The politics of evolution

About this book

Looking for the first time at the cut-price anatomy schools rather than genteel Oxbridge, Desmond winkles out pre-Darwinian evolutionary ideas in reform-minded and politically charged early nineteenth-century London. In the process, he reveals the underside of London intellectual and social life in the generation before Darwin as it has never been seen before. ""The Politics of Evolution" is intellectual dynamite, and certainly one of the most important books in the history of science published during the past decade." Jim Secord, "Times Literary Supplement" "One of those rare books that not only stakes out new territory but demands a radical overhaul of conventional wisdom." John Hedley Brooke, "Times Higher Education Supplement"" Annotation Published: June 2015. Desmond demonstrates again his ability to tackle in a new way a topic that has already generated considerable interest. Here he takes on morphology of the 1830s, and, instead of studying the more familiar gentlemen scientists, he examines the radicals and dissenters within the politically active London medical community. Looking at radical medical newspapers, society records, and debates about subjects from curriculum reform to specific taxonomic questions, Desmond shows the considerable British support for the related ideas of transformism, evolution, progress, revisionist morphology, and political, religious, and social reform, inspired especially by Geoffroy and Lamarck. While providing numerous vignettes and biographical sketches for a host of concerned participants, he focuses especially on the more traditional Anglican Richard Owen and on the radical reformer Robert Grant. The book provides such richness of detail that uninitiated readers may find it difficult to follow, and so much political context that it is difficult to recall what is at issue in the scientific debates. But that is Desmond's central point--that evolution was political, which he convincingly urges should dictate a revised picture of Darwin's role as well. In part because it is so rich and challenging, this book joins the growing ranks of successful revisionist works arguing for a social-history-based approach to the understanding of science and should appeal to those sympathetic to such interpretations. Graduate level. -J. Maienschein, Arizona State University--Choice Review.