Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution

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Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution

3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 · rating details · 234 ratings · 77 reviews

Christmas, 1859. Just one month after the publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin received an unsettling letter. He had expected criticism; in fact, letters were arriving daily, most expressing outrage and accusations of heresy. But this letter was different. It accused him of failing to acknowledge his predecessors, of taking credit for a theory that had a...more Christmas, 1859. Just one month after the publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin received an unsettling letter. He had expected criticism; in fact, letters were arriving daily, most expressing outrage and accusations of heresy. But this letter was different. It accused him of failing to acknowledge his predecessors, of taking credit for a theory that had already been discovered by others. Darwin realized that he had made an error in omitting any mention of his intellectual forebears. Yet when he tried to trace all of the natural philosophers who had laid the groundwork for his theory, he found that history had already forgotten many of them. Darwin’s Ghosts tells the story of the collective discovery of evolution, from Aristotle walking the shores of Lesbos with his pupils to Al-Jahiz, an Arab writer in the first century, to Leonardo da Vinci searching for fossils in the mine shafts of the Tuscan hills, to Denis Diderot in Paris, exploring the origins of species while under the surveillance of the secret police, and the brilliant naturalists of the Jardin de Plantes finding evidence for evolutionary change in the natural history collections stolen during the Napoleonic wars. Evolution was not discovered single-handedly, Rebecca Stott argues, contrary to what has become standard lore, but is an idea that emerged over many centuries by daring individuals across the globe who had the imagination to speculate on nature’s extraordinary ways, and who had the courage to articulate such speculations at a time when to do so was often heresy. With each chapter focusing on an early evolutionary thinker, Darwin’s Ghosts is a fascinating account of a diverse group of individuals who, despite the very real dangers of challenging a system in which everything was presumed to have been created perfectly by God, felt compelled to understand where we came from. Ultimately, Stott demonstrates, ideas—including evolution itself—evolve just as animals and plants do, by intermingling, toppling weaker ideas, and developing over stretches of time. Darwin’s Ghosts presents a groundbreaking new theory of an idea that has changed our very understanding of who we are.(less)

Hardcover, 416 pages

Published June 12th 2012 by Spiegel & Grau (first published May 1st 2012)

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Aug 22, 2012 Stuart rated it 4 of 5 stars

Do you love Darwin? You should, really should. I know everyone loves Einstein because he looks so cute in his iconic pictures; his hair makes him seem a bit like a troll doll. Plus his theories seem so brainy and math heavy as to be almost imponderable. But Darwin? He looks so serious in his pictures, like one of the Smith Brothers of cough lozenge fame. And evolution? It isn't mathematical at all. At face value, it's a theory that anyone with observant eyes could have figured out.

But let me tel...more

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Apr 10, 2013 David rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As with some other recent Goodreads reviews and ratings, I am giving Darwin's Ghosts two stars because I felt it was "OK". I'd prefer three stars to indicate this, but I'm going by the documentation.

Anyway, one of the criticisms Charles Darwin faced after the publication of his Origin of Species were claims that the idea of transmutation of species was not new, and he was trying to claim the credit for an idea that others had written about. In later editions of Origin, Darwin attempted to add a...more

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Mar 29, 2013 Darshan Elena rated it 5 of 5 stars

I loved how this book put Darwin's science into historical context over centuries. The portraits of the various scientists and their struggles to envision an origin of the species was fantastic. I also appreciated the author's investment in describing how science was policed by the combined forces of church and king. I wish the author had spent a bit more time discussing the social transformations that were happening alongside the rise of botany, geology, biology, and other fields. The author me...more

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Jan 23, 2013 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: evolution, history

This book describes the lives and discoveries of a number of people who Darwin thought may have had some impact on the theory of evolution. Some of the earliest, such as Aristotle, actually had no concept of evolution. During the 1700's and early 1800's, several people developed ideas about evolution. However, only a couple--most notably Alfred Wallace--developed any concept of the mechanism of natural selection.

