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Title details for The Evolution of Charles Darwin by Diana Preston - Available

The Evolution of Charles Darwin

The Epic Voyage of the Beagle That Forever Changed Our View of Life on Earth

by Diana Preston
Elizabeth Sastre
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From the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winning historian, the colorful, dramatic story of Charles Darwin's journey on HMS Beagle that inspired the evolutionary theories in his path-breaking books On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man
When twenty-two-year-old aspiring geologist Charles Darwin boarded HMS Beagle in 1831 with his microscopes and specimen bottles—invited by ship's captain Robert FitzRoy who wanted a travel companion at least as much as a
ship's naturalist—he hardly thought he was embarking on what would become perhaps the most important and epoch-changing voyage in scientific history.
Nonetheless, over the course of the five-year journey around the globe in often hard and hazardous conditions, Darwin would make observations and gather samples that would form the basis of his revolutionary theories about the origin of species and natural selection.
Drawing on a rich range of revealing letters, diary entries, recollections of those who encountered him, and Darwin's and FitzRoy's own accounts of what transpired, Diana Preston chronicles the epic voyage as it unfolded, tracing
Darwin's growth from untested young man to accomplished adventurer and natural scientist in his own right. Darwin often left the ship to climb mountains, navigate rivers, or ride hundreds of miles, accompanied by local guides whose
languages he barely understood, across pampas and through rainforests in searchof further unique specimens. From the wilds of Patagonia to the Galápagos and other Atlantic and Pacific islands, as Preston vibrantly relates, Darwin collected
and contrasted volcanic rocks and fossils large and small, witnessed an earthquake, and encountered the Argentinian rhea, Falklands fox, and Galápagos finch, through which he began to discern connections between deep past and present.
Darwin never left Britain again after his return in 1836, though his mind journeyed far and wide to develop the theories that were first revealed, after great delay and with trepidation about their reception, in 1859 with the publication of his
epochal book On the Origin of Species. Offering a unique portrait of one of history's most consequential figures, The Evolution of Charles Darwin is a vital contribution to our understanding of life on Earth.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    December 27, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781705081181
      • File size: 484935 KB
      • Duration: 16:50:16

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 8, 2022
      Historian Preston (Eight Days at Yalta) offers a brisk and accessible account of how Charles Darwin developed his theory of natural selection. Though the bulk of the book is a blow-by-blow account of Darwin’s journey aboard the HMS Beagle from 1831 to 1836, Preston shines in her assessment of how the young naturalist’s middle-class background, character (“sociable, usually good-natured, and eager to please”), and worldview (“chauvinistic, nationalistic, and sexist” but also “liberal for the time” and in firm opposition to slavery) contributed to his ideas about evolution. Though Preston relies on familiar sources, including Darwin’s diaries and letters, she expertly mines them to explain how he integrated insights from other thinkers and explorers (Alexander von Humboldt, William Dampier, Thomas Malthus) with his Beagle observations to create a theory of the gradual creation of species over geological time. She also details the social, political, and religious contexts in which Darwin developed his theory, sheds light on his family life, and reveals how naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace’s development of a similar thesis helped push Darwin to finally publish On the Origin of Species in 1859. While somewhat familiar, this is a rewarding look at the development of an earth-shattering idea. Illus.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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