Darwin in Galápagos: Footsteps to a New World [Hardcover]

K. Thalia Grant (Author), Gregory B. Estes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2009

In 1835, during his voyage on HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin spent several weeks in Galpagos exploring the islands and making extensive notes on their natural history. Darwin in Galpagos is the first book to recreate Darwin's historic visit to the islands, following in his footsteps day by day and island by island as he records all that he observes around him.

Thalia Grant and Gregory Estes meticulously retrace Darwin's island expeditions, taking you on an unforgettable guided tour. Drawing from Darwin's original notebooks and logs from the Beagle, the latest findings by Darwin scholars and modern science, and their own intimate knowledge of the archipelago, Grant and Estes offer rare insights into Darwin's thinking about evolution in the context of the actual locales that inspired him. They introduce Darwin as a young naturalist in England and onboard the Beagle and then put you in his shoes as he explores remote places in the islands. They identify the unique animals and plants he observed and collected, and describe dramatic changes to the islands since Darwin's time. They also explore the importance of Darwin's observations and collections to the development of his thinking after the voyage.

Ideal for visitors to Galpagos and a delight for armchair travelers, Darwin in Galpagos is generously illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs and line drawings, as well as detailed maps of Darwin's island itinerary and informative box features on the archipelago's natural history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When we talk about Darwin and his theory of evolution, we must talk about the five-week visit to the Galápagos Islands in 1835 that helped foment that theory. Naturalists Grant and Estes are longtime researchers and residents of the Galápagos. They bring to this account of Darwin's adventures their intimate knowledge of the islands, enabling them to identify sites Darwin visited that previously were in doubt or misidentified. We often forget that much of Darwin's early fame was as a geologist. Grant and Estes describe in detail the islands' geographic and volcanic features as well as their many unique species of birds, reptiles and plants, both in Darwin's time and today. The book is in part a study of the decline of an ecosystem through the introduction of invasive plants and animals and how humans can undo the damage they have created. The final chapters on Darwin's career after leaving the Galápagos are slightly hurried, but all fans of the great scientist will find this an engrossing account of what was probably the most important period in his life. 201 color illus., 73 b&w illus., 4 maps. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The most momentous voyage in modern history is Charles Darwin’s on HMS Beagle, and its acme, as he acknowledged to the end of his days, was the month-plus (September 15–October 20, 1835) spent at the equatorial Galápagos archipelago, during which he collected the specimens and observations with which he forged the cornerstone of evolutionary science, the theory of natural selection. Galápagos residents and researchers Grant and Estes trace Darwin’s steps on the islands more closely than has anyone else. After three exemplary chapters on Darwin before the Beagle, they devote four long chapters to his experience on the four large islands he visited, noting what he found and what he didn’t, or, at least, didn’t remark upon in his immediate journals, notes, and letters. They keep before us throughout the fact that Darwin had no epiphany about evolution at the time; that came later, gradually and subtly. A complement of 201 color and 73 black-and-white illustrations, not available for review, will most probably make this volume the fitting bibliographical capper to the 2009 Darwin bicentenary. --Ray Olson

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 376 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (November 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691142106
• ISBN-13: 978-0691142104
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #482,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #67 in Books > Travel > Latin America > South America > Ecuador & Galapagos Islands

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Galapagos delight, December 30, 2009

By 

J. A. Marsh (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Darwin in Galápagos: Footsteps to a New World (Hardcover)

"Darwin In Galapagos: Footsteps to a New World" is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the Galapagos Islands. It is extremely well written by a couple who are intimately familiar with the islands, and their enthusiasm is infectious. They take you on a journey that is infinitely interesting and well researched. They actually spent several years following in Darwin's footsteps which makes the book so fascinating. There are numerous maps which show in detail the routes taken by Charles Darwin on the four islands he visited. The photos of the flora and fauna are lovely, and the black and white photos compliment the text. I am leaving shortly to visit the islands and feel that this was a great help in preparing me for this unique experience. I will be taking this book along as an aid to help make my trip more inclusive and informative. Even if you are not traveling to Galapagos, I would eagerly recommend this book as the story is so well presented that you feel as if you have been there. I have read about the Galapagos for years, and this is one of the best of the lot; it satisfies the historian and the natural scientist alike. If there is any criticism, it would be that there aren't enough photos of the landscapes and animals.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darwin in Galapagos, February 1, 2010

By 

David Pruette "Rancors Love to Read" (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Darwin in Galápagos: Footsteps to a New World (Hardcover)

For readers interested in Charles Darwin or the Galapagos Islands or for those readers who have a naturalist bent, Darwin in Galapagos is an outstanding book. Ms Grant and Mr. Estes, a married couple, are naturalists with extensive experience on Galapagos. Ms Grant, in particular, must feel like a native because she is the daughter of Peter and Rosemary Grant, scientists from Princeton, who have spent a huge amount of time on Galapagos over the past several decades studying Darwin's finches in amazing detail. I highly recommend Jonathan Weiner's book The Beak of the Finch for those of you interested in evolution and Galapagos or who want to see how Thalia Grant's parents spent their time.

As the subtitle indicates, Darwin in Galapagos is an effort to track Darwin's footsteps through Galapagos when he spent five weeks there in 1835 during his voyage on the HMS Beagle. The authors give us background on Darwin's early days in England, then spend a few chapters dealing with the voyage before it reached Galapagos, and then focus on his time in the islands. The last part of the book covers on a broad scale Darwin's time back in England after the voyage as he struggled with understanding what his findings really meant. I found all of this to be interesting.

My favorite part was the chapters about his time in Galapagos. I spent some time there three years ago and found the islands to be fascinating places. I greatly enjoyed reading about the authors' efforts to track Darwin and their descriptions of his investigations into the geology, flora, and fauna to be found in Galapagos. The book is well illustrated, gives detailed information, and is academic in nature. Lots of footnotes and references in the back.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Darwin in Galapagos, March 15, 2011

By 

C. Richard Byers (Stahlstown, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Darwin in Galápagos: Footsteps to a New World (Hardcover)

This is a well researched book. One of the authors is the daughter of Peter and Rosemary Grant who did the classic research on Darwin's finches, a study made famous by Jonathan Weiner in "The Beak of the Finch." Geologist buffs will be happy at the detailed description of Darwin's geologic observations. The value of the book for me was the time it took for Darwin to start noticing that the life of the Galapagos was unique to each individual island. He was concentrating on the geology and was labeling his zoology specimens just Galapagos, rather than by each individual island. Who would think that the life on an island in view from the one you're standing on would be any different? He did label the mockingbirds accordingly, but realized too late (the 4th and last island visited) that he should have done more collecting and labelling each collection by individual island. It was a missed opportunity he deeply regretted. Although this is all well known, the detail here exceeds all other accounts.