America S Darwin

Author : Randall Fuller
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2017-01-24
Category : History
ISBN : 9780698186675

Get Book

The Book That Changed America by Randall Fuller Pdf

A compelling portrait of a unique moment in American history when the ideas of Charles Darwin reshaped American notions about nature, religion, science and race “A lively and informative history.” – The New York Times Book Review Throughout its history America has been torn in two by debates over ideals and beliefs. Randall Fuller takes us back to one of those turning points, in 1860, with the story of the influence of Charles Darwin’s just-published On the Origin of Species on five American intellectuals, including Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, the child welfare reformer Charles Loring Brace, and the abolitionist Franklin Sanborn. Each of these figures seized on the book’s assertion of a common ancestry for all creatures as a powerful argument against slavery, one that helped provide scientific credibility to the cause of abolition. Darwin’s depiction of constant struggle and endless competition described America on the brink of civil war. But some had difficulty aligning the new theory to their religious convictions and their faith in a higher power. Thoreau, perhaps the most profoundly affected all, absorbed Darwin’s views into his mysterious final work on species migration and the interconnectedness of all living things. Creating a rich tableau of nineteenth-century American intellectual culture, as well as providing a fascinating biography of perhaps the single most important idea of that time, The Book That Changed America is also an account of issues and concerns still with us today, including racism and the enduring conflict between science and religion.

Author : Ronald L. Numbers
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : History
ISBN : 0674193121

Get Book

Darwinism Comes to America by Ronald L. Numbers Pdf

Focusing on crucial aspects of the history of Darwinism in America, Numbers gets to the heart of American resistance to Darwin's ideas. He provides a much-needed historical perspective on today's quarrels about creationism and evolution--and illuminates the specifically American nature of this struggle.

Author : John G. West
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 581 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2014-04-22
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781497635722

Get Book

Darwin Day in America by John G. West Pdf

At the dawn of the last century, leading scientists and politicians giddily predicted that science—especially Darwinian biology—would supply solutions to all the intractable problems of American society, from crime to poverty to sexual maladjustment. Instead, politics and culture were dehumanized as scientific experts began treating human beings as little more than animals or machines. In criminal justice, these experts denied the existence of free will and proposed replacing punishment with invasive “cures” such as the lobotomy. In welfare, they proposed eliminating the poor by sterilizing those deemed biologically unfit. In business, they urged the selection of workers based on racist theories of human evolution and the development of advertising methods to more effectively manipulate consumer behavior. In sex education, they advocated creating a new sexual morality based on “normal mammalian behavior” without regard to longstanding ethical and religious imperatives. Based on extensive research with primary sources and archival materials, John G. West’s captivating Darwin Day in America tells the story of how American public policy has been corrupted by scientistic ideology. Marshaling fascinating anecdotes and damning quotations, West’s narrative explores the far-reaching consequences for society when scientists and politicians deny the essential differences between human beings and the rest of nature. It also exposes the disastrous results that ensue when experts claiming to speak for science turn out to be wrong. West concludes with a powerful plea for the restoration of democratic accountability in an age of experts.

Author : Tina Gianquitto,Lydia Fisher
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
Page : 408 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780820346755

Get Book

America's Darwin by Tina Gianquitto,Lydia Fisher Pdf

An engaging collection of interdisciplinary essays on the distinctive qualities of America's textual engagement with Darwinian evolutionary theory, especially in regard to On the Origin of Species, which highlights the influence of prevalent cultural anxieties on interpretation.

Author : Tina Gianquitto
Publisher : University of Georgia Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2014-06-15
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9780820346908

Get Book

America's Darwin by Tina Gianquitto Pdf

While much has been written about the impact of Darwin's theories on U.S. culture, and countless scholarly collections have been devoted to the science of evolution, few have addressed the specific details of Darwin's theories as a cultural force affecting U.S. writers. America's Darwin fills this gap and features a range of critical approaches that examine U.S. textual responses to Darwin's works. The scholars in this collection represent a range of disciplines--literature, history of science, women's studies, geology, biology, entomology, and anthropology. All pay close attention to the specific forms that Darwinian evolution took in the United States, engaging not only with Darwin's most famous works, such as On the Origin of Species, but also with less familiar works, such as The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Each contributor considers distinctive social, cultural, and intellectual conditions that affected the reception and dissemination of evolutionary thought, from before the publication of On the Origin of Species to the early years of the twenty-first century. These essays engage with the specific details and language of a wide selection of Darwin's texts, treating his writings as primary sources essential to comprehending the impact of Darwinian language on American writers and thinkers. This careful engagement with the texts of evolution enables us to see the broad points of its acceptance and adoption in the American scene; this approach also highlights the ways in which writers, reformers, and others reconfigured Darwinian language to suit their individual purposes. America's Darwin demonstrates the many ways in which writers and others fit themselves to a narrative of evolution whose dominant motifs are contingency and uncertainty. Collectively, the authors make the compelling case that the interpretation of evolutionary theory in the U.S. has always shifted in relation to prevailing cultural anxieties.

