Evolution

Since its original publication in 1989, Evolution: The History of an Idea has been recognized as a comprehensive and authoritative source on the development and impact of this most controversial of scientific theories. This twentieth anniversary edition is updated with a new preface examining recent scholarship and trends within the study of evolution.

Peter J. Bowler is Professor emeritus of the History of Science at Queen's University, Belfast. He is a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was President of the British Society for the History of Science from 2003 to 2005. 

List of Illustrations
Preface to the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Edition
Preface to the First Edition

1. THE IDEA OF EVOLUTION: ITS SCOPE AND IMPLICATIONS
The Old Worldview and the New
The Possibilities of Change
The Nature of Science
The Historian's Problems

2. THE PRE-EVOLUTIONARY WORLDVIEW
Human History
Theories of the Earth
The Meaning of Fossils
Natural Theology
The New Natural History
The Problem of Generation

3. EVOLUTION IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT
Human Nature
The Origin of Society
The History of the Earth
The Chain of Being
The New Classification
The New Theories of Generation
The Materialists
The First Transmutationists

4· NATURE AND SOCIETY, 1800-1859
The Invention of Progress
The Framrwork of Science
Georges Cuvier: Fossils and the History of Life
Catastrophism and Natural Theology in Britain
The Philosophical Naturalists
Radical Science
The Principle of Uniformity
The Vestiges of Creation

5· THE DEVELOPMENT OF DARWIN'S THEORY
Darwin's Early Career
The Crucial Years: 1836-1839
Development of the Theory, 1840-1859
Wallace and Publication of the Theory

6. TiHE RECEPTION OF DARWIN'S THEORY
The Foundations of Darwinism
The Scientific Debate
Darwinism and Design
Human Origins
Evolution and Progress

7· THE ECLIPSE Of DARWINISM:
SCIENTIFIC EVOLUTIONISM, 1875-1925
Reconstructing the History of Life
The Age of the Earth
Neo-Lamarckism
Orthogenesis
Neo-Darwinism
Mendelism and the Mutation Theory

8. EVOLUTION, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE, 1875-1925
The Missing Link
The Origins of Culture and Society
Evolution and Race
Social EcJOlutionism
Biological Determinism
Neo-Lamarckism and Society
Evolution and Philosophy
Evolution and Religion

9· THE EVOLUTIONARY SYNTHESIS
Population Genetics
The Modern Synthesis
The Origin of Life
Wider Implications of the Synthesis

1O. MODERN DEBATES AND DEVELOPMENTS
The History of Life
Human Origins
Sociobiology and Ultra-Darwinism
Opponents of Ultra- Darwinism
Anti-Darwinians
Darwinism not Scientific?
Creationism

Bibliography
Index