Prior to the First World War, more people learned of evolutionary theory from the voluminous writings of Charles Darwin’s foremost champion in Germany, Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919), than from any other source, including the writings of Darwin himself. But, with detractors ranging from paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould to modern-day creationists and advocates of intelligent design, Haeckel is better known as a divisive figure than as a pioneering biologist. Robert J. Richards’s intellectual biography rehabilitates Haeckel, providing the most accurate measure of his science and art yet written, as well as a moving account of Haeckel’s eventful life.
Robert J. Richards is the Morris Fishbein Professor of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Chicago and the author, most recently, of The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe, also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations Preface
1. Introduction The Tragic Source of the Anti-Religious Character of Evolutionary Theory
2. Formation of a Romantic Biologist Early Student Years University Years Habilitation and Engagement
3. Research in Italy and Conversion to Darwinism Friendship with Allmers and Temptations of the Bohemian Life Radiolarians and the Darwinian Explanation Appendix: Haeckel’s Challenger Investigations
4. Triumph and Tragedy at Jena Habilitation and Teaching Friendship with Gegenbaur For Love of Anna The Defender of Darwin Tragedy in Jena
5. Evolutionary Morphology in the Darwinian Mode Haeckel’s Generelle Morphologie der Organismen Haeckel’s Darwinism Reaction to Haeckel’s Generelle Morphologie Conclusion Appendix: Haeckel’s Letter to Darwin
6. Travel to England and the Canary Islands: Experimental Justification of Evolution Visit to England and Meeting with Darwin Travel to the Canary Islands Research on Siphonophores Entwickelungsmechanik A Polymorphous Sponge: The Analytical Evidence for Darwinian Theory Conclusion: A Naturalist Voyaging
7. The Popular Presentation of Evolution Haeckel’s Natural History of Creation Conclusion: Evolutionary Theory and Racism
8. The Rage of the Critics Critical Objections and Charges of Fraud Haeckel’s Responses to His Critics The Epistemology of Photograph and Fact: Renewed Charges of Fraud The Munich Confrontation with Virchow: Science vs. Socialism Conclusion
9. The Religious Response to Evolutionism: Ants, Embryos, and Jesuits Haeckel’s Journey to the Tropics: The Footprint of Religion “Science Has Nothing to Do with Christ”—Darwin Erich Wasmann, a Jesuit Evolutionist The Keplerbund vs. the Monistebund The Response of the Forty-six Conclusion
10. Love in a Time of War At Long Last Love The World Puzzles The Consolations of Love Second Journey to the Tropics—Java and Sumatra Growth in Love and Despair Lear on the Heath The Great War
11. Conclusion: The Tragic Sense of Ernst Haeckel Early Assessments of Haeckel Outside of Germany Haeckel in the English-Speaking World at Midcentury Haeckel Scholarship in Germany (1900–Present) The Contemporary Evaluation: Haeckel and the Nazis Again The Tragedy of Haeckel’s Life and Science
Appendix 1: A Brief History of Morphology Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) Karl Friedrich Burdach (1776–1847) Lorenz Oken (1779–1851) Friedrich Tiedemann (1781–1861) Carl Gustav Carus (1789–1869) Heinrich Georg Bronn (1800–1862) Karl Ernst von Baer (1792–1876) Richard Owen (1804–1892) Charles Darwin (1809–1882)
Appendix 2: The Moral Grammar of Narratives in the History of Biology—the Case of Haeckel and Nazi Biology
