Darwin's Armada: Summary and book reviews of Darwin's Armada by Iain McCalman, plus links to an excerpt from Darwin's Armada and a biography of Iain McCalman.
Darwin's Armada Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution
by Iain McCalman
Hardcover: Aug 2009,
432 pages.
Paperback: Nov 2010,
432 pages.
Darwin's Armada tells the stories of Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, Joseph Hooker and Alfred Wallace, four young amateur naturalists from Britain who voyaged to the southern hemisphere during the first half of the nineteenth century in search of adventure and scientific fame. It charts their thrilling voyages to the strange and beautiful lands of the southern hemisphere that reshaped the young mariners' scientific ideas and led them, on returning to Britain, to befriend fellow voyager Charles Darwin. All three crucially influenced the publication and reception of his Origin of Species in 1859, one of the formative texts of the modern world.
For the first time the Darwinian revolution of ideas is seen as a genuinely collective enterprise and one that had its birth in a series of gripping and human travel adventures. Many of the most urgent ecological and social issues of our times are seen to be prefigured in this compelling story of intellectual discovery.
BOOK REVIEWS
BookBrowse
A must-read for anyone interested in how the theory of evolution developed. It is recommended particularly for those with an interest in the biological sciences, although non-scientific readers will find it very accessible. (Reviewed by Kim Kovacs). Full Review (970 words).
Media Reviews
Publishers Weekly
In delightful prose...McCalman does a good job of detailing the hardships...suffered while also demonstrating the scientific growth each underwent.
Kirkus Reviews
Starred Review. An extraordinary true-adventure story, complete with trials, tribulations and moments of exultation.
The New Yorker
McCalman evokes the physical hardships and social intricacies navigated by his heroes...and also the feel of an era when 'adventure and science went hand in hand.'
The Guardian (UK)
Rather like Wallace, McCalman knows he is an outsider to mainstream Darwin studies, but he tells his story well. It reads as a combination of Boy's Own travellers' tales stretching from the Amazon to Antarctica, and a scientific adventure as racy as any historical novel.
The Australian
[An] exhilarating take on the collective biography idea applied to Charles Darwin and his fellow adventurers in evolutionary science: Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Wallace.
War, natural disaster, reckless gods and the recognition of impermanence in the world are just some of the threads that AS Byatt weaves into this most timely of books. Linguistically stunning and imaginatively abundant, this is a landmark.
A beguiling, imaginative, inspiring story about the bigness of being alive as an individual, as a member of a tribe, and as a participant in history, exploring how we use storytelling to survive and shape our own truths.
Brilliantly evoking the long-vanished world of masters and servants, Margaret Powell's classic memoir of her time in service is the remarkable true story of an indomitable woman who, though she served in the great houses of England, never stopped aiming high.
Vivid, daring, and unforgettable, The Printmaker's Daughter shines fresh light on art, loyalty, and the tender and indelible bond between a father and daughter.
I read The Healing in two sittings it is a fascinating story of plantation life at the beginning of the Civil War. Granada, a slave newborn child...
read more
The Uncommon Reader is a novella by novelist and playwright, Alan Bennett. The story starts with the Queen coming across the mobile library van...
read more
Amazon to open bricks and mortar store in Seattle(Feb 07 2012) Last week, the word in the blogosphere was that Amazon was considering opening a bricks-and-mortar store. Over the weekend goodereader.com added substance to...
Full Story
Arizona bills Amazon for $53 million in uncollected sales tax(Feb 06 2012) The ongoing sales tax battle between many US states and large online retailers, most notably Amazon, continues with a thrust from Arizona which, last week,...
Full Story