The book that changed America : how Darwin's theory of evolution ignited a nation

Fuller, Randall 1963- (author.).

Summary: Traces the impact of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" on a diverse group of writers, abolitionists, and social reformers, including Henry David Thoreau and Bronson Alcott, against a backdrop of growing tensions and transcendental idealism in 1860 America.

Item details

ISBN: 9780525428336 (hardcover)
ISBN: 052542833X (hardcover)
Physical Description: print
x, 294 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Publisher: New York, New York : Viking, [2017]

Contents / Notes

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Part I: Origins -- The Book from Across the Atlantic -- Gray's Botany -- Beetles, Birds, Theories -- Word of Mouth -- Making a Stir -- A Night at the Lyceum -- The Nick of Time -- Part II: Struggles -- Bones of Contention -- Agassiz -- The What-Is-It? -- A Spirited Conflict -- Into the Vortex -- Tree of Life -- A Jolt of Recognition -- Wildfires -- Part III: Adaptations -- Discord in Concord -- Moods -- Meditations in a Garden -- The Succession of Forest Trees -- Races of the Old World -- A Cold Shudder -- Part IV: Transformations -- At Down House -- The Ghost of John Brown -- In the Transcendental Graveyard.