Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution

About this book

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK An extraordinarily wide-ranging and engaging book about the men who shaped the work of Charles Darwin . . . a book that enriches our understanding of how the struggle to think new thoughts is shared across time and space and people.The Sunday Telegraph (London) Christmas 1859. Just one month after the publication of On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin received an unsettling letter. He had expected criticism; in fact letters were arriving daily most expressing outrage and accusations of heresy. But this letter was different. It accused him of failing to acknowledge his predecessors of taking credit for a theory that had already been discovered by others. Darwin realized that he had made an error in omitting from Origin of Species any mention of his intellectual forebears. Yet when he tried to trace all of the natural philosophers who had laid the groundwork for his theory he found that history had already forgotten many of them. Darwins Ghosts tells the story of the collective discovery of evolution from Aristotle walking the shores of Lesbos with his pupils to Al-Jahiz an Arab writer in the first century from Leonardo da Vinci searching for fossils in the mine shafts of the Tuscan hills to Denis Diderot in Paris exploring the origins of species while under the surveillance of the secret police and the brilliant naturalists of the Jardin de Plantes finding evidence for evolutionary change in the natural history collections stolen during the Napoleonic wars. 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 natures extraordinary ways and who had the courage to articulate such speculations at a time when to do so was often considered heresy. With each chapter focusing on an early evolutionary thinker Darwins Ghosts is a fascinating account of a diverse group of individuals who despite the very real dangers of challenging a system in which everything was presumed to have been created perfectly by God felt compelled to understand where we came from. Ultimately Stott demonstrates ideasincluding evolution itselfevolve just as animals and plants do by intermingling toppling weaker notions and developing over stretches of time. Darwins Ghosts presents a groundbreaking new theory of an idea that has changed our very understanding of who we are. Praise for Darwins Ghosts Absorbing . . . Stott captures the breathless excitement of an investigation on the cusp of the unknown. . . . A lively original book.The New York Times Book Review Stotts research is broad and unerring; her book is wonderful. . . . An exhilarating romp through 2 000 years of fascinating scientific history.Nature Stott brings Darwin himself to life. . . . She writes with a novelists flair. . . . Darwin and the ghosts so richly described in Ms. Stotts enjoyable book are the descendants of Aristotle and Bacon and the ancestors of todays scientists.The Wall Street Journal Riveting . . . Stott has done a wonderful job in showing just how many extraordinary people had speculated on where we came from before the great theorist dispelled all doubts.The Guardian (U.K.)