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The Heretic in Darwin's Court - The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace
The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace
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History is filled with the "other guys" who, despite their considerable achievements, do not bear the names we associate with arriving first, with genius, and with having changed in some significant way the world we live in.During their lifetimes, Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin shared credit for the independent and almost simultaneous discovery of natural selection. Together, the two men spearheaded one of the greatest intellectual revolutions in modern history. Indeed, their rivalry, usually amicable but occasionally acrimonious, shaped modern evolutionary theory. Yet few people tod...
History is filled with the "other guys" who, despite their considerable achievements, do not bear the names we associate with arriving first, with genius, and with having changed in some significant way the world we live in.
During their lifetimes, Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin shared credit for the independent and almost simultaneous discovery of natural selection. Together, the two men spearheaded one of the greatest intellectual revolutions in modern history. Indeed, their rivalry, usually amicable but occasionally acrimonious, shaped modern evolutionary theory. Yet few people today besides scholars and evolutionary biologists know much about Wallace, and the handful of existing biographies often have downplayed the value of his scientific work.
The Heretic in Darwin's Court explores the controversial life and works of Alfred Russel Wallace -Victorian traveler, scientist, spiritualist, and co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of natural selection. The book begins with Wallace's twelve years of often harrowing travels in the western and eastern tropics, which place him in the pantheon of the greatest explorer-naturalists of the nineteenth century. It traces step by step his discovery of natural selection, a piece of detective work as exciting as the discovery of the structure of DNA. The book then follows the remaining fifty years of Wallace's life, which were among the most eccentric -and entertaining -of those of any Victorian figure. In addition to his divergence from Darwin on two fundamental issues -sexual selection and the origin of the human mind -he pursued topics that most scientific figures of his day avoided, including spiritualism, phrenology, mesmerism, environmentalism, and the question of life on Mars.
Although there may be disagreement about his conclusions, Wallace's intellectual investigations -the origins of life, consciousness, the universe itself -remain relevant. This biography casts new light on the life and work of Alfred Russel Wallace and the importance of his twenty-five-year relationship with the other guy, Charles Darwin.
Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Origins of a Heretic
The Struggle for Existence
A Daring Plan
Travels on the Amazon
And the Rio Negro
Disaster at Sea . . . and a Civilized Interlude
The Malay Archipelago
The Mechanism Revealed
Beautiful Dreamer
A Turn Toward the Unknowable
The Olympian Heights and the Beginnings of the Fall
Wallace and The Descent of Man
The Descent of Wallace
The War on Spiritualism
Phoenix from the Ashes
To the Land of Epidemic Delusions
The New Nemesis
Thoroughly Unpopular Causes
Satisfaction, Retrospection, and Work
A National Treasure Celebrated
Notes
Biographical Index
Select Bibliography
Index
During their lifetimes, Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin shared credit for the independent and almost simultaneous discovery of natural selection. Together, the two men spearheaded one of the greatest intellectual revolutions in modern history. Indeed, their rivalry, usually amicable but occasionally acrimonious, shaped modern evolutionary theory. Yet few people today besides scholars and evolutionary biologists know much about Wallace, and the handful of existing biographies often have downplayed the value of his scientific work.
The Heretic in Darwin's Court explores the controversial life and works of Alfred Russel Wallace -Victorian traveler, scientist, spiritualist, and co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of natural selection. The book begins with Wallace's twelve years of often harrowing travels in the western and eastern tropics, which place him in the pantheon of the greatest explorer-naturalists of the nineteenth century. It traces step by step his discovery of natural selection, a piece of detective work as exciting as the discovery of the structure of DNA. The book then follows the remaining fifty years of Wallace's life, which were among the most eccentric -and entertaining -of those of any Victorian figure. In addition to his divergence from Darwin on two fundamental issues -sexual selection and the origin of the human mind -he pursued topics that most scientific figures of his day avoided, including spiritualism, phrenology, mesmerism, environmentalism, and the question of life on Mars.
Although there may be disagreement about his conclusions, Wallace's intellectual investigations -the origins of life, consciousness, the universe itself -remain relevant. This biography casts new light on the life and work of Alfred Russel Wallace and the importance of his twenty-five-year relationship with the other guy, Charles Darwin.
Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Origins of a Heretic
The Struggle for Existence
A Daring Plan
Travels on the Amazon
And the Rio Negro
Disaster at Sea . . . and a Civilized Interlude
The Malay Archipelago
The Mechanism Revealed
Beautiful Dreamer
A Turn Toward the Unknowable
The Olympian Heights and the Beginnings of the Fall
Wallace and The Descent of Man
The Descent of Wallace
The War on Spiritualism
Phoenix from the Ashes
To the Land of Epidemic Delusions
The New Nemesis
Thoroughly Unpopular Causes
Satisfaction, Retrospection, and Work
A National Treasure Celebrated
Notes
Biographical Index
Select Bibliography
Index