Burkhardt, R.W., Jr. 1977. The Spirit of the System: Lamarck and Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. Press.
A thorough, fascinating study of Lamarck’s biology and his evolutionary theory — the inheritance of acquired characteristics — published in 1809, a half century before Darwin’s Origin. He did use the giraffe example, but Lamarck was not a vitalist, and this historically contextualized interpretation of his evolutionary theory generates sound appreciation for his scientific abilities.
Chapman, A. 2010. European Encounters with the Yamana People of Cape Horn, Before and After Darwin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Of course it was Fitzroy who first kidnapped the four Fuegians for return to England and an experiment in ‘civilizing’ them (as he and other saw it), but the fate of these amazing people was being determined by European contact long before the Beagle, and it continued long after. Chapman documents in anguishing detail their trials, remarkable endurance and, finally, extirpation as a unique and viable culture.
Cronin, Helena. 1991. The Ant and the Peacock: Altruism and Sexual Selection from Darwin to Today. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
In a compelling mix of history, philosophy and evolutionary biology, Cronin traces ideas about the roles of competition, altruism, and sexual selection in the formation phenotypes, from 19th century debates between Darwin and Wallace to contemporary theory in behavioral ecology.
Darwin, Charles. 1845[1962]. The Voyage of the Beagle. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Graceful writing, keen observation and adventure; a naturalistic travelogue that is a pleasure to read, not least for insights into Darwin’s emerging skills as a naturalist and scientific thinker.
Darwin, Charles. 1859[1871]. The Origin of Species and the Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. New York: Random House.
An inexpensive (Modern Library) edition, which collects together the 6th edition of the Origin, and two of the three books that Darwin published in 1871. The Origin of Species is a brilliant piece of scientific writing, skillful in the melding of fact, theory and necessary assumptions; Descent. . . and Selection. . . give the mature Darwin’s views on human evolution and sexual selection, respectively. Read them together with the next book.
Darwin, Charles. 1871[1965]. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Chicago, IL: U. of Chicago Press.
The third of Darwin’s 1871 publications, this one arguing for the continuity of emotional expression between humans and higher mammals, and more especially for the essential emotional likeness of the various “races” of human beings. Both are evidence that humans are to be included within the evolutionary process. Do you know why you blush? If animals do? Darwin tries to answer such questions. Rich in ethological insights and methods, and not a little anthropocentrism.
Fichman, Martin. 2004. An Elusive Victorian: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Beginning from his working class origins as a surveyor, Fichman traces Wallace’s career from village lending libraries through his adventures in South America and then Indonesia collecting rare species, to his discovery of natural selection and the scientific recognition that followed and was ultimately compromised by principled attraction to unpopular causes such as spiritualism, land redistribution and women’s rights.
Gribbin, John & Mary. 2003. FitzRoy: The Remarkable Story of Darwin’s Captain and the Invention of the Weather Forecast. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Seeking to further his ambitions for scientific accomplishment, Fitzroy engaged Darwin as the naturalist on the Beagle voyage. Stephen Gould argues that Darwin’s confined exposure to Fitzroy’s doctrinaire creationism helped push him to the heresy of evolution. That may be the case, but it distracts from Fitzroy’s own accomplishments in the field of meteorology and his unsuccessful struggles to reconcile evolution and faith.
Huxley, Thomas H. 1863[1906]. Man’s Place in Nature and Other Essays. New York: E.P. Dutton.
Huxley, an accomplished orator, writer and naturalist, was among the earliest and staunchest of Darwin’s supporters. Known as “Darwin’s Bulldog,” his book was among the first to make a thorough convincing case for human evolution.
Irvine, William. 1955. Apes, Angels, and Victorians: Darwin, Huxley and Evolution. Cleveland, OH: World.
An historical account of the period focused on the Darwin-Huxley relationship and on the public presentation and acceptance of evolutionary ideas.
Loy, J. D., & Loy, K. M. (2010). Emma Darwin: A Victorian Life. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.
Darwin married his first cousin, Emma Wedgwood, in 1839; she was an active participant in his professional life and an acute observer of the times. Emma died in 1896, outliving her husband by fourteen years. She kept a life long diary and wrote and received thousands of letters from family and friends. From these very personal sources Loy and Loy reconstruct a fascinating account of Victorian era family and professional life through three generations of Darwins and Wedgewoods.
Malthus, Thomas R. 1798[1976]. An Essay on the Principle of Population. New York: W.W. Norton.
The essay, famous for vituperative critiques it stimulated from sources as diverse as Shelly and Engels, for its influence on Darwin and Wallace, and for its enduring value in highlighting the dilemmas of population.
Mayhew, Robert J. 2014. Malthus: The Life and Legacies of an Untimely Prophet. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
In parts biography, intellectual history and distillation of early Enlightenment context, Mayhew explores how Malthus became a political economist and demographer, and with what consequences for his times and ours.
Provine, William B. 1971. The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
The title sounds dense with equations and molecular structures, but Provine give us an accessible and fascinating account of the serendipitous experimental results, belated discovery of Mendel, and clash of big-ego scientific personalities that caused the eclipse of Darwin and the idea of natural selection in the early 20th Century. It took three giants of evolutionary biology — Fisher, Haldane and Wright — all profiled here, to put things to right in the 1930s.
Raby, P. (2001). Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
AR Wallace (finally?) getting due recognition, this is the first, shortest and most genially straightforward of the three intellectual biographies appearing in the early 2000s that I include in this bibliography (see also Fichman, Shermer). The last chapter dispels conspiracy theories proposing the Darwin and friends collaborated to steal from Wallace shared credit for natural selection.
Shermer, Michael. 2002. In Darwin’s Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
A second, major biography of Wallace (see Fichman), focusing with sympathy on his ability to forge a coherent scientific and ethical life from elements often quite a variance with the commonplaces of Victorian society. In her dust-leaf review, Janet Brown describes Wallace as “a leading figure in evolutionary theory, an astute social philosopher, committed political activist, hopeless dreamer, geographical explorer, much loved friend, anthropologist and spiritualist.” It’s all here.
Wulf, A. (2015). The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World. New York: Alfred A Knopf.
Remarkable explorer, geographer and naturalist, Humboldt’s (1769- 1859) masterpiece of scientific travel writing, Personal Narrative of a Journey to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent, became the inspiration and model for the expeditions of Darwin, Huxley, and Wallace. Humboldt’s “invention” of nature as ecology framed the investigations that led to the Origin of Species, published, coincidentally, in the year of Humboldt’s death.