The Non-Darwinian Revolution: Reinterpreting a Historical Myth - Softcover

Bowler, Peter J. J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801843677 ISBN 13: 9780801843679

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992

Synopsis

Timely and cogent in its aims and arguments, it should prompt debate and discussion leading to fresh critical and historiographical insights concerning all those topics that historians of science, of society, and of culture associate with 'Darwinism' and 'evolutionism.'

(British Journal of the History of Science)

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Concise and clearly written, "The Non-Darwinian Revolution" sets forth a convincing argument for a reappraisal of Darwin's importance not only for the history of science but for the history of ideas as well. Bowler finds no fault with Darwin's theory, only with the mistaken notion of its revolutionary effect on nineteenth-century thought. Examining the work of such figures as Owen, Spencer, Kelvin, Huxley, Haeckel, and Freud, Bowler discovers a near-universal tendency to accept evolutionism while rejecting Darwin's central premise: natural selection. Instead, leading scientists and thinkers stubbornly clung to the Lamarckian theory of evolution as guided, purposeful development until they were forced by the twentieth century's "rediscovery" of Mendelian law to concede otherwise.

About this edition

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0801843677
• ISBN 13: 9780801843679
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256