Author : John Hoberman
Publisher : HMH
Page : 383 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 1997-11-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780547348544

Get Book

Darwin's Athletes by John Hoberman Pdf

A “provocative, disturbing, important” look at how society’s obsession with athletic achievement undermines African Americans (The New York Times). Very few pastimes in America cross racial, regional, cultural, and economic boundaries the way sports do. From the near-religious respect for Sunday Night Football to obsessions with stars like Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, and Michael Jordan, sports are as much a part of our national DNA as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But hidden within this reverence—shared by the media, corporate America, even the athletes themselves—is a dark narrative of division, social pathology, and racism. In Darwin’s Athletes, John Hoberman takes a controversial look at the profound and disturbing effect that the worship of sports, and specifically of black players, has on national race relations. From exposing the perpetuation of stereotypes of African American violence and criminality to examining the effect that athletic dominance has on perceptions of intelligence to delving into misconceptions of racial biology, Hoberman tackles difficult questions about the sometimes subtle ways that bigotry can be reinforced, and the nature of discrimination. An important discussion on sports, cultural attitudes, and dangerous prejudices, Darwin’s Athletes is a “provocative book” that serves as required reading in the ongoing debate of America’s racial divide (Publishers Weekly).

Author : Cynthia Eagle Russett
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 228 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 1976
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:468912886

Get Book

Darwin in America by Cynthia Eagle Russett Pdf

Author : Eric Simons
Publisher : ABRAMS
Page : 165 pages
File Size : 48,7 Mb
Release : 2009-01-22
Category : Travel
ISBN : 9781590205426

Get Book

Darwin Slept Here by Eric Simons Pdf

This entertaining combination of history, biography, and travel adventure is “a bracingly fresh portrait [of] Darwin . . . Nothing less than exhilarating” (Michael Pollan, New York Times–bestselling author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma). One snowy day in Ushuaia, Argentina, Eric Simons picked up a copy of Charles Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle. Simons had just hiked the mountains overlooking Beagle Channel, and found himself engrossed in Darwin’s surprisingly relatable account. Like Simons, Darwin had been in his mid-twenties when he traveled to South America in search of adventure. Inspired, Simons went further into South America, exploring the histories, legends, and people that had fascinated Darwin himself two centuries before. In Darwin Slept Here, Simons journeys in the footsteps of one of the fathers of modern science, introducing readers to “a refreshingly different Darwin: a twenty-something traveler fond of hurling iguanas into the sea and charging up any tall peak he could find” (Outside Magazine). “Hard to put Simons’ book down—lighthearted adventures that keep a reader wanting more.” —San Francisco Chronicle

Author : Frank X. Ryan
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 246 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2001-06-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 1855069105

Get Book

Darwin's Impact: Social Evolution in America, 1880-1920 by Frank X. Ryan Pdf

"These books make available, for the first time in striking juxtaposition, much of the rich and remarkable American response to the idea of social evolution. Professor Ryan has succeeded in producing a selection of the best work in the field. The volumes are balanced, intellectually deep and as relevant and fascinating today as they were a hundred years ago. Ryan deserves high praise for re-acquainting us with these lost treasures." --John Lachs Although Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection stunned the halls of biology, anthropology, and religion, its most profound repercussion in America was "Social Darwinism." Beginning in the 1880s, William Graham Sumner and his successors pushed "survival of the fittest" beyond biology to justify power, wealth, and even racial and gender superiority. Theodore Roosevelt and Stephen B. Luce championed military expansionism on Darwinian grounds, and eugenicist Charles B. Davenport urged selective breeding to propagate the strong and eradicate the physically and mentally infirm. Despite its widespread popularity, after the turn of the century Social Darwinism was challenged by a growing rank of philosophers, sociologists, and economists who argued that the movement thrived on bigotry and bad science. By the 1920s the countermovement led by Lester F. Ward, John Dewey, Charles H. Cooley, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Thorstein Veblen had proven itself the "fitter" of the two. This three-volume set features more than sixty indispensable essays from 1880 to 1920, most of which have never been anthologized and are now scarce. Volume 1: Social Darwinism and its Critics offers William Graham Sumner's classic defense of Social Darwinism and its criticism from sociologists and philosophers such as Lester F. Ward, James Mark Baldwin, Charles H. Cooley, Jacob Gould Schurman, John Dewey, and Arthur M. Lewis. Volume 2: Race, Gender, and Supremacy rekindles the volatile clash over issues of race, gender, eugenics, and American supremacy, from authors including Nathaniel S. Shaler, Lydia Kingsmill Commander, Charles B. Davenport, Charles A. Ellwood, Theodore Roosevelt, Franz Boas, Edward A. Ross, and Charles H. Cooley. Volume 3: Evolution, Law, and Economics explores the impact of evolution on theories of natural law and economics, including pieces from William Graham Sumner, Thomas Nixon Carver, Andrew Carnegie, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis D. Brandeis, Simon Nelson Patten, and Thorstein Veblen. --more than 60 articles, tracing the impact of Darwinism on sociology, psychology, race, gender, eugenics, law and economics in the USA --all material reset and indexed, with a new introduction to each volume

