidate the subtleties of Darwin's thought and that of his contemporaries and intellectual heirs--A. R. Wallace, T. H. Huxley, August Weismann, Asa Gray--better than Ernst Mayr, a man considered by many to be the greatest evolutionist of the century? In this gem of historical scholarship, Mayr has achieved a remarkable distillation of Charles Darwin's scientific thought and his enormous legacy to twentieth-century biology. Here we have an accessible account of the revolutionary ideas that Darwin thrust upon the world. Describing his treatise as "one long argument," Darwin definitively refuted the belief in the divine creation of each individual species, establishing in its place the concept that all of life descended from a common ancestor.

He proposed the idea that humans were not the special products of creation but evolved according to principles that operate everywhere else in the living world; he upset current notions of a perfectly designed, benign natural world and substituted in their place the concept of a struggle for survival; and he introduced probability, chance, and uniqueness into scientific discourse.

This is an important book for students, biologists, and general readers interested in the history of ideas--especially ideas that have radically altered our worldview. Here is a book by a grand master that spells out in simple terms the historical issues and presents the controversies in a manner that makes them understandable from a modern perspective.

Customer Reviews (10)

Evolution theory
Good introduction to history of evolution from Darwin's time to present date with the major academic controversies.

The Darwin Credo Reaffirmed
Mayr belongs to the select company who devised, in the Forties, the reconciliation of Darwinism to Mendelian genetics called Neo-Darwinism.One monument to this synthesis is the University of Chicago Centenary volumes published in 1959, where leading lights exalted the vindication of Darwin's theory.In the intervening decades enormous advances in all the sciences bearing on evolution have been made.Does Neo-Darwinism survive?Mayr believes that it does.To establish this improbable case, he begins his effort with a characterization of Darwin's achievement in terms compatible with what he takes to be the current state of evolutionary theory.

A fundamental historical component of the Darwinist credo is that the publication of the Origin marks an abrupt break, styled the Darwinian Revolution, in European thought, not merely in science but across the board, starting with religion and theology. Mayr's proposed characterization of this transformation is specified by four claims.

Claim 1.Darwin >refuted the belief in the individual creation of each species, establishing in its place the concept that all of life descended from a common ancestor<.The wording mirrors Darwin's claim that at the time he published Origin, he knew of no naturalist who disbelieved in special creation.There was an outcry against this historical perversity, including objections from the true originator of natural selection theory (Patrick Matthew, in 1831), and the Oxford mathematics professor (Baden Powell) who from 1835 published philosophical essays defending naturalistic evolution against special creation.By 1850 the concept of naturalistic evolution including the origin of the human species had thoroughly penetrated theology, literature, polite conversation, and even the working class.Darwin was the late-comer whose disciples stole the credit on his behalf.

Claim 2.Mayr states that >Victorian notions of progress and perfectability were seriously undermined by Darwin's demonstration that evolution ...does not necessarily lead to progress...< He produces not a single contemporary witness to this sense of Darwin's meaning.The facts are that the Origin equated adaptation with >improvement< (non-improvers are displaced).The book owed its celebrity in large measure to its scientific >proof< of the nearly universal belief in progress.Indeed the French translation of the Origin bore the title, De l'Origine des especes, ou Des Lois du progress chez les etres organizes.In her Introduction, translator Clemence-August Royer stated that >the doctrine of Darwin is the rational revelation of progress, pitting itself in its logical antagonism with the irrational revelation of the fall<.She related the survival of the fittest theory of organic change to the theory of change developed by free market economics.The same notion was promoted in England by Herbert Spencer.Darwin never repudiated these, for Mayr, gross misunderstandings.Why not?Perhaps because these views were his own.

