Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution

by Stott, Rebecca (Author)

Stott tells the story of the collective discovery of evolution, from Aristotle walking the shores of Lesbos with his pupils to Al-Jahiz, an Arab writer in the first century; from Leonardo da Vinci searching for fossils in the mine shafts of the Tuscan hills to Denis Diderot in Paris exploring the origins of species while under the surveillance of the secret police; and the brilliant naturalists of the Jardin de Plantes, finding evidence for evolutionary change in the natural history collections stolen during the Napoleonic wars.

Format: Hardcover, 396 pages

Publisher: Spiegel & Grau, June 2012

Product Dimensions: 9.52 L × 6.66 W × 1.22 H

Publisher Marketing: Darwin's Ghosts tells the story of the collective discovery of evolution, from Aristotle, walking the shores of Lesbos with his pupils, to Al-Jahiz, an Arab writer in the first century, from Leonardo da Vinci, searching for fossils in the mine shafts of the Tuscan hills, to Denis Diderot in Paris, exploring the origins of species while under the surveillance of the secret police, and the brilliant naturalists of the Jardin de Plantes, finding evidence for evolutionary change in the natural history collections stolen during the Napoleonic wars. Evolution was not discovered single-handedly, Rebecca Stott argues, contrary to what has become standard lore, but is an idea that emerged over many centuries, advanced by daring individuals across the globe who had the imagination to speculate on nature's extraordinary ways, and who had the courage to articulate such speculations at a time when to do so was often considered heresy.

With each chapter focusing on an early evolutionary thinker, Darwin's Ghosts is a fascinating account of a diverse group of individuals who, despite the very real dangers of challenging a system in which everything was presumed to have been created perfectly by God, felt compelled to understand where we came from. Ultimately, Stott demonstrates, ideas--including evolution itself--evolve just as animals and plants do, by intermingling, toppling weaker notions, and developing over stretches of time. Darwin's Ghosts presents a groundbreaking new theory of an idea that has changed our very understanding of who we are.

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