Charles Darwin by J. David Archibald (review)

The idea of evolution through descent with modification by means of natural selection was monumental in science and how it challenged the status quo of mid-nineteenth-century Europeans. With the 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin confronted the supposed exceptionalism of modern humans and their fabricated hierarchy in a universe supposedly designed by God. This is how biologist J. David Archibald begins his study of Darwin, which ably focuses on the buildup, publication, reception, and aftermath of On the Origin of Species. That will be the center of this review, although Archibald knowledgeably handles many personal and professional aspects of Darwin's life. One might ask why, after the impressive work of biographers like Janet Browne, Adrian Desmond, and James Moore, we need another biography of Darwin. Historical figures deserve new interpretations, and Archibald's coverage of Darwin is intelligent, competent, and engaging. This book would be useful for any student or instructor in biology, the history of science, or nineteenth-century cultural studies.

Darwin's boyhood home, The Mount (in Shrewsbury), hosted a flourishing greenhouse and fancier pigeons that, along with its library of books on natural subjects, captivated youthful curiosity. From an early age, Darwin spent most of his time outdoors, collecting items from nature. Darwin's father, Robert W. Darwin, was a prominent medical doctor and a savvy investor during England's industrial expansion; Charles would marry into the Wedgwood family, successful pottery manufacturers. As Unitarians, the Wedgwoods and Darwins were liberal thinkers who did not see the Bible as infallible, Archibald notes. By 1825, Darwin was enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to pursue a medical degree like his father and paternal grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, who propounded early evolutionary ideas. While Darwin learned much natural science from his peers and instructors, he was turned off by dull lectures and the horrors of surgery before anesthesia. One skill the young Darwin acquired in Edinburgh was taxidermy, from John Edmonstone, a former slave in South America. Likewise, Darwin developed an interest in geology, mollusks, and marine life.

Darwin was still religiously orthodox, and since there was no medical future, he entered Cambridge with the aim of becoming a country clergyman. At Cambridge, Darwin would meet and work under John Stevens Henslow, a mineralogist and botanist who had studied with Adam Sedgwick, a geology professor and teacher of Darwin. This formal training helped shape Darwin from an amateur collector to a true naturalist, says Archibald. In 1831, through Henslow, Darwin completed a short geological field trip in Wales with Sedgwick. He learned from his professor how to gather facts and complete a total picture before jumping to conclusions. In the summer of 1831, a letter from Henslow included an invitation to participate in the voyage of HMS Beagle as a gentleman companion to Commander Robert FitzRoy. The purpose of the journey was to survey the southern coasts of South America. During the voyage, Darwin would take on the role of a naturalist when the ship's surgeon left after a few months.

On this sailing, Archibald relates, Darwin read the first volume of Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology (1830) and work by explorer Alexander von Humboldt, important influences on the scientific mindset. The Beagle trip would last nearly five years and touch continents and islands in the southern hemisphere, providing Darwin with extensive notes, ample fossils and specimens, and experiences fueling his latent ideas about evolution. During his journey, Darwin spent a good amount of time on land collecting samples of flora, fauna, and rocks. Not only did Darwin have to deal with harsh terrain and weather, especially in the Andes Mountains, but there was also the danger of social or political unrest in some places. Still rather religiously inclined by late 1833, Darwin was finding different but related living and extinct species forms on the islands, and he began wondering how this transformation could have occurred. He pondered the impermanence of species and their continuation in other forms. He...