In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of HistoryOxford University Press, 2002 M08 15 - 448 pages Virtually unknown today, Alfred Russel Wallace was the co-discoverer of natural selection with Charles Darwin and an eminent scientist who stood out among his Victorian peers as a man of formidable mind and equally outsized personality. Now Michael Shermer rescues Wallace from the shadow of Darwin in this landmark biography. Here we see Wallace as perhaps the greatest naturalist of his age--spending years in remote jungles, collecting astounding quantities of specimens, writing thoughtfully and with bemused detachment at his reception in places where no white man had ever gone. Here, too, is his supple and forceful intelligence at work, grappling with such arcane problems as the bright coloration of caterpillars, or shaping his 1858 paper on natural selection that prompted Darwin to publish (with Wallace) the first paper outlining the theory of evolution. Shermer also shows that Wallace's self-trained intellect, while powerful, also embraced surprisingly naive ideas, such as his deep interest in the study of spiritual manifestations and seances. Shermer shows that the same iconoclastic outlook that led him to overturn scientific orthodoxy as he worked in relative isolation also led him to embrace irrational beliefs, and thus tarnish his reputation. As author of Why People Believe Weird Things and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, Shermer is an authority on why people embrace the irrational. Now he turns his keen judgment and incisive analysis to Wallace's life and his contradictory beliefs, restoring a leading figure in the rise of modern science to his rightful place. |
Contents
3 | |
1 Uncertain Beginnings | 33 |
2 The Evolution of a Naturalist | 56 |
3 Breaching the Walls of the Species Citadel | 77 |
4 The Mystery of Mysteries Solved | 108 |
5 A Gentlemanly Arrangement | 128 |
6 Scientific Heresy and Ideological Murder | 151 |
7 A Scientist Among the Spiritualists | 175 |
10 Heretic Personality | 250 |
11 The Last Great Victorian | 271 |
12 The Life of Wallace and the Nature of History | 298 |
Epilogue Psychobiography and the Science of History | 311 |
Notes | 329 |
Wallace Archival Sources | 343 |
Wallaces Published Works | 351 |
391 | |
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In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace : a ... Michael Shermer Limited preview - 2002 |
In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A ... Michael Shermer Limited preview - 2002 |
In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace : a ... Michael Shermer No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
A. R. Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Wallace Amazon animals April archives BAAS Bates believe biological Birds Buffon century Charles Darwin Clarion London collecting contingencies counterfactual culture Daily News London Darwin and Wallace Darwinian dated discovery Discussion/N ESL meeting essay evidence example existence fact Figure firstborns Frank Sulloway Geographical geological Hooker human Huxley Ibid ideas individual intellectual Islands John Joseph Hooker July June lace’s Land laterborns Letter concerning Linnean Society LTTE Lyell Malay Archipelago Man’s March mind Natural History natural selection naturalist never noted observations organisms origin of species paper read phenomena phrenology printed problem Proc published Review Richard Milner scientific scientist se´ance Sept Slade social Society of London Spencer spiritualism Spiritualist Sulloway Ternate Theory of Natural thought Vaccination Inquirer variables varieties Wallace’s worldview writing wrote