charles_darwin

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Annotated Bibliography
Roberts, Jon H. Darwinism and the Divine in America: Protestant Intellectuals
and Organic Evolution, 1859–1900. Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press, 1988. Explains why American Protestants concentrated on attacking
the science in The Origin of Species up to 1875 and then attacked the
theological implications of the theory of evolution after 1875.
Secord, James H. Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception,
and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Definitive study of Robert
Chambers’s Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Explains why
Vestiges was such a controversial book and why there was a hunt to
find the author. Excellent introduction to the social context of Vestiges
and The Origin of the Species. Has an extensive bibliography.
Uglow, Jenny. The Lunar Men: Five Friends Whose Curiosity Changed the
World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. Story of the Lunatics,
the group of men (which included Darwin’s grandfathers Erasmus
Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood) who had a major influence on scientific
and technological ideas in eighteenth-century Britain. Explains
the connection between the British Industrial Revolution and the scientific
innovations of men such as Charles Lyell and Charles Darwin.
Wilson, Edward O. Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge, MA: Belknap
Press, 1975; reissued 2000 with a new preface. Argues that it is possible
to learn and understand human evolution and behavior better by studying
other social animals, particularly ants. A groundbreaking book.
The Science and Significance of Evolution
Beer, Gillian. Darwin’s Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot,
and Nineteenth-Century Fiction. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2000. Groundbreaking book on Darwin as a creative
writer. Argues that Darwin’s writing style is difficult to categorize: his
arguments are unique and exhibit the influence of Victorian culture.
The Origin of Species was and is influential because the writing was
both Victorian and new.
Behe, Michael J. Darwin’s Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution.
New York: Free Press, 1996. This prominent figure in the Intelligent
Design Movement argues that the complexity of organic life precludes
evolution as an explanation for the origin of life.
Chaisson, Eric J. Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. Argues that it is
possible to discuss complexity in nature without invoking God or an
intelligent designer.