Why'against his mentor's exhortations to publish'did Charles Darwin take twenty years to reveal his theory of evolution by natural selection? In Darwin's Evolving Identity, Alistair Sponsel argues that Darwin adopted this cautious approach in order to atone for mistakes he had made as a young geological author. Darwin recoiled from getting his 'fingers burned'? by the reaction to his ambitious theorizing during the Beagle voyage and afterward in his publishing debut masterminded by the provocative geologist Charles Lyell. Far from being tormented by guilt about developing his evolutionary theory, Darwin was chastened by a publishing strategy that had forced him to disavow his 'sin of speculation'? about coral reefs, volcanoes, and earthquakes. It was this obligation to moderate his theoretical ambitions in general, rather than the prospect of public outcry over evolution in particular, that made Darwin such a cautious author of Origin of Species. Drawing on his own ambitious research in Darwin's manuscripts and at the Beagle's remotest ports of call, Sponsel takes us from the ocean to the Origin and beyond, providing a vivid new picture of Darwin's career as a voyaging naturalist and metropolitan author and, through this example, of the range of skills involved in the development of scientific theories.
Industry Reviews
"Darwin's Evolving Identity is an excellent--indeed outstanding--work of scholarship, which makes major interventions in the literature on Darwin and his theory, as well as setting these interventions in a broader context that will draw interest well beyond the specific world of Darwin studies."--Jim Secord, University of Cambridge
"Darwin's Evolving Identity, intended for both specialists and the general reader, is a highly accessible and strictly chronological narrative. Along the way, Sponsel makes several significant contributions to science studies and astute, timely interventions into longstanding historiographical issues regarding Darwin's life and work."--Gustave Lester "Nuncius"
"Darwin's Evolving Identity: Adventure, Ambition, and the Sin of Speculation is a subtle, scrupulous, and elegantly written book. While it makes important contributions to Darwin studies, it will also richly repay the attention of other scholars interested in the study of scientific practices."--Greg Priest "HPLS"
"One of the most interesting books on Darwin that I have read in a long time. . . . In a careful and most informative discussion, Sponsel focuses on Darwin's geology, his all-encompassing scientific occupation in those early years after the Beagle voyage. . . . I learned so much from this volume."-- "Quarterly Review of Biology"
"Sponsel takes a different slant on Darwin's scientific writing and life. Darwin's Evolving Identity deals with the publication of The Origin of Species, and how Darwin's decision to publish was affected by his contemporaries and colleagues. More could have been written here about Alfred Russel Wallace, another naturalist whose own findings on natural selection played a major role in pushing Darwin to finish writing Origin. Darwin was caught up in the work on coral reefs, which took time and energy away from his species efforts, which spanned decades. Darwin's coral reef studies helped establish him as a scientist and writer, earning him a place in the scientific hierarchy; but Darwin was wary of publishing Origin too soon, before thoroughly fleshing out his ideas. It was not until others seemed poised to beat him to the punch that Darwin was pushed to write and publish his findings. By the time Origin was published in 1859, it was largely accepted by colleagues; some (though not all) credited Darwin in their own work. This volume provides a detailed introduction to the scientific community in Darwin's time. Recommended."-- "Choice"
"To say something new about Charles Darwin is no mean feat. . . . And yet, Alistair Sponsel has managed to say something new. In the process, he has also said something about how theories were made, careers were managed, books were written, and - perhaps most importantly for the readership of this journal - how shipboard natural history research was done. . . . Indeed, far from reproducing the teleological narrative that so often proceeds from the Galapagos to the Origin, Sponsel recasts the theory of evolution by means of natural selection as the result of a kind of wilful, anxious procrastination. It is an appealing notion to wilful procrastinators everywhere, who would do well to spend a few hours productively sounding the depths of Darwin's amphibious worlds before turning back to their own neglected manuscripts."-- "The International Journal of Maritime History"
