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Title: The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution (Great Discoveries)
ISBN: B001719ZZ2
Author:
David Quammen
Publicate Date: 2006-07-31
Publish: 2006-07-31
List Price: $22.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $15.71
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $10.92
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1: The Procrastinating Charles Darwin
Darwin started writing his Beagle Journal in 1837 in "notebook A." He simultaneously started "notebook B," dedicated to his idea that species were perhaps not so immutable. Then came C, D, & E as he developed and organized his evidence. Midway through notebook C, he noted, "But Man, wonderful Man, is an exception." Three lines later, he recanted "...no, he is no exception." Hidden away in notebook N were metaphysical implications of his theory: Does a bee have a sense of communal responsibility? Do animals have a conscience? Is the human conscience an instinct or a human adaptation for social behavior? Does the idea of God arise naturally from the human mind? Is the human mind just a function of the human body? Might the "love of a deity" simply result from brain structure?
In Victorian England, these were not ideas to discuss in polite company, despite the fairly recent period of the Enlightenment - hence a 20-year procrastination before he published his terrible thoughts. Quammen rhetorically asks why Darwin had to be threatened with being scooped before he finally published. Was he afraid of offending his wife, afraid of estranging himself from pious former teachers and friends, afraid he would be thrown in jail...did he want more evidence so as to make his theory more airtight, was he too busy with other chores, and several other suggestions - and to all the suggested questions, Quammen opines, "The answers to each of these questions, I think, is yes."
All the pertinent data about the making of "Origin of the Species" is here:
1. Timeline of formation and development of the theory.
2. Marriage to his beloved Emma and how she supported his work, despite her theological opposition.
3. Portrait of his meticulous methods of observation, experimentation, thinking, and recording.
4. The Alfred Wallace bombshell and how Darwin's friends worked out a shared credit solution.
5. The writing and publishing of "Origin of the Species," the five revisions, and a brilliant chapter by chapter synopsis by Quammen.
6. The shakey reception of his book - for 50 years - and eventual vindication.
There are some books on Darwin more scholarly and longer, but you won't find one more likely to hold the attention of the general interest reader - complete with an outstanding explanation of his theory of evolution by natural selection. Hopefully high school science teachers will discover this book and add it to their student reading lists. The scientific literacy of our children (and our general population) could stand a little enhancement.
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2: Beware the audio book verson
Be forewarned: the narrator of the audio book version is an unfortunate cross between J. Peterman from Seinfeld, Mike Wallace from 60 Minutes, and the narrator of old elementary school film strips. The content is very good (as described in other reviews posted here) but you should have a friendly warning about the audio version. The narrator will put you to sleep.
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3: Short, Fast, and Informative
"The Reluctant Mr. Darwin" by David Quammen is a concise, fun, and fast read. If you want to learn the bullet points about Charles Darwin's life and the formative people, events, and intellectual and social climate that surrounded Darwin's publication of the On the Origin of Species, then this book is for you. Quammen does not spend too much time on any one point, but maintains a theme that Darwin was not lazy in publishing his famous book many years after his voyage but reluctant, wanting to make sure his ideas were sound and well evidenced.
An outline of Darwin's life can be found in many places, even Wikipedia, but what makes Quammen's book particularly helpful is the sections he devotes to writing about Darwin's contemporaries and their contributions to natural history and Darwin's work. Quammen writes about Charles Lyell and his advocacy of the idea of uniformitarianism, the idea that was formed by slow-moving processes, which opposed the idea of catastrophism, the idea that was consistent with Christian theology of the times and based on the belief that certain catastrophes shaped the geologic features of the earth as it is today. Quammen also writes about John-Baptiste Lamarck and his idea of the inheritance of acquired traits, an idea that has been found to be incorrect, but one that Darwin uses in his famous book. These sections in "The Reluctant Mr. Darwin" give historical and scientific context to Darwin's work and allow the reader to more completely appreciate the specific and significant contribution that Darwin made in advocating the idea of evolution by natural selection.
Another important aspect of Quammen's book was how Quammen made it a point to show the evolution of Darwin's famous publication from its infancy, where he first wrote his ideas in journals titled Journal A, Journal B, Journal C, and so on to his obsession with writing a tome that covered every possible argument and objection to his idea with as much evidence as possible to his final rushed publishing of On the Origin of Species due to the threat of Alfred Russel Wallace nearly publishing the same theory before Darwin himself.
This book definitely gives the reader a good picture of Darwin and the social and scientific climate in which he lived. I came away from the book having what I felt was a basic yet complete understanding of Darwin's life.
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4: On the Evolution of Darwin
I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a quick read on the life and works of Charles Darwin. David Quammen beautifully integrates excerpts from primary sources into this biography, really making the work a book, and not just a really long research paper. The sections are smartly headed and the writing style is engaging and makes the biography an easy and interesting read.
The biography itself provides an intimate portrait of Charles Darwin the son, husband, father, friend, etc., which also reveals much about his tendencies as a scientist. The author gives a good overview of all the theories regarding speciation that had already been discussed throughout the intellectual community before Darwin came up with his idea on the "transmutation" of species. It was particularly interesting when trying to imagine a society before the theory of evolution. My struggles to do so only further demonstrate how much Darwin has impacted our modern thinking. Quammen's summary on the ideas and examples provided in "The Origin of Species" may be interesting to many who do not wish to read the 500 pages or so of the actual book, but in my opinion, it was unnecessarily dry and seemed out of place in an otherwise interesting and engaging work.
However, one point that I particularly enjoyed was the fact that Quammen explored the evolution of Darwin's theory of evolution: from the beginnings of its fabrication in "notebook B" to its revealing to the public in the first edition of "Origins" to subsequent subtle changes in order to rectify problems brought up by opponents and finally to its modern applications in the field of molecular biology. The author definitely provided a persuading argument on the "fitness" of Darwin's great idea.
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5: The Reluctant Mr. Darwin by David Quammen
This book is by far one of the best I have read on Darwin. David Quammen puts you inside the period in Enland as well as providing a great understanding of Darwins personal thinking and self doubt as he formulated his theories on evolution. This is an excellent book for anyone but especially a non-scientist such as myself.
Larry Wilkinson
Howell, Michigan
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