It surprised me that Charles Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, was also a propon...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Ray rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I found "Darwin's Ghosts" something of an eye-opener in its description of the many scientists who preceded Darwin, and who laid the groundwork for his famous "discoveries" regarding evolution. As Rebecca Stott points out, evolution was not a brand new concept in Darwin's time. His fame, rather, is based on his explanations as to how / why species may evolve, not necessarily that he identified that species evolve.

Stott provides biographical descriptions of many natural scientists who preceded D...more

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Oct 10, 2012 Bob H rated it 5 of 5 stars

Here are the intellects that preceded Darwin and his Origin of Species. Stung by a criticism that his Origin of Species was not, in effect, original, he would put a "Historical Sketch" in his third edition to show who proceeded him. What this author has done was to investigate all the theories and scholarship that addressed natural diversity, evolution ("transmutation" it was often called), and natural selection. The author found a wider college of thought than the "Historical Sketch" did, from...more

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Aug 28, 2012 Chris Demer rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: evolution, history-of-science

When Charles Darwin published his "Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection", in 1859, he did not include a preface or acknowledgement of his intellectual predecessors in the field of Natural History. He was in a hurry to publish and his health was not good, but he was criticized for it at the time. He included such an acknowledgement in a later edition. This well-written book elaborates on the theories and investigations of many of the philosophers and students of "natural history" (biol...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Beatnik Mary rated it 4 of 5 stars

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Rebecca Stott was raised in a Creationist household. The name "Charles Darwin" was not only synonymous with "instrument of the devil," it was in fact so verboten that her grandfather had excised the entry on Darwin from the D section of the family encyclopedia with a razor. This created in young Rebecca Stott an illicit fascination with science, scientists and of course, evolution. She would grow up to write a book about Charles Darwin, concluding that he...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science

DARWIN’S GHOSTS: The Secret History of Evolution. (2012). Rebecca Stott. ****.
When Darwin was preparing his text for his fourth edition of “The Origin Of Species” for the American market (the first edition that was not pirated), he included a foreward entitled: “An Historical Sketch of the Recent Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species.” His intent in this introduction was to give credit to the men who provided significant work in this field. When he had completed his citations he had a li...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Philip rated it 5 of 5 stars

Charles Darwin felt indebted to the many antecedents of his work, "The Origin of Species". He set out to make a list. This book tells the story of those observers and several others who contributed to the development of what we now call "Evolution." Several names are familiar: Aristotle, Lamarck, and Alfred Wallace. But others like Jahiz, an Arab in 850 Basra, who wrote the first study of animals in the Islamic world and who may have first "suggested" natural selection was less well-known. Ortho...more Charles Darwin felt indebted to the many antecedents of his work, "The Origin of Species". He set out to make a list. This book tells the story of those observers and several others who contributed to the development of what we now call "Evolution." Several names are familiar: Aristotle, Lamarck, and Alfred Wallace. But others like Jahiz, an Arab in 850 Basra, who wrote the first study of animals in the Islamic world and who may have first "suggested" natural selection was less well-known. Orthodox thought claimed God made each species, separate and distinct, and these species never changed. As observers became more discerning and methodical they began to see slight differences between species and searched for a theory that would account for this apparent "transmutation of species" as it was first called. All of these men faced the outrage of the clerical and established academic world. Leonardo di Vinci makes an appearance because of his curiosity about seashells found on top of mountains. Abraham Trembley, a Swiss tutor (1740), made careful studies of the polyp (hydra) to try to determine if it were animal or plant. Benoit de Maillet (1708), French Consul in Egypt, wondered about the shifting coastline and water levels he found there. He compared what he found to the descriptions of the Greeks: Plato, Seneca, and others, who wrote of Egypt more than a thousand years before. Denis Diderot (1749), who promoted the heretical new sciences. Robert Grant (1852) did important work in comparative anatomy. And, of course, Lamarck (1800), who claimed nature was in "perpetual flux", "Little by little, nature has reached the state in which we see it today". Lamarck claimed the transformation came about through the "physical stretching" of a species to adapt to changes in the environment, the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Even though this is discredited now, Lamarck was the first to suggest the "first truly cohesive theory of evolution". All of these men risked financial, professional, and personal ruin for expressing the thoughts that came to mind after many long hours of closely observing the natural world. (less)

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Apr 22, 2013 Ori rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, reviewed

To sum up the really rather long blurb up there, Darwin's Ghosts is about the men and the ideas that paved the way for Darwin's theory of evolution. More interestingly, it details the struggles these men went through to explore and spread their ideas: how they had to break past the traditional hidebound theories of creationism, contend with contradicting contemporaries and popular opinions, and even suffer tropical diseases.

