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The Book That Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation, by Randall Fuller
Download The Book That Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation, by Randall Fuller
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Review
“Fuller is a lively, engaging writer, with an eye for fascinating details. . .[he] has mined this rich material with care and insight. . .[His] most surprising revelation is the profound impact Darwin’s portrait of a ‘teeming, pulsating natural world’ exerted on Thoreau.” – The New York Times Book Review“A stimulating chronicle of a group of New England thinkers who responded to the Origin of Species in the years following the book’s first appearance. . .Fuller can be commended for illuminating Darwin’s early effect on America in ways that lead us to think about later repercussions, including today’s debates over creationism and science-denial.”--The Wall Street Journal “An intellectual history that reads as a drama. . .Fuller’s tale is of Darwin and abolition and moral battles that led to literal ones; it is also, more simply, the story of humans wrestling with insights that would change the world and their place in it. The story is evocatively told: Fuller is an excellent writer, with an eye for irony and a unique ability to inject suspense into a story.”--The Atlantic “A vivid snapshot of American intellectual life on the verge of the Civil War. . .Fuller draws lively character sketches. . .displaying a flair for evocative scene setting.. .the book’s loveliest passages show Thoreau embracing Darwin’s celebration of nature’s abundance and turning it to his own purposes.”--The Boston Globe “Fuller’s book offers us a vivid portrait of how On the Origin of Species debuted in America’s intellectual culture during a watershed moment in the nation’s history. . .Moving deftly amid a diversity of familiar American figures, including novelists, poets, philosophers, zoologists, and botanists, Fuller captures their excitement, as well as their debates over Darwin’s ideas.”--Science“Fuller’s book is a timely one. . .[he] has a compelling story to tell, and he tells it well. His narrative is lush with memorable detail, and. . .he is a master at making his characters come alive.” – The American Scholar“A vibrant history of the reception of Charles Darwin’s ideas by American minds and spirits . . . Fuller creates a rich tapestry of personalities and roiling ideas. In radiant prose, and with a sure eye for the telling detail, [he] reveals the shattering impact of Darwin’s book on religious thought, scientific inquiry, and especially on debates over slavery . . . A fresh, invigorating history of philosophical and political struggles.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred)“In this inventive work, which weaves two powerful events into a vibrant tapestry of antebellum intellectual life, Fuller beautifully describes how the engagement by a group of Transcendentalists with Darwin’s newly published On the Origin of Species deepened their commitment to the antislavery movement. . .Elegant writing and an unusual approach to interpreting the time period make this a must-read for everyone interested in Civil War-era history.” – Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Charles Darwin's Origin of Species burst upon America at the same time that the nation was descending into disunion and civil war. Randall Fuller has ingeniously combined these stories in this fascinating study of Darwin's impact especially on the Transcendental intelligentsia of Concord: Thoreau, Emerson, Bronson Alcott and his daughter Louisa May. These and other famous contemporaries emerge in a fresh perspective in this stimulating book.” --James M. McPherson, author of The War That Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters “Randall Fuller’s ingenious The Book That Changed America draws together seemingly disparate strains of American thought and activism by charting the progress of Darwin’s masterwork as it was literally passed from hand to hand by eager readers during its first year of publication. There are dark stories here of the ‘developmental’ theory—evolution--inspiring notions of racial superiority; yet those who read Darwin with open minds were thrilled to find, as Thoreau wrote, evidence of ‘a sort of new creation,’ or as Frederick Douglass foresaw, hope for ‘the magnificent reunion of mankind in one brotherhood.’ With its cast of vivid characters and the fate of the nation in the balance, Fuller’s utterly convincing narrative gives science a starring role in the run up to the Civil War.” --Megan Marshall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Margaret Fuller: A New American Life “Randall Fuller makes Concord glow with this beautifully-written account of what happened in 1860 when somebody brought a new book along to a dinner party. It was the very first copy of Darwin’s Origin of the Species to reach these shores, and in tracing its influence on Thoreau among others Fuller shows both the web of friendship through which scientific knowledge spread, and its inseparability from the politics of its day.”--Michael Gorra, author of Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of An American Masterpiece “Fuller’s eye-opening account of the arrival of Darwin to America holds many surprises, above all that Origin of Species was greeted joyfully by its first American readers not as evolutionary science but as a revolutionary exposé of the racist thinking behind Southern slavery. Even as the Civil War remade their world, these earliest readers wrestled with Darwin’s ideas: some doubted, many accepted (more or less), and a few—like Thoreau—embraced the beauty of Darwin’s view of life. Fuller shows how ideas come to life, shaped by chance meetings, life-changing enthusiasms, perverse misunderstandings, cataclysmic events, and sudden betrayals. If you ever doubted that ideas can change the world—or if you ever wondered how—read this book!” --Laura Dassow Walls, author of the forthcoming Henry David Thoreau: A Life “The Book That Changed America offers a lively, wide-ranging, informative account of the enthusiasm—and consternation—provoked by Darwin’s masterpiece among his first influential American readers.” --Lawrence Buell, Harvard University, Powell M Cabot Professor of American Literature Emeritus “Randall Fuller has produced a vibrant and ingenious intellectual history of Civil War-era America by tracing the coterie circulation of a single copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origins of Species. Read and discussed by five of antebellum America’s most conspicuous intellectuals, this copy of Darwin’s ‘dangerous’ book transformed how Asa Gray, Charles Loring Brace, Franklin Sanborn, Bronson Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau thought about a range of contemporary issues, especially race, slavery, and increasing sectional tension in the United States. Fuller’s beautifully written book promises to reignite a number of debates about evolution, the history of science, and the role of books and reading in the nineteenth century.” --Coleman Hutchison, author of Apples and Ashes: Literature, Nationalism, and the Confederate States of America“This is one of the most original and important books on the Civil War era to appear in years. Brilliantly conceived and elegantly written, Randall Fuller shows how and why Darwin’s Origin of Species emerged at the center of intellectual and cultural debates that transformed the nation.” – John Stauffer, author of The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race
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About the Author
Randall Fuller is the author of From Battlefields Rising: How the Civil War Transformed American Literature, which won the Phi Beta Kappa’s Christian Gauss Award for best literary criticism, and Emerson’s Ghosts: Literature, Politics, and the Making of Americanists. He has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications, and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is the Chapman Professor of English at the University of Tulsa.
