Evolution
Subtitle: The Remarkable History of a Scientific Theory (Modern Library Chronicles)
Publisher: Modern Library
Published: May 4, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9780679642886
Subjects: Evolution; History of specific subjects; Popular science; Philosophy; History; Science; History: World; Life Sciences - Evolution; History / General; General; Evolution (Biology)
First sentence: Georges Cuvier had a large head-a famously large head-and an ego more than sufficient to swell even it.
Description: "In this work, science historian Edward J. Larson takes us on a guided tour of Darwin's "dangerous idea," from its theoretical antecedents in the early nineteenth century to the brilliant breakthroughs of Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, to Watson and Crick's stunning discovery of the DNA double helix, and to today's triumphant neo-Darwinian synthesis and rising sociobiology." "Along the way, Larson places the scientific upheaval of evolution in cultural perspective: the social and philosophical earthquake that was the French Revolution; the development, in England, of a laissez-faire capitalism in tune with a Darwinian ethos of "survival of the fittest"; the emergence of Social Darwinism and the dark science of eugenics against a backdrop of industrial revolution; the American Christian backlash against evolutionism that culminated in the famous Scopes trial; and on to today's world, were religious fundamentalists litigate for the right to teach "creation science" alongside evolution in U.S. public schools, even as the theory itself continues to evolve in new and surprising directions."--BOOK JACKET.