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Title: Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist by Adrian Desmond, James Moore ISBN: 0-393-31150-3 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: June, 1994 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.85 (13 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: My favorite Darwin biography
Comment: Having read a few Darwin biographies, I've decided that this one is my favorite. The account is objective enough to keep my skepticism from acting up, and I actually agree with most of the analysis that usually prompts reviewers' complaints. If you've read Desmond's biography of T. H. Huxley, then count on this biography of Darwin to present less of the analyst's perspective and more the reporting flavor for which one would hope in reading a book collaboratively produced by Mr. Desmond and James Moore, a self-proclaimed "Darwin Biographer."
The wealth of information in this book about Darwin's life lent a great deal of insight to my perception, as a student of natural science and as someone who is interested in the history of science, of Darwinism, its origins, and its large-scale effects on biological thought as a whole. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in evolutionary biology and its history, and certainly to anyone who wants to better appreciate the life of a man whose work changed the way we understand life.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant biography for a brilliant scientist
Comment: This is one hell of a riveting biography. I've often read biographies of really interesting people, but the writing is so turgid or lackluster, that I find myself wishing a better writer would tackle this story and do it right. Not so with this one, this is a phenomenal book.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good but by no means great
Comment: Desmond and Moore go beyond some of the "psycho-history" poularizers that seem to hang on to the fringes of evolutionary biology these days, but there is still a whiff of the analyst's couch in too much of this book. The title gives away the bias from the first, so we can't say we weren't warned, but it is odd that Desmond and Moore seem to ignore the enormous amount of evidence (often in his own words) of Darwin the Contented Naturalist, Darwin the Excited Traveller (I strongly encourage anyone really interested in Darwin to go look at Phil Darlington's delightful cartoon of "Chas" Darwin "Hanging Out" at Cambridge in Darlington's wonderful "Evolution for Naturalists") Darwin the Family Man (read Raverat's Period Piece, etc.) The chapters continue in the same vein (Paradise & Punishment, Mental Rioting, Murder, Ugly Facts, etc.) and while they draw heavily on one side of Darwin and darwiniana it is only the one side. For my money Janet Browne's biography is head and shoulders above this -if only she would finish it!
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Title: Dawkins vs. Gould : Survival of the Fittest by Kim Sterelny, Jon Turney ISBN: 1840462493 Publisher: Totem Books Pub. Date: 01 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Charles Darwin: Voyaging by Janet Browne, Charles Darwin ISBN: 0691026068 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Charles Darwin: The Power of Place by Janet Browne, E. J. Browne ISBN: 0679429328 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 10 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $37.50 |
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Title: Mesmerized: Powers of Mind in Victorian Britain by Alison Winter ISBN: 0226902234 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism (Science and Its Conceptual Foundations) by Mario Biagioli ISBN: 0226045609 Publisher: University of Chicago Press (Trd) Pub. Date: September, 1994 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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