Darwin's Ghosts : the Secret History of Evolution

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Call Number: BOCD 576.82 St
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	BOCD 576.82 St	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Compact discs.
Unabridged.
Read by Jean Gilpin.
Evolution was not discovered single-handedly, Rebecca Stott argues, contrary to what has become standard lore, but is an idea that emerged over many centuries, advanced by daring individuals across the globe who had the imagination to speculate on nature's extraordinary ways, and who had the courage to articulate such speculations at a time when to do so was often considered heresy.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

This book was needed submitted by chakumar on September 21, 2015, 9:37am This is a great book. A must read to appreciate the scientific and social context of Darwin's theory of evolution. This book traces a rich and variegated history of a great many natural philosophers, scientists, keen observers of natural world who made meticulous observations, noted recurring patterns and arrived at astute generalizations....the evolution of the concept of evolution itself, a fascinating continuum of evolutionary ideas, for the most part under the shadow of religious zealots, often presented in disguised forms, allegory, or written anonymously. Darwin apparently was not much of a science historian, and thus failed to take stock of these pioneers, some of them his contemporaries... and the impact of his work has been so singularly influential that to most of us, it seems to have appeared de novo, fully formed, not unlike the assumptions of theologians about the emergence of species! This book helps correct that distortion. Oh, and it doesn't take anything away from the highest esteem we hold Darwin in...only, he is no more lonely at the top!...He's in the company of Aristotle, Al Jahiz of Basra, Leonardo Da Vinci, several French natural historians with hard to pronounce and spell names including the great Lamarck, and lesser known British pioneer natural scientists including grandpa Erasmus Darwin,Grant, Chambers, Wallace...