DARWIN

With utmost respect for both the great scientist and historical accuracy Johnson paints this honest portrait of a man whose flaws do not detract from his legacy, but rather add significant dimension to our understanding of his mind, the era in which he existed, and the everlasting impact of his discoveries upon our world.

Charles Darwin was not only a cerebral and intuitive man but a highly emotional one, a polymath who delighted in the company of his many children as much as he enjoyed having several projects going at once and a gentleman-scientist whose love for his wife, Emma, matched his fervent dedication to his work. With the publication of his Origin of Species, which he long delayed, fearing a backlash from religious groups as well as his devout wife, Darwin established decisively the theory of evolution and revolutionized our concept of the world's creation. Marked by the insightful observation, spectacular wit, and highly readable prose for which Paul Johnson is so well regarded as an historian and cultural critic, Darwin brings the past into focus and a brilliant man to life. And perhaps most admirably and most importantly, Johnson does not shy away from critiques of Darwin. He praises Darwin for the passionate curiosity that drove his discoveries and the pleasure he took in his botanical and quasi-botanical studies, but he is quick to remind us that Darwin, for all his equipment as a scientist, was a poor anthropologist. He did not bring to his observation of humans the same care and objectivity he demonstrated when studying animals and plants. It was this weakness, Johnson argues, that prevented Darwin, who gave us the why of natural selection, from uncovering its enigmatic how. And whether accidentally or intentionally, but most certainly unfortunately, it was this weakness in the study of humans, combined with Darwin's all too easy acceptance of Malthusianism, which created a platform for the discussion of and experimentation with eugenics around the world.