Book Description
This book examines the persona of the "man of science" in the Victorian period as it was shaped by Thomas Huxley, the leading British naturalist and notorious popularizer of Darwinian theory. It demonstrates how the scientific practitioner was regarded as a moral and religious figure; simultaneously considered to be the epitome of the secular, professional scientist. Breaking with traditional biographies, this fascinating portrait treats Huxley as the consummate British "man of science" and reflects on the historical significance of scientific authority. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Academic
I will come back and give a more thorough review the next time I visit the site, but in the absence of any other commments I will quickly throw down some of my observations.

First:This book is less of a pleasure read as it is an academic History of Science read.It feels as though this is White's dissertation papers (or perhaps his dissertation).To that extent, while it is a very thoughtful piece, it feels as though White is trying to bend history so as to create a problem that academic scrutiny can solve.

Second:There is invaluable interpretation of Thomas Huxley as an idea (if not an ideologue) and as a visionary who intended to

Third:This may sound like a repetition of the first point, but passages of this book feel forced.Believe me, I read this as part of honors coursework and even incorporated it into my final paper and I felt as though I was forcing things when I was referencing it (although the professor apparently did not think that my interpretation was forced and gave me an 'A' on that paper).


That said, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in turning points in the History of Science. ... Read more

Book Description
T. H. Huxley (1825-1895) was not only an active protagonist in the religious and scientific upheaval that followed the publication of Darwin's theory of evolution but also a harbinger of the sociobiological debates about the implications of evolution that are now going on. His seminal lecture Evolution and Ethics, reprinted here with its introductory Prolegomena, argues that the human psyche is at war with itself, that humans are alienated in a cosmos that has no special reference to their needs, and that moral societies are of necessity in conflict with the natural conditions of their existence. Seen in the light of current understanding of the mechanisms of evolution, these claims remain as controversial today as they were when Huxley proposed them. In this volume George Williams, one of the best-known evolutionary biologists of our time, asserts that recent biological ideas and data justify a more extreme condemnation of the "cosmic process" than Huxley advocated and more extreme denial that the forces that got us here are capable of maintaining a viable world. James Paradis, an expert in Victorian studies, has written an introduction that sets the celebrated lecture in the context of cultural history, revealing it to be an impressive synthesis of Victorian thinking, as well as a challenge to eighteenth-century assumptions about the harmony of of nature. With Huxley's lecture as a focal point, the three parts of this book unite philosophy and science in a shared quest that recalls their common origins as systems of knowledge. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Brilliant
The pleasure of Huxley's grandiloquent prose, argument by horticultural metaphor and analogy, the breadth and scope of cosmic and social forces, and use of fairy tale combine into a masterful argument for evolution and ethics. Obviously, since Mendelian genetics was not yet known, Huxley's view of evolution is incomplete. But, Huxley already saw the defects of Spencer's "survival of the fittest," the emergence of existential self-assertion, and the tension in the forces between competition in the struggle for survival and cooperation as a means for its achievement.

Huxley's purpose is not to prescribe, but to warn of the pitfalls of imposing "nature as a guide" or the Stoic's "live according to nature" to humans' moral sense. He rightly keeps virtue, instinct, benevolence, limited resources, reproduction, and self-preservation in proper tension and focus. Most importantly, he argues forcefully that evolutionary theory is a theory of nature, not a moral prescription, but equally, no moral sense or moral theory can successfully ignore evolution's essential insights. The balance in sustaining competing concepts is dazzling.

Huxley's masterful essay is preceded by James Faradis's introduction on Huxley's Victorian context and is followed by G. C. Williams's update of the Modern Synthesis. A gem and treasure, all. Especially valuable to non-biologists. ... Read more

Book Description
Selected as one of the eleven Best Books of 1997 by the Editors of The New York Times Book Review.

Champion of modern education, creator of an intellectually dominated profession, T.H. Huxley epitomized the rise of the middle classes as they clawed power from the Anglican elite. Written with enormous zest and passion, Huxley is about the making of our modern Darwinian world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Great Bio! We Could Sure Use a Huxley Today in USA!
What a fine book and bio! The author stated that he is most interested in placing TH Huxley into the context of his times, late 19th Century England, and the world, and he succeeds completely! From THH's humble origins with descriptions of the slums of 1840's London, through the amazing Rattlesnake voyage to Australia and New Guinea, and onward to the world's #1 Iconoclast (Nietzsche came a little later), this book reads like the best novel, with tons of biology, paleontology,history of science, theological debunking, and English history all included. Not to mention the sometimes difficult financial and family life of the founder of the famous 20th century Huxleys. THH was obvious as close to a universal scientificgenius and spokeman as we'll ever have! Very strange how his many claims for science in school were accepted in Britain by the 1890's, but are still controversial in 2000's USA!