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Product details
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (January 2, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143130099
ISBN-13: 978-0143130093
Product Dimensions:
5.5 x 0.7 x 8.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.1 out of 5 stars
24 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#980,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
This is an interesting book discussing the introduction of Darwin's evolutionary theories into America during 1859-60. It is different from books with a similar focus, because it does not attempt to cover developments throughout the U.S., but concentrates for the most part upon Boston and Concord Massachusetts. This allows the author to zero in on the actual process of how ideas spread from one area to another--here, from the UK to Massachusetts. Concord is a rich locale for such a study, since it is loaded with Transcendentalists such as Thoreau, Emerson, Bronson and Louisa Alcott, and others. Moreover, at this time Boston was the intellectual capital of nation given its universities, cultural societies, and immersion in scientific thought. So in the process of the author setting the stage, we learn a good deal about Transcendentalism and Boston's intellectual hold on the nation.The most surprising aspect of the book is that it links up the spread of Darwinian ideas with the abolitionist movement. This was because Darwin was seen as arguing that all humans evolved from the same source and not from different sources at different times. Hence, all men were in actuality brothers. As one can imagine, given the proximity of this contention so close to the outbreak of the Civil War made for some lively discussions. The book is particularly effective in tracing the role of Asa Gray, the pioneering professor of Botany at Harvard and friend and American interpreter/defender of Darwin. While no "bulldog" like Thomas Huxley who vigorously took on all opponents of Darwin in Britain, Gray developed his influence through carefully written reviews and articles in publications such as the "Atlantic Monthly." As the author well traces, eventually Gray did wander from strict Darwinian principles by arguing that perhaps God had used evolution as a mechanism--but this did not damage his relationship with Darwin. This is the most helpful brief discussion of Gray and his role in spreading Darwin's ideas, particularly fighting his Harvard colleague Louis Agassiz into insignificance, that I have seen.But the heart of the book is tracing how a group of highly intellectual Massachusetts folks grapple with these new ideas, both individually and in groups. Among others, Moncure Daniel Conway, Charles Elliot Norton, Charles Loring Brace, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, `Mark Ben Sanborn and Francis Bowen all make appearances. Ironically, Concord so dedicated to the world of the mind through "the secret six" helped finance John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. Just another interesting surprise that emerges from this substantial volume. The book contains 24 pages of notes, a select bibliography, and a solid index. Incidentally, it is just superbly written and a pleasure to read.
Mr. Fuller explores a wonderful period in American history, one in which Thoreau, Emerson, Alcott, Hawthorne, and Agassiz met and conversed. His recreation of this period is very interesting. These authors, philosophers, and scientists were excited by Origin of the Species, which arrived in the US just before the outbreak of the Civil War and provided a modest basis on which both pro- and anti-slavery adherents could find justification. Mr. Fuller describes the discussions, lectures, and soirées in which Darwin's book was discussed. However, one does not truly get a sense of the passion of these discussions, nor a sense that the idea of a mechanical process of evolution, not directed by a deity or other driving force, truly roiled either these intellectuals or the public in general. Other books describing the impact of Origin of the Species in Europe, give a much greater sense of shock and fervor. Perhaps the immediate and visible (though not the long-range) impact was less in the US, perhaps because of the Civil War, but ultimately the premise of the title is not well defended in the book. In fact, the last chapter tends to dribble off, rather than coming to a rousing or compelling conclusion. It is, however, interesting for a sense of this particular and special moment in history and the importance of the community around Concord, Massachusetts at that time.
"The Book That Changed America" made my day (month, actually)! I have longed for a book just like this! In my mind, "The Book That Changed America", shows in a very original way how scientists learn from one another, how science is done, and how science can, and does, change the world we live in. With this specific instance of doing science, Fuller masterfully illustrates how the most world-changing idea in human history altered human thinking about itself. Plant and animal breeders have long known that selection of genetically diverse organisms changes populations in a very real way - otherwise 7.5 billion people would never be able to feed themselves! As a retired corn breeder, I cannot to this day fathom why half of Americans still have trouble understanding the reality of evolution! Reading Fuller's book might help improve this situation.Fuller's thesis illustrates how a prominent group of thinkers in 1860's Concord, MA learned that evolution via natural selection was not a guess or a whim or an alternative idea to why life on earth is as it is. Fuller showed that Darwin's dangerous idea (this expression is also the name of a book by Daniel C. Dennett, 1995) was the theoretical basis for confirming the common origin of whites and blacks. For the people of Concord, and elsewhere, Darwin's idea that humans shared a common ancestor with all of life affirmed in no uncertain terms that American slavery must be abolished!I urge readers to spread the word! This book is a must read and it's a must for discussion. Americans still have a ways to go before we truly understand how our common origin should inform how we treat one another and how we treat the diversity of life. The men and women of Concord didn't quite get there. Fuller did point out however, that Thoreau, had he recovered from the flu in 1862, may have united evolution with what he had been studying in fields and forests his entire life, ecology.
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