Darwin's Origin of Species - a biography of a book. From a marine adventure to a scientific revolution

Literary review of Janet Brown's book

Since my childhood I have dreamed of visiting the Galapagos Islands, almost like a religious Jew yearns to climb the Western Wall. Charles Darwin spent five weeks on these islands, and the variety of bird species he found there was one of the thought stimuli for building the theory of evolution. When I came across Janet Brown's book "Darwin's Origin of Species - A Biography of a Book" I pounced on it and devoured it as a pre-summer debut.

The first surprising thing in Janet Brown's book is the subtitle in the name of the book: "Biography of a Book". This subtitle is both incorrect and correct. It is incorrect in this respect that the book describes the biography of an idea: the circumstances of the birth and development of the "survival of the fittest" idea. The title is incorrect in that the notebook describes, to a large extent, the biography of the author of the book, Charles Darwin: the circumstances of his birth, his development, the atmosphere in which he grew up, his life's achievements and his continuing influence on the world around him to this very day. However, the title is correct in that it also describes the circumstances of the birth of the book "Origin of the Species", its development, the atmosphere in which it was written, and its influence on the world around it during its time and until today.

Charles Darwin's name is included in a short list of personalities whose intellectual breakthroughs have influenced the intellectual life of the modern era in which we live to such an extent that their names have become commonplace on every tongue, be it a taxi driver, a beautician or a university professor. It is difficult to describe the world of thought and science of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century without the names of Sigmund Freud, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin.

Janet Brown describes in a fluent, pleasant and clear language not only the various events, but also how the intellectual atmosphere in the society in which Darwin lived and his intellectual breakthroughs integrated and influenced each other. Her fluent, readable and accurate translation by Broria Ben-Baruch does justice to the book.
Darwin initially destined himself for medicine, but during his years of study he decided to turn to the clergy, a somewhat ironic fact when we remember the bitter war waged against him by religious circles since then. His education, which also included Latin and Greek, as was the custom in England in the first third of the 19th century, was characterized by a wide breadth. He studied theology and was also exposed to philosophy, zoology, botany and geology. Lamarck's ideas on transmutation, Henslow's extensive knowledge of botany, the geological expeditions he went on under the influence of Sedgwick, and Yoell's scientific-philosophical ideas, all left their mark. When Darwin joined an adventurous five-year journey on the "Beagle", in the role of collecting specimens from the animal and plant world, he carried in his mind the conceptual seeds that grew the idea of ​​evolution. This journey also shaped him as a person with enlightened social views who opposes with all his heart phenomena such as slavery which was common in those days.

If Darwin were a contemporary scientist, he would most likely have rushed to publish the results of his long-term research in some scientific journal in order to get first-right rights to his ideas, as Watson and Crick did when they discovered the structure of DNA. Darwin did not, and in fact even avoided writing his book for over twenty years. After his return from the trip, he continued with various studies in England, being influenced by the spirit of his time, the period of the industrial revolution, characterized on the one hand by technological and social revolution, and on the other hand by Victorian intellectual rigidity. In the midst of this turmoil, his groundbreaking ideas developed, ideas that cast doubt on the divine design of the creation of the animal and plant kingdoms. The renowned economist Malthus, who examined the interaction between the natural human desire to reproduce and the limitations of food production had a decisive influence on the shaping of Darwin's ideas. But in Victorian society, with its strict moral and religious values, it was difficult to publicly question divine authority, especially since Darwin's wife was very religious. Even when he began writing the book in its first and limited versions, Darwin kept his writings a secret. And even in this secret book, Darwin strictly avoided discussing the origin of man (a discussion he did many years later in his book "The Descent of Man").

Over the years, Darwin's religious faith was shaken, possibly due to the personal tragedy of his daughter's death. In 1858, 22 years after the Beagle's journey ended, Darwin received a scientific paper in the mail from an unknown researcher from the East Indies named Wallace. In his article, Wallace puts forward his own version of the idea of ​​evolution. This was the spur that stuck in Darwin's ribs, and in June 1858 he revealed the idea of ​​evolution at a conference of the Linnaean Society, the leading scientific society for the study of nature in Great Britain.

Following this exposure, Darwin published a short version of the book that was later further developed and expanded. Only at the end of 1859 was the final version of the book published. The positive and negative reactions did not take long to arrive and the storm of controversy erupted in full force. The book influenced archaeological, prehistoric, geological and even social concepts. Proponents of capitalism, colonialism, racism and euthanasia also tried to rely on Darwin's ideas and the social impact of Darwinism, positive and negative, continued deep into the 20th century.

Over the past century, the biochemical mechanisms underlying Darwinian adaptability have been deciphered. Janet Brown continues and reviews the scientific developments of the middle and end of the 20th century that caused Darwin's theory to be questioned, but concludes with the scientific synthesis of the beginning of the 21st century that flexed Darwin's "Origin of Species" ideas and gave them renewed validity.

To this day there are still "creationists" who fully support the divine planning of the animal and plant world, but, according to Janet Brown, "Darwin's origin of species... is one of the engines of the turn in Western thinking".

I have no choice but to agree with you and strongly recommend reading the book.