Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution [Paperback]

Gertrude Himmelfarb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1996

In her enduring study of the impact of Darwinism on the intellectual climate of the nineteenth century, Gertrude Himmelfarb brings massive documentation to bear in challenging the conventional view of Darwin's greatness. Touching on biography, history, and philosophy, she traces the origins and development of Darwin's views against the opinions of his time; assesses the influences on him; and shows what he intended his theory to mean, what his readers took it to mean, and what it has in fact meant. By such a route Ms. Himmelfarb recaptures "a sense of how a scientist, with the most innocent of intentions and the best of faith, can give birth to a theory that has an ancestry and a posterity of which he may be ignorant and a life of its own over which he has no control. "A thorough and masterly book punctuated with a delicate sense of humor.... Until he has read, marked, learnt and inwardly digested this authoritative volume, no one should presume henceforth to speak on Darwin and Darwinism." Times Literary Supplement "An illuminating contribution...a dramatic story."—Yale Review "Absorbing, well written, and splendidly organized."—I. Bernard Cohen

Editorial Reviews

Review

Absorbing, well written, and splendidly organized. (I. Bernard Cohen )

An illuminating contribution...a dramatic story. (Yale Review )

A thorough and masterly book punctuated with a delicate sense of humor. (Times Literary Supplement )

The book will place in clearer perspective the role of Darwin in nineteenth-century thought. (Loren Eiseley New York Times )

About the Author

Gertrude Himmelfarb is professor emeritus of history in the Graduate School of the City University of New York. She has written extensively on Victorian England, including The De-Moralization of Society, Poverty and Compassion, The Idea of Poverty, On Liberty and Liberalism, and Victorian Minds. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Product Details

• Paperback: 523 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (February 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566631068
• ISBN-13: 978-1566631068
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #975,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At Long Last!, December 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (Paperback)

All of the books I have ever read about Darwin either extoll him a a perfect, God-like creature, or vilify him as a demon. This book provides a comprehensive view of Darwin as he was, that is, as he saw himself and as others saw him. I was surprised to read that Darwin had many predecessors in the development of his theory, and that the flaws of the theory (which are significant) were generally recognized long before the challenges of modern science pointed them out. If you want your fancies about Darwin tickled, read others. If you want the facts, read Himmelfarb. I strongly recommend this book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breath of fresh air, September 20, 2011

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This review is from: Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (Paperback)

Like all books by Himmelfarb, this one is erudite, well written, informative, insightful and sure to upset the politically correct which for me makes it five stars.

In first presenting the historical information about Darwin and his theory and then analyzing their historical and cultural effects, the author does a comprehensive job in presenting a balanced picture. However it is just this evenhandedness which will incite those secularists who hold Darwin up as the destroyer of God and the founder of the Scientific view of creation for Himmelfarb shows that Darwin himself never made these kind of claims, and that indeed the theory is just that- almost a pure thought hypothesis that has NEVER been experimentally verified, for in all the millions of fossils discovered to date there has never been an example of one species "evolving" into another, the cornerstone of what Darwin was trying to explain. While excuses abound for why this is so, nonetheless it is a fact which glaringly highlights that, while Darwin postulated A scenario for evolution, it may not be THE scenario.

Another interesting fact the author reveals is that many of the original defenders of the theory did so less from being convinced of its truth than for the "freedom" it offered from religious constraints on scientific inquiry, again highlighting the fact that it was more a philosophical revolution and less a scientific one that Darwin initiated.

As for the popular Liberal claim that God was no longer necessary because of natural selection, well, anytime science attempts to deal with metaphysical questions of "why" as opposed to how, it runs into problems which it cannot, almost by definition, answer. Specifically in this case, the claim that mutations are random is impossible to verify scientifically. How can we prove there was no underlying reason for the way change occurred, even if natural selection vetted these alterations and picked winners and losers? Even Richard Dawkins, the acclaimed scientist and radical atheist, believes evolution is geared to complexity. If it were truly random, why would this be so?

In dealing with these and other aspects of the debate the author is enlightening and informative, assuming you are not so closed minded that any detour from the Liberally approved path is forbidden. Himmelfarb is a brilliant historian and thinker who presents the facts and allows the reader to draw his own conclusions. It is the kind of refreshing attitude that Darwin's supporters once prized, before Darwin himself became ossified as dogma for many of his current day followers who mistakenly consider themselves openminded.

19 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Darwin Undone, May 14, 2003

By A Customer

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This review is from: Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution (The Norton Library) (Paperback)

This is an excellent book written by a brilliant author. It details the line of progenitors leading up to Darwin's theory as well as the historical milieu in which Darwin swam during his lifetime and some of the forces, social and otherwise, that influenced him prior to Origin of Species and beyond. Himmelfarb gives an insightful criticism of Darwin's theory working simply from the internal organization of Darwin's thoughts. Himmelfarb is so brilliant in her analysis that my only criticism of the book is that she didn't critcize the theory in a more detailed fashion.

But it is a very readable and accessible book, and one that clearly points out some of the failings of Darwinian theory, many of which have been picked up by other critics over the years. However, I suspect that for the more sophisticated critic of Darwin, this book lacks sufficient scientific evidence--though it remains a fine history of the person, his theory, and its reception at the time of publication.