The Non-Darwinian Revolution: Reinterpreting a Historical Myth

by Peter J. Bowler

Overview

Concise and clearly written, The Non-Darwinian Revolution sets forth a convincing argument for a reappraisal of Darwin's importance not only for the history of science but for the history of ideas as well. Bowler finds no fault in Darwin's theory, only with the mistaken notion of its revolutionary effect on nuneteenth-century thought. Examining the work of such figures as Owen, Spencer, Kelvin, Huxley, Haeckel, and Freud, Bowler discovers as near-universal tendency to accept evolutionism while rejecting Darwin's central premise: natural selection. Instead, leanding scientists and thinkers stubbornly clung to the Lamarckian theory of evolution as guided, purposeful development until they were forced by the twentieth century's "rediscovery" of Mendelian law to concede otherwise.

—British Journal of the History of Science

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801843679
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	03/01/1992
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.57(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Peter J. Bowler is reader in the history of philosophy of sceince at the Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. His other books include The Eclipse of Darwinism: Anti-Darwinian Evolution Theories in the Decades around 1900, The Mendelian Revolution, and Theories of Human Evolution.

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Preface
Chapter 1. The Myth of the Darwinan Revolution
Chapter 2. Darwin's Originality
Chapter 3. The Impact of the Origin
Chapter 4. Evolutionism Triumphant
Chapter 5. From Darwin to Modern Darwinism
Chapter 6. Human Evolution
Chapter 7. Social Darwinism
Chapter 8. A Cultural Revolution?
Chapter 9. Toward a New Historiography of Evolutionism
Refences
Index

Editorial Reviews

Timely and cogent in its aims and arguments, it should prompt debate and discussion leading to fresh critical and historiographical insights concerning all those topics that historians of science, of society, and of culture associate with 'Darwinism' and 'evolutionism.'.
—British Journal of the History of Science

From the Publisher

Timely and cogent in its aims and arguments, it should prompt debate and discussion leading to fresh critical and historiographical insights concerning all those topics that historians of science, of society, and of culture associate with 'Darwinism' and 'evolutionism.'.

British Journal of the History of Science

Bowler finds no fault with Darwin's theory, only with the mistaken notion of its revolutionary effect on nineteenth-century thought. Examining the work of such figures as Owen, Spencer, Kelvin, Huxley, Haeckel, and Freud, Bowler finds a near-universal tendency to accept evolutionism while rejecting Darwin's central premise: natural selection. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews