The Descent of Man

by Charles Darwin, James Moore (Introduction), Adrian Desmond (Introduction)

Overview

In The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin refused to discuss human evolution, believing the subject too “surrounded with prejudices.” He had been reworking his notes since the 1830s, but only with trepidation did he finally publish The Descent of Man in 1871. The book notoriously put apes in our family tree and made the races one family, diversified by “sexual selection”—Darwin’s provocative theory that female choice among competing males leads to diverging racial characteristics. Though less well known than The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man continues to shape the way we think about what it is that makes us uniquely human.

• First time in Penguin Classics

• Edited by the coauthors of the acclaimed biography Darwin

• Includes Introduction, suggestions for further reading, chronology, biographical register, and index

• Reproduces the book's original illustrations and Darwin's own notes

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780140436310
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/29/2004
Series:	Penguin Classics
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	864
Sales rank:	527,026
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.80(h) x 2.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Charles Darwin, a Victorian scientist and naturalist, has become one of the most famous figures of science to date. Born in 1809 to an upper-middle-class medical family, he was destined for a career in either medicine or the Anglican Church. However, he never completed his medical education and his future changed entirely in 1831 when he joined HMS Beagle as a self-financing, independent naturalist. On returning to England in 1836 he began to write up his theories and observations which culminated in a series of books, most famously On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, where he challenged and contradicted contemporary biological and religious beliefs with two decades worth of scientific investigation and theory. Darwin's theory of natural selection is now the most widely accepted scientific model of how species evolve. He died in 1882 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Damien Hirst is an internationally renowned English artist, who has dominated the art scene in England since the 1990s. Known in particular for his series of works on death, Hirst here provides a contemporary, visual take on Darwin's theory of evolution - the struggle between life and death in nature.

William Bynum is Professor Emeritus of the History of Medicine at University College, London, and was for many years Head of the Academic Unit of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. He edited the scholarly journal Medical History from 1980 to 2001, and his previous publications include Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century; The Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine (co-edited with Roy Porter); The Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (with Roy Porter), The Dictionary of Medical Biography (with Helen Bynum), and History of Medicine: A Very Short Introduction. He lives in Suffolk.

Date of Birth:

February 12, 1809

Date of Death:

April 19, 1882

Place of Birth:

Shrewsbury, England

Place of Death:

London, England

Education:

B.A. in Theology, Christ¿s College, Cambridge University, 1831

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Dover Edition v

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

Introduction xxv

Part I The Descent Or Origin Of Man

I The Evidence of the Descent of Man From Some Lower Form 3

II Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals 17

III Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals, continued 40

IV On the Manner of Development of Man from Some Lower Form 64

V On the Development of the Intellectual and Moral Faculties during Primeval and Civilised Times 95

VI On the Affinities and Genealogy of Man 112

VII On the Races of Man 131

Part II Sexual Selection

VIII Principles of Sexual Selection 155

IX Secondary Sexual Characters in the Lower Classes of the Animal Kingdom 188

X Secondary Sexual Characters of Insects 194

XI Insects, continued. Order Lepidoptera 197

XII Secondary Sexual Characters of Fishes, Amphibians, and Reptiles 221

XIII Secondary Sexual Characters of Birds 232

XIV Birds, continued 265

XV Birds, continued 299

XVI Birds, concluded 318

XVII Secondary Sexual Characters of Mammals 353

XVIII Secondary Sexual Characters of Mammals, continued 370

XIX Secondary Sexual Characters of Man 393

XX Secondary Sexual Characters of Man, continued 417

XXI General Summary and Conclusion 436

Index 451

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

One of the ten most significant books. (Sigmund Freud)"

Editorial Reviews

[Darwin’s] second great book . . . An intellectually daring feat.” —Richard O. Prum, in The Evolution of Beauty

From the Publisher