Darwin's Falling Sparrow: Victorian Evolutionists and the Meaning of Suffering

The “Darwin Story” has been told in many different ways and from a wide range of perspectives. Some focus on the detailed development of evolution theory. Others examine the ways in which evolution was used to justify different ideologies. But no one has told this tale as a story of mothers, fathers, and families wrestling with alternative explanations of suffering in a time of tremendously high child mortality rates. Darwin’s Falling Sparrow explores how both Darwin and his readers confron...