Evolving views on Darwin
CHARLES Robert Darwin is immortal. The more that new-wave creationists condemn his theory of evolution, the more oxygen the 200-year-old is given, and the more life is breathed into his On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, now 150 years old. For years, publishers have commissioned and authors have written Darwin books, from brilliant biographies to garden-variety expositions of evolution. I'm not alone in needing to re-organise the bookshelves periodically: move along for more Darwin.
And then 2009 rolls around, the bicentenary of his birth, and the sesquicentenary of Origin. It was always going to be a challenge for authors and publishers. But of course there are new ways to see Darwin. Our understanding of the past evolves with time, just like everything else on the planet.
An astonishing interpretation has emerged from the long-standing Darwin duo, biographers Adrian Desmond and James Moore, authors of the bestseller Darwin (1991). Their new book, Darwin's Sacred Cause, examines the young scientist and his strange, faltering views on evolution through the vivid context of anti-slavery. This was, unmistakably, the greatest social, political, and moral issue of Darwin's early years, of his milieu, and of his extended family.
Every biography of Darwin notes this, but Desmond and Moore see in it a new explanation for his theories.
Read entire article at The Age (Australia)
And then 2009 rolls around, the bicentenary of his birth, and the sesquicentenary of Origin. It was always going to be a challenge for authors and publishers. But of course there are new ways to see Darwin. Our understanding of the past evolves with time, just like everything else on the planet.
An astonishing interpretation has emerged from the long-standing Darwin duo, biographers Adrian Desmond and James Moore, authors of the bestseller Darwin (1991). Their new book, Darwin's Sacred Cause, examines the young scientist and his strange, faltering views on evolution through the vivid context of anti-slavery. This was, unmistakably, the greatest social, political, and moral issue of Darwin's early years, of his milieu, and of his extended family.
Every biography of Darwin notes this, but Desmond and Moore see in it a new explanation for his theories.