Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist
by Adrian Desmond, James Moore
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Book Summary Information
Author: Adrian Desmond, James MooreEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1994-06-17
ISBN: 0393311503
Number of pages: 896
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Book Reviews of Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist
Book Review: Darwin in Context
Summary: 5 Stars
Penned by a team of accomplished historians, this massive biography of sweeping scope and rich detail serves as a corrective to much previous Darwin scholarship. The authors adhere to a modern standard of historiographic analysis committed to incorporating the multiple frames of reference in which events unfold. Such narratives reflect how communicating the meaning of "personal" events critically depends upon sensitivity to social and political milieu. A loose analogy: couched in terms of evolutionary theory, no life is an isolated phenomenon but a dynamic interaction of organism and environment (for social animals, an environs where interaction with others plays a dominant role).
A common form of historical distortion Desmond and Moore transcend is biography in which a Great Man is valorized in his solitary struggle to prevail. In contrast, their writing reflects the myriad ways Darwin's life and thought intertwined with influential others: family, friends, mentors, scientific institutions, and networks of supportive scholars and political sympathizers. Dozens of others play significant roles across the panorama of Darwin's life. What emerges is a story both nuanced and complex, with frequent, surprising turns. For instance, though Darwin is committed to a radical philosophical perspective, his politics are irrevocably conservative. And though Darwin himself is not anti-clerical (his formal education was strongest in theology), the political will of his most provocative proponent (Thomas Huxley) made public contests with church authorities a foregone conclusion- an agenda less about the merits of Darwinian theory (which escaped Huxley) than a determination to diminish the influence of the clergy.
Where other biographies attempt reconstruction of Darwin's intellectual life, this book takes a broad view of intellectual currents in 19th-century British culture. Several variants of evolutionary theory predate Darwin, for example. Most are in accord with the concept of common descent (one species gives rise to another in succession) though none adhere to Darwin's logic of new species branching off. Natural selection, his original contribution to the mechanism of evolutionary change, is strongly resisted and finds few adherents in his day. There is much more to the prehistory of Darwin's evolutionary theory (regarding geologic and fossil records, for instance), yet one must look elsewhere for those details. Likewise, Desmond and Moore do not explain the ramifications of Darwin's theories in subsequent generations. Their narrative ends with his interment in Westminster Abbey.
Political thought in Darwin's day included strong currents of dissent against both the aristocratic monarchy, and the ecclesiastics of the Anglican Church. If this seems far removed from the science of things Darwinian, consider this passage from the book's preface: "'Social Darwinism' is often taken to be something extraneous, an ugly concretion added to the pure Darwinian corpus after the event, tarnishing Darwin's image. But his notebooks make plain that competition, free trade, imperialism, racial extermination, and sexual inequality were written into the equation from the start- 'Darwinism' was always intended to explain human society." Desmond and Moore assert the political roots of Darwin's vision can be traced in his writings about pressing social issues of his day. Their narrative reveals how Darwin's family and social circle justified adhering to a Malthusian ethic- blind to cooperative impulses - that normalized competition, struggle, and scarcity.
The authors' strategy shapes an appropriate lens through which to view the events of Darwin's life on their own terms- that is, as they developed from of the dynamics of Victorian society. Our common tendency is to distort historical accounts through a point of view adopted- quite naturally- from our vantage in the present, and to assume an inevitability of outcomes (i.e., things were meant to turn out this way- otherwise known as the Naturalistic Fallacy). It is just this sort of presumptive distortion which Darwin sought to counter in his scientific vision of evolutionary development.
Too, this approach enriches the book's sensitive depiction of Darwin's personal relationships. One of his early mentors, and source for his early political education, was Cambridge professor Rev. J. S. Henslow. Darwin's "burning zeal" for scientific pursuits ignited under the influence of Rev. W. Paley's Natural Theology. Other influences include: Robert Grant, his closest mentor at Edinburgh University, and an uncompromising evolutionistist; Lyell, whose Principles of Geology shaped Darwin's early career, and whose personal collaboration helped motivate his first efforts to collate his data and clarify his theories; Joseph Hooker, a close friend, whose judgment and opinion were ever precious to Darwin; his selfless first cousin and faithful wife Emma, who bore him ten children and ran their household.
Just as Darwin himself understood evolution as multi-causal, we are invited to appreciate Darwin in light of a constellation of influences. The emergent message of his novel theorizing reflects the similarities he observed between unadorned wilderness and the cultural landscapes of men: in his vision, "survival of the fittest" (a turn of phrase coined by Herbert Spencer) applies equally as the driver of incremental evolutionary change, and the "engine of social progress" (p. 653). That vision became the pivotal principle of Darwin's grand synthesis, and the consensus of England's rising tide of liberal voices as well- insistent that the old political order must give way. Darwin concluded that natural selection determines who prevails in the marketplace in the same way relentless competition drives diversity in nature.
This book is engaging, lucid in style, and a pleasant read. Punctuated with quotations from Darwin's recently published notebooks and voluminous correspondence, it also includes many illustrations of key figures, locations, and more. It is an epic book, unreservedly recommended to anyone interested in the foundations of evolutionary science, or committed to broadening their cultural competency. Desmond and Moore admirably detail the relevant 19th-century science. Yet further, they illuminate how that science came to embrace a materialist ethic to guard against teleological assumptions seen confounding our grasp of nature's processes. Though some less hefty volumes may adequately explore the simple facts of Charles Darwin's life and thought, it is this title- above all others to date- that portrays Darwin in context.
Summary of Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist
"Unquestionably the finest [biography] ever written about Darwin. . . . Darwin has now become, and properly, the quintessentially socially embedded scientist. Desmond and Moore are brilliant in their pursuit of this truly unifying theme."?Stephen Jay Gould
Hailed as the definitive biography, this monumental work explains the character and paradoxes of Charles Darwin and opens up the full panorama of Victorian science, theology, and mores. The authors bring to life Darwin's reckless student days in Cambridge, his epic five-year voyage on the Beagle, and his grueling struggle to develop his theory of evolution.Adrian Desmond and James Moore's gripping narrative reveals the great personal cost to Darwin of pursuing inflammatory truths?telling the whole story of how he came to his epoch-making conclusions.
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