Darwin's Ghosts
by Rebecca Stott
The Secret History of Evolution
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
90%
Critic Reviews: 13
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
75%
Reader Ratings: 95
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Synopsis
Christmas, 1859. Just one month after the publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin received an unsettling letter. He had expected criticism; in fact, letters were arriving daily, most expressing outrage and accusations of heresy. But this letter was different. It accused him of failing to acknowledge his predecessors, of taking credit for a theory that had already been discovered by others. Darwin realized that he had made an error in omitting... more
About Rebecca Stott
- All Critics: 13
- Positive: 12
- Negative: 1
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The Guardian | 1 Jun 2012
Stott has done a wonderful job in showing just how many extraordinary people had speculated on where we came from before the great theorist dispelled all doubts.
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The New York Times | 13 Jul 2012
...in her absorbing account, shows that Darwin, who had sat on his discoveries for 20 years, had good reason to worry about his book’s reception.
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The Telegraph | 17 Jun 2012
Stott conveys the frustrations and the zeal, the wrong-turnings and the glimmers of larger truths, the theories of deep time and geology forming like hardening volcanic rock...
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The Telegraph | 7 May 2012
This extraordinarily wide-ranging and engaging book rediscovers evolutionary insights across a great span of time, from the famous, such as Aristotle and the Islamic scholar Al-Jahiz...
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The Independent | 2 Jun 2012
The result is a fascinating history of an idea that is crucial to our understanding of life on earth.
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Kirkus Reviews | 15 Mar 2012
...conjures up the spirits of Darwin's scientific predecessors in this excellent follow-up to Darwin and the Barnacle (2003).
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New Zealand Listener | 18 Aug 2012
So Stott offers us the Holy Trinity of popular science writing: the story of a great theory, enlivened by arresting anecdote and wrapped in religious/ political intrigue.
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The Wall Street Journal | 4 Jul 2012
In telling the stories of these men, Ms. Stott—who is also a novelist—writes with a novelist's flair.
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Christian Science Monitor | 12 Jun 2012
Stott’s book is a reminder that scientific discoveries do not happen in a vacuum, that they often stem from incorrect or pseudo-scientific inquiries...
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Fyrefly's Book Blog | 17 Sep 2012
Unfortunately, something about Stott’s writing style never really grabbed me. I could see where she was trying very hard to bring the subjects of each chapter-long biography to life...
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Cosmos | 1 Jul 2012
This historical narrative is rich in factual detail, but Stott always keeps it light-hearted and entertaining. I found it an easy but educational read...
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Washington Independent Review of Books
The book’s strength is in Stott’s gift for situating readers in different places and times, so we can understand both the significance of the discoveries and what drove the discoverers.
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The New York Times | 13 Jul 2012
Darwin’s Ghosts” unfolds like an enjoyable and informative TV series, each episode devoted to a fascinating character who provides a window into the world of ideas of his time.
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