Claim 3.Darwin pioneered a new concept of science based on >concepts of probability, change, and uniqueness< as against the then dominant methodology based on physical laws and determinism.Oh dear!Darwin's comments on high level methodological issues are sparse.They are also conventional.Far from challenging the Newtonian model, he was anxious to bathe his theory in its prestige, especially after he was directly challenged (and thoroughly intimidated) by Briton's leading physicist, Lord Kelvin.Darwin didn't quantify because he had no head for maths.His one attempt, intended to relate species diversification to geographic distribution, was a flop, from which he was rescued by his friend John Lubbock.He was oblivious to advances in statistical demography, despite their direct relevance to his theory.The quantification of inheritance data was carried out by Mendel in his experimental work on peas and by Francis Galton in his writings on inheritance, whose sophisticated mathematical analysis Darwin admitted he could not follow.The struggle for existence did not figure in Mendel's theory, which was the first statement of the laws of evolutionary stasis.The development of electromagnetism and statistical mechanics owed nothing to the Great Mind.

Claim 4.Darwin was >the first person to work out a sound theory of classification, one which is still adopted by the majority of taxonomists<.Crikey!Darwin's theory of classification amounts to little more than the proposal that it be based on evolutionary descent.The proposal was made by numerous evolutionists and sketches of plausible lines of descent, including the pithacoid origin of our species, were readily available.The first edition of the Origin presented but one descent scenario-of whales from bears-but it attracted such ridicule that Darwin withdrew it in the second printing.His few subsequent proposals of descent, eg, the origin of mammals and of the human species, reiterated proposals made by others.The first attempt at an evolutionary phylogeny stems from Darwin's ardent discipline, Ernst Haeckel, which he based on the >biogenic law< (long since abandoned).Systematics has undergone profound change since 1959, first through Willi Hennig's reconceptualization of classification as cladistics, and then the elaboration of cladism by molecular analysis.(When Mayr wrote this book, his own earlier contributions to systematics had been superseded).To suggest a connection of this development with Darwin's modest contribution is to genuflect before the Holy Father.

These criticisms address statements made in but two pages of the text.The remainder of the book is of like character: Mayr pays no mind to the recent outpouring of history/philosophy of science literature that has placed Darwin in context.Thanks to these advances, we know that his original contributions were few, that his errors and oversights were many, and that he and his True Believer disciples relentlessly campaigned to promote the Cult of Evolution, whose dogmatism sometimes retarded or distorted the growth of evolutionary science.It is sad that this book is a living fossil.

The Darwin credo reaffirmed

Mayr belongs to the select company who devised, in the Forties, the reconciliation of Darwinism to Mendelian genetics called Neo-Darwinism.One monument to this synthesis is the University of Chicago Centenary volumes published in 1959, where leading lights exalted the vindication of Darwin's theory.In the intervening decades enormous advances in all the sciences bearing on evolution have been made.Does Neo-Darwinism survive?Mayr believes that it does.To establish this improbable case, he begins his effort with a characterization of Darwin's achievement in terms compatible with what he takes to be the current state of evolutionary theory.

A fundamental historical component of the Darwinist credo is that the publication of the Origin marks an abrupt break, styled the Darwinian Revolution, in European thought, not merely in science but across the board, starting with religion and theology. Mayr's proposed characterization of this transformation is specified by four claims.

Claim 1.Darwin >refuted the belief in the individual creation of each species, establishing in its place the concept that all of life descended from a common ancestor<.The wording mirrors Darwin's claim that at the time he published Origin, he knew of no naturalist who disbelieved in special creation.There was an outcry against this historical perversity, including objections from the true originator of natural selection theory (Patrick Matthew, in 1832), and the Oxford mathematics professor (Baden Powell) who from 1835 published philosophical essays defending naturalistic evolution against special creation.By 1850 the concept of naturalistic evolution including the origin of the human species had thoroughly penetrated theology, literature, polite conversation, and even the working class.Darwin was the late-comer whose disciples stole the credit on his behalf.