One of the best science biographies ever
I've read Adrian Desmond's Huxley biography several times since its initial publication a decade ago. When I first read it, I thought it was a tour de force; ten years later, it still holds up.

Desmond is a brilliant biographer: his "Darwin" (co-authored with James Moore) and his studies of Robert Owen have been deeply influential among historians of science. The difference between those books and this one, though, is that Desmond obviously likes Huxley: he admires the young Huxley's drive and ambition; his willingness to take risks; his ferocious, furious determination to succeed in despite lack of connections or inheritance (Victorian Britain wasn't so far from Jane Austen when Huxley was striking out on his own); and his incredible success. As much as any single individual, Huxley deserves credit for creating our modern notion of what science can do, and how scientists should be treated-- by the state, by the general public, by universities. It's the bulldog's world; we just live in it.

The hip-hop criticism is astute. The book is actually filled with references to earlier histories of science: nearly every page has a play on the title of some book or article. Insiders will get them; apparently they're noticeable, but distracting, to others.

Still, the book is a model for how to write biography, and probably the best introduction to Victorian science and culture around today.

Exhaustive and exhausting
I've never read a book quite like Desmond's.He is an extremely talented writer and is obviously enthusiastic about Huxley, his "X club" cohorts, and Victorian England in general.Some of his prose is worth savoring, in fact.However, as other reviewers have mentioned, his talent and enthusiasm primarily result in a 650 page-long monograph of purple prose. It is difficult to find a single sentence on some pages that doesn't contain a simile (usually of an overwrought nature) or highly charged authorial proclamation.Although this practice certainly makes the writing lively, it also makes it extremely heavy-going and, at times, quite confusing.It is difficult to read more than a few pages at a time.

As for the book's material, it is never less than fascinating.Desmond is a thorough researcher, and he never fails to explore the major events in Huxley's life in proper detail. He is also enormously well-schooled in the world of Victorian science, university politics, and culture.Although he makes even the slightest struggle in Huxley's life seem like a battle for all time, he also succeeds in making "Hal" a truly sympathetic and utterly unparalleled individual.I had no problem with the straight narrative structure as other reviewers seem to have had, but many, many names popped in and out of the story with little information to refresh my memory and this grew tiresome.

In short, I recommend giving this book a shot.You may tolerate or even enjoy Desmond's prose.There is a lot of wonderful information about a wonderful and remarkable man to be imbibed.However, be warned that it will most likely be a murky, if hot and spicy, pool to wade through.

Theory, ideology and paradigm mechanization
This is one of the best bios of Huxley ever written (cf. also the more theoretical work of Shellie Lyons) and seems a natural companion to Moore & Desmond's work, Darwin: The Tormented Evolutionist.
The new style of Darwin studies takes the legacy of such as John Greene and others and zeroes in on the social context of the emergence of the theory as ideologically charged.
In Huxley's case one sees the generational change breaking the Anglican monopoly of the Paley-ites, but in the process creating a new establishment in the conservative revolution of Darwin's theory.
What is remarkable is that Darwin's bulldog had an initial clarity that drove him to defend Darwin on evolution, but demur on natural selection. How ironic. Le plus ca change!
It is hard to impossible to take theories of evolution in complete seriousness as pure science when we see the almost outrageous social darwinist cast to the whole operation. Huxley, to his credit, saw things differently toward the end in his final classic Evolution and Ethics. Would that the generations springing from his first great defense of the theory could come to his final regrets. Nice work.

amazing subject completely ruined
Thomas Huxley deserves better than this meandering, plodding tome.What should have been a facinating biography is lost in the obtuse style the author uses.On the plus side--there are some very good passages and pockets of wonderful information, and the bibliography is amazingly complete.On the minus side--the shining bits are so deeply hidden in the depths of the authors quagmire style you may need a machete to find them. I also agree with some earlier posts that a thematic approach would be preferrable to a strictly chronological narrative. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Darwin epic
Although out of date and superceded by a considerable number of later scholarly works, this account of Darwin and Huxley and the generation of the Origin is still interesting, and profitably read, although some of the views (e.g. the account of the Huxley/Wilberforce debate) have undergone severe revisions. ... Read more