Linnean Society

Book review – Wallace, Darwin, and the Origin of Species

9-minute read
keywords: evolutionary biology, history of science

Having just reviewed James T. Costa’s biography of Victorian naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, I was keen to read more about one of the most remarkable episodes in the history of science: how two scholars independently hit on the same idea and how history has largely forgotten one of them. Wallace, Darwin, and the Origin of Species brings together many lines of evidence and analysis to argue that Wallace deserves recognition on the same footing as Charles Darwin as the co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection. This is a companion book to On the Organic Law of Change, presenting an analysis of this crucial notebook that Wallace kept during his travels around the Malay archipelago. Hence, you are getting a two-for-one as this review continues the previous one.

(more…)

Book review – On the Origin of Evolution: Tracing ‘Darwin’s Dangerous Idea’ from Aristotle to DNA

8-minute read

History will forever associate Charles Darwin with the theory of evolution, but the idea was in the air. Had not Darwin published his famous book, someone else would have likely snatched the prize. Husband-and-wife duo John and Mary Gribbin here examine the wider milieu in which Darwin operated and the many thinkers who preceded him. Given their previous collaborations, the first two parts of On the Origin of Evolution read like a well-oiled machine, but the book falters when they turn their eyes to the legacy of Darwin’s ideas.

(more…)