Claim 2.Mayr states that >Victorian notions of progress and perfectability were seriously undermined by Darwin's demonstration that evolution ...does not necessarily lead to progress...< He produces not a single contemporary witness to this sense of Darwin's meaning.The facts are that the Origin equated adaptation with >improvement< (non-improvers are displaced).The book owed its celebrity in large measure to its scientific >proof< of the nearly universal belief in progress.Indeed the French translation of the Origin bore the title, De l'Origine des especes, ou Des Lois du progress chez les etres organizes.In her Introduction, translator Clemence-August Royer stated that >the doctrine of Darwin is the rational revelation of progress, pitting itself in its logical antagonism with the irrational revelation of the fall<.She related the survival of the fittest theory of organic change to the theory of change developed by free market economics.The same notion was promoted in England by Herbert Spencer.Darwin never repudiated these, for Mayr, gross misunderstandings.Why not?Perhaps because these views were his own.

Claim 3.Darwin pioneered a new concept of science based on >concepts of probability, change, and uniqueness< as against the then dominant methodology based on physical laws and determinism.Oh dear!Darwin's comments on high level methodological issues are sparse.They are also conventional.Far from challenging the Newtonian model, he was anxious to bathe his theory in its prestige, especially after he was directly challenged (and thoroughly intimidated) by Briton's leading physicist, Lord Kelvin.Darwin didn't quantify because he had no head for maths.His one attempt, intended to relate species diversification to geographic distribution, was a flop, from which he was rescued by his friend John Lubbock.He was oblivious to advances in statistical demography, despite their direct relevance to his theory.The quantification of inheritance data was carried out by Mendel in his experimental work on peas and by Francis Galton in his writings on inheritance, whose sophisticated mathematical analysis Darwin admitted he could not follow.The struggle for existence did not figure in Mendel's theory, which was the first statement of the laws of evolutionary stasis.The development of electromagnetism and statistical mechanics owed nothing to the Great Mind.

Claim 4.Darwin was >the first person to work out a sound theory of classification, one which is still adopted by the majority of taxonomists<.Crikey!Darwin's theory of classification amounts to little more than the proposal that it be based on evolutionary descent.The proposal was made by pre-Origin evolutionists and sketches of plausible lines of descent, including the pithacoid origin of our species, were readily available.The first edition of the Origin presented but one descent scenario-of whales from bears-but it attracted such ridicule that Darwin withdrew it in the second printing.His few subsequent proposals of descent, eg, the origin of mammals and of the human species, reiterated proposals made by others.The first attempt at an evolutionary phylogeny stems from Darwin's ardent discipline, Ernst Haeckel, which he based on the >biogenic law< (long since abandoned).Systematics has undergone profound change since 1959, first through Willi Hennig's reconceptualization of classification as cladistics, and then the elaboration of cladism by molecular analysis.(When Mayr wrote this book, his own earlier contributions to systematics had been superseded).To suggest a connection of this development with Darwin's modest contribution is to genuflect before the Holy Father.

These criticisms address statements made in but two pages of the text.The remainder of the book is of like character: Mayr pays no mind to the recent outpouring of history/philosophy of science literature that has placed Darwin in context.Thanks to these advances in historical knowledge, we now know that his original contributions were few, that his errors and oversights were many, and that he and his True Believer disciples relentlessly campaigned to promote the Cult of Evolution, whose dogmatism sometimes retarded or distorted the growth of evolutionary science.This book is a living fossil.

Modern evolutionary thought
The title of One Long Argument can be a bit misleading, as an earlier reviewer mentioned - it is in reference to Darwin's Origin of Species, and Mayr really does not make an argument himself; the book, nonetheless is interesting, if a bit dry.Mayr begins by picking apart Darwin's evolutionary theories (its not one single theory, but actually 5 inter-dependent theories that relate to evolution as a system), before addressing its impact on the scientific community up until the mid - 1970's.Yes, Darwin is still being scrutinized, and not just by the religious set.I found the book a bit dry and difficult to keep my attention.Far too little is discussed about the thinkers before Darwin, and too much is spent on the scientific debate the 50 years after Origins was published.I would have preferred Mayr exploring the implications and impact of the discovery of DNA and microbiology on modifications of natural selection, specicies variation and adaptation instead.Therefore I can only give it 4 stars.In my opinion, a far better book on a related subject is Loren Eisley's Darwin's Century.

