Charles Darwin

by Grant Allen

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Pages: 108

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About this book

Grant Allen places Darwin's scientific work within a larger history of ideas about living things. His biography connects the naturalist's upbringing and intellectual influences with the development of natural selection, giving particular attention to earlier thinkers such as Lamarck and Malthus. Allen's stated interest is Darwin as a thinker and worker, and his opening chapter distinguishes the broad idea of evolution from Darwin's explanation of how adaptation occurs.

The account also turns scientific arguments into concrete examples. Bees, clover, field mice and household cats appear in a discussion of the connections between species, while flowers and visiting insects illustrate how useful variations can spread. Readers interested in the history of biology can follow both the reasoning behind natural selection and the enthusiastic language of an early interpreter of Darwin's achievement.

About the author

Grant Allen

Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen was a Canadian science writer and novelist, educated in England. He was a public promoter of evolution in the second half of the nineteenth century.