A Remarkable Journey ─ The Story of Evolution

Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species appeared a little more than 150 years ago. Although Darwin had been developing his theory for over 20 years, and before him others had advocated evolutionary views, the book was transformative. Nonetheless, it was only the beginning of the development of evolutionary biology.

The story of evolutionary theory over the last 150 years is fascinating and conceptually rich. It involves modification, clarification, experimentation, and frustration. In the end a robust, vibrant, and deeply descriptive theory emerged. The tortuous path, from Darwin’s original brilliant formulation to today’s model, is filled with intrigue and philosophical richness. In many respects, the story documents the maturing of biological science, a science with evolutionary theory at its centre. As evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky stated in 1973, “nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” The truth of this assertion is even more evident today than it was more than 40 years ago.

This book is a historical narrative of the conceptual and theoretical discoveries and debates, the experimentation and field work that became the evidential base on which the theory rests, the systematic assembling of these into an elegant and powerful science, and the elements that increasingly won over the biological and the scientific community more generally. The book will appeal to all interested in the history of science, as well as the current thought on how our species came to be.