During much of his lifetime, Richard Owen (1804–1892) was widely considered the most eminent biologist in England. He is remembered, however, mainly because of his clashes with Thomas Henry Huxley and Charles Darwin. Because the history of those events has mainly been written by Darwin’s supporters, it stands to reason that a certain amount of distortion has resulted. Nicolaas Rupke went back to original sources and tried to set the record straight in an earlier edition (published in 1994) of the book herein reviewed. This edition, with a slightly different title, has been shortened somewhat and brought up to date. The book is admirably written, and highly informative. Owen and Darwin were on good terms until the Origin of Species appeared and Owen published a somewhat hostile review. Darwin claimed that Owen did not believe in evolution, and Owen maintained that he did. Rupke’s reading of the documents supports Owen’s claim. He therefore says that Darwin misrepresented Owen’s views, evidently deliberately. I find this hard to swallow, particularly since at that time Darwin had no good motive for misrepresenting Owen’s views. Darwin had sent Owen the first volume of his monograph on barnacles and Owen was delighted with it. Owen apparently did not tell Darwin what his position was, and Owen’s often obscure and contradictory writings might easily have given Darwin the wrong impression. Rupke tries, with considerable success, to make sense out of the conflict by placing it in a larger context. The antagonists were struggling for power not only within science proper, but also within society as a whole. Owen was a leader of the effort to expand and develop museums, and that helps to explain his behavior, including his choice of research topics. To achieve his ends, he aligned himself with persons of power and influence. Darwin, Huxley, and others were