You must understand the title to not be disappointed
The title "One Long Arguement", it is a reference to part of Darwin's introductory description to The Origin of Species (appearing within Origin itself). This book is not about arguing with Creationists (Thank God ;).I suspect the above reviewers were misled to the point that they felt rating stars must be subtracted. Don't be fooled by title bashers. This is an excellent history and theory primer for the novice and a nice knowledge gap filler for those well-read in the science of evolution and biology. ... Read more

Product Description

This is an electronic edition of the complete book complemented by author biography. This book features the table of contents linked to every chapter and section. The book was designed for optimal navigation on PDA, Smartphone, and other electronic readers. It is formatted to display on all electronic devices including Kindle, Smartphones and other Mobile Devices with a small display.

Customer Reviews (29)

Fundamental but off the point on language
This book is heavily, in its first part, speaking of a lot more than genetics, and certainly not of sexual preferences in that field. In fact this first part tries to show and discuss the superiority of the human species over all other animal species. Since I am not a geneticist I will concentrate on this first part.

The first remark I will make here is that he overuses the terms "barbaric", "barbarian", "savage", "primitive" and "primeval", this last one being the least reprehensible. This dates the book as a 19th century book. But when we have said that, we can overlook that stylistic element even when it is systematically opposed to "civilized" meaning the western world of the time.

He fundamentally reduces everything to genetics. Everything is explained with a "natural" argumentation that is to say an argumentation that refers to genetic rules and functioning. His discussion of rudimentary organs, organs that are evolving out of an organism (wisdom teeth, coccyx, etc), and nascent organs, organs that are appearing and have a great use, seems to lead to the fact that the non-use of an organ makes it disappear and a systematic action over several generations is bringing in the organ necessary to do it. In fact the rudiments are typically organs that are not mutating out but regressing because of the absence of use and what he calls nascent organs are in fact the development of some muscles or organs that are there and are used intensively in some environments. His best example is the thin legs of some Amazonian tribes whose men spend their life sitting in canoes. When compared with the legs of a long distance runner we could say the latter has nascent leg muscles and the former rudimentary leg muscles. Ut us not because we eat fat that we develop a gall bladder, but exactly the reverse. The function does not produce the organ but the organ produces the function. (Nothing to see with Montaigne's discussing justice)

This idea is essential when he starts dealing with the mental capabilities, moral qualities and linguistic abilities of man. He says over and over again that those things are acquired in some situations in which human beings live or have to live. But yet he seems to more or less imply that some moral qualities like love and sympathy could be the human development of an animal instinct: human love, in spite of what he may say, has little to do with the "love" (it looks more like dependence) of a dog for his master.

But his approach of language is absolutely and amazingly simplistic. First he speaks of the linguistic abilities of some monkeys but does not analyze them. Then he speaks of man inventing language from his attempt to imitate nature, hence reducing the linguistic ability to onomatopoeias. And then he moves to nothing but the great variety of consonants and vowels. But he does not question why man and no other "speaking" animal has developed those numerous consonants and vowels, and the ability to associate them, and what's more the possibility to conceive words by associating a cluster of sounds to a meaning, and then the ability to build sentences by building up functions that have to come from the social discursive situation in which man is always living.

It is this reduction of man's "mental powers" as he says that more or less prevent him from understanding what moral values and empathy and many other human feelings can be and he never gets close to the real nature of thought. His discarding the belief in god, or any superior being (he does not take into account superior forces) as some kind of unacceptable fancy of some human communities is typical of his inability to understand that the conceptual power he hints at from time to time is the way man will try to explain the world and language will be the tool for that explanation to be built and then to be shared and then to be honored and then to be ritualistically reinforced. God or no god is not the question. Even the canonical Buddhists who do not believe in god believe in the existence of a superior force in nature that governs us entirely because we are part of nature.