Author : Neil A. Manson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 395 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2003-09-02
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781134574599

Get Book

God and Design by Neil A. Manson Pdf

Recent discoveries in physics, cosmology, and biochemistry have captured the public imagination and made the Design Argument - the theory that God created the world according to a specific plan - the object of renewed scientific and philosophical interest. This accessible but serious introduction to the design problem brings together new perspectives from prominent scientists and philosophers including Paul Davies, Richard Swinburne, Sir Martin Rees, Michael Behe, Elliot Sober and Peter van Inwagen. It probes the relationship between modern science and religious belief, considering their points of conflict and their many points of similarity. Is the real God of creationism the 'master clockmaker' who sets the world's mechanism on a perfectly enduring course, or a miraculous presence who continually intervenes in and alters the world we know? Are science and faith, or evolution and creation, really in conflict at all? Expanding the parameters of a lively and urgent debate, God and Design considers how perennial questions of origin continue to fascinate and disturb us.

Author : Larry Witham
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 356 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : History
ISBN : 0195182812

Get Book

Where Darwin Meets the Bible by Larry Witham Pdf

Where Darwin Meets the Bible provides an account of the lasting conflict between creationists and evolutionists.

Author : John P Jackson,David J. Depew
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 253 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2017-07-06
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781351810784

Get Book

Darwinism, Democracy, and Race by John P Jackson,David J. Depew Pdf

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Introduction: in the footsteps of Franz Boas -- 2 Franz Boas and the argument from presumption -- 3 Demarcating anthropology: the boundary work of Alfred Kroeber -- 4 Theodosius Dobzhansky and the argument from definition -- 5 Unifying science by creating community: the epideictic rhetoric of Sherwood Washburn -- 6 A kairos moment unmet and met: the controversy over Carleton Coon's The Origin of Races -- 7 Epilogue: the roots of the Sociobiology controversy, the infirmities of Evolutionary Psychology, and the unity of anthropology -- Index

Author : Paul H Barrett
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 374 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2016-07-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9781315477329

Get Book

The Works of Charles Darwin: v. 9: Geological Observations on South America (1846) (with the Critical Introduction by J.W. Judd, 1890) by Paul H Barrett Pdf

The ninth volume in a 29-volume set which contain all Charles Darwin's published works. Darwin was one of the most influential figures of the 19th century. His work remains a central subject of study in the history of ideas, the history of science, zoology, botany, geology and evolution.

Author : Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Toby Green,Toby Green
Publisher : Faber & Faber
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2011-03-23
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0571248284

Get Book

Saddled with Darwin by Leverhulme Early Career Fellow Toby Green,Toby Green Pdf

165 years after Charles Darwin embarked on the journey which produced the most radical theory of modern times, Toby Green set out to retrace his footsteps on horseback. Green's epic journey involved close encounters with landslides, sinking mud, and pit vipers. Saddled with Darwin is a vivid account of the evolutionary changes which have convulsed South America since Darwin's time and an incisive portrait of change across a continent. 'A very good read indeed. His epic journey takes him through wild and wonderful scenery, his style is clear and unaffected, he brings to life the people he meets and he treats the whole gruelling adventure with unquenchable enthusiasm. A pleasure.' Michael Palin 'Funny, reudite, courageous and highly eccentric.' Eric Newby

Author : Charles Darwin
Publisher : Penguin Group
Page : 68 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 1996
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0146001443

Get Book

The Galapagos Islands by Charles Darwin Pdf