Thus he can conclude on this subject: "the difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind." This is passé, outdated and it does not understand that articulated language and articulated language only gives man and man only the capability to conceptualize and hence to develop a thought that no other animal can develop.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

Worthwhile reading in spite of the 4 stars
In anticipation of the 140th anniversary of its publication, and since I was so impressed with his The Origin Of Species: 150th Anniversary Edition, _The Descent of Man_ was a natural selection.(Sorry about the pun.)I must admit, I struggled with the book.

As with _Origins_, it is dense reading: not only is it non-fiction, but Darwin writes for a 19th century audience in a 19th century style.I can get past this without difficulty, but readers be prepared for it.What I struggled with the most was his disucssion of variability within species as it pertains to "race" among humans.Again, I make allowances given the time and circumstances the book was written - no one, I would hope, would confuse melanin levels within humans as evidence of species variation today.(DNA coding of the human genome show us that the differentiation between "races" is less than .001.Therefore "race" is put in quotation marks, as it is biologically a meaningless term and is instead a purely social construct.)Darwin, of course, did not have the advantage of this science, so I let it slide.What I found myself shaking my head about again and again was his use of culture, anthropology and sociology to illustrate what he saw assub-species differentiation in humans.For example, Darwin used of regional differences in the height and size of American servicemen in the Civil War as proof of emerging species variation - as if diet and social class weren't equally responsible for these variations as genetics alone.Never mind his exploration of non-Europeans verus Europeans as examples of variation within the human race._The Descent of Man_ is rife with such examples.Later, Darwin takes his idea of evolution well beyond the biological and alludes to moral evolution as well.No doubt these silly non-biological claims of Darwin continue to please those who seek to whole-heartedly reject his ideas, including Darwin's very real contributions to science.This is too bad, as it serves to muddy the waters of his many brilliant and ground-breaking ideas.

To his credit, Darwin gets a remarable amount of information correct, and clearly points succeeding scientists in the right direction.His discussion of the inheritance of mental characteristics, for example, are prescient considering mental diseases like bi-polar disorder that are only recently understood as an inherited trait.Similarly, his looking to primates for an understanding of human behavior continues to this day.(See Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution, Expanded Edition for more on this.)Darwin's greatest claim (and sadly, like so much of his work, a claim that is misunderstood) is that humans and other primates share a *common* ancestor.No, Virginia, Darwin never claimed man was descended from a gorilla.

Given the historical and scientific significance of the book alone, I would award it 5 stars.For the difficulty of language and the blending of biology, anthropology, sociology and economics, I deducted a star.Worthwhile reading nonetheless.

Beware of religious zealots giving 1 star
Excellent scientific book.This is a must in everyone's library.Highly recommended for anyone who believes in science and technology.

the Ascent of Man
This book is still very relevant today. Darwin may have gotten many minor things wrong but his main points are
right on. Darwin was truly a scientific man. He was never afraid to alter his theory if a fact did not fit. While Wallace later became involved in spiritualism, Darwin remained true to science.

defies common sense
This book is boring and idiotic.
Only a fool would believe that our ancestors were gorillas.If you believe that we descended from gorillas and/or lizards, you probably also believe that The Earth revolves around the sun.

The Earth is stationary, just like it seems.The sun revolves around The Earth, just like the moon (except hotter).Use your noodle.It's common sense.

The Lord created The Earth (and the heavens) out of sawdust, clay, dinosaur bones, and mud.He did so in six days, and slept on the seventh day.This occurred 6000 or 7000 years ago.Evolution could not have occurred in such a short period of time.
Wake up, you've been duped.
... Read more

Product Description
Darwin's account of the trip thatled him to the theory of evolution. According to Wikipedia: "Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors through the process he called natural selection. The fact that evolution occurs became accepted by the scientific community and the general public in his lifetime, while his theory of natural selection came to be widely seen as the primary explanation of the process of evolution in the 1930s, and now forms the basis of modern evolutionary theory. In modified form, Darwin’s scientific discovery remains the foundation of biology, as it provides a unifying logical explanation for the diversity of life." ... Read more