I don't often read non-fiction books because I spend far too much time q...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Jake rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: science

A book about the precursors to Darwin. There were many who were influential to his ideas that existed before him. Scientists and naturalists who had similar theories before him. He felt guilty about having published his book so swiftly. There hadn't been time for him to include a section where he credited the people that came before him. In the past evolutionary theory was called certain other things like transformism. Many of these people were persecuted and challenged by the church when their...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Jb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Various thinkers preceded Charles Darwin with hypotheses concerning natural selection, but Darwin was the first to give it scientific credibility. Author devotes a chapter to 11 predecessors, beginning with Aristotle. Some of these truth-seekers were denounced by bishops, even threatened with burning at the stake, because they dared question Biblical interpretation of biological and geological creation. Darwin himself, perhaps out of fear of similar incrimination, long hesitated to publish resul...more

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Jun 21, 2012 Jamie Bradway rated it 3 of 5 stars

There's a very nice intro and using Darwin's acknowledgments from the second edition of 'Origin' was a nice outro, but most of the in-between bits were uneven, sometimes straying from what I understood to be the purpose of the book.

Each of these chapters were to reveal the contributions of the 'transmutationists' who preceded Darwin, often suffering the wrath of The Church in the process. Several of these chapters focus much more on biographical sketch than on scientific thought, however. And so...more

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May 16, 2013 Catherine Woodman rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book is subtitled 'In Search of the First Evolutionists', and that is indeed what it is all about. Ms. Stott opens the book by explaining that she grew up with creationists, that she did not come to the study of the evolution of Darwin's thinking on natural selection with a long history of love of biology. She doesn't exactly explain how she did come to write the book, but she doesn't want us to think she was a life-long lover of all things Darwinian. She also doesn't go into Darwin's person...more The book is subtitled 'In Search of the First Evolutionists', and that is indeed what it is all about. Ms. Stott opens the book by explaining that she grew up with creationists, that she did not come to the study of the evolution of Darwin's thinking on natural selection with a long history of love of biology. She doesn't exactly explain how she did come to write the book, but she doesn't want us to think she was a life-long lover of all things Darwinian. She also doesn't go into Darwin's personal struggles--that he was plagued by anxiety--panic disorder almost certainly, agoraphobia perhaps, and probably generalized anxiety disorder. Two decades separated the voyages of the HMS Beagle, where Darwin did his primary data collection, and the publication of 'Origin of the Species'. He may have had a bit of a perfectionist personality as well as his anxiety--in any case, he almost got scooped on a discovery and a theory that was largely his to claim.

The author does go into the people who wanted to have all the credit, or at least share the credit for his discovery after the book was published and appeared to be the book of the century--which was an accomplishment indeed. A decade later, evolution would be embraced by the scientific community in total, and Darwin remains a household name over a century later. The earliest biologist and observer of the natural world was Aristotle, who closely studied sea life, and his book "The History of Animals" was closely studies by an early mentor of Darwin's.

Te bulk of the book is going over the various pieces of information that helped inform Darwin's final work, including people that he worked directly with. One chapter is devoted to the work of his grandfather, who would undoubtedly have been very proud of the work that his grandson accomplished, but also goes to show that one's personal experiences and history can give one a great advantage. The other advantage that Darwin had was financial support. His father may not have thought much of what he was doing, but he didn't cut him off financially, and that was different from the situation that a number of scientists who went before him encountered. They had great curiousity and ideas, but had to quit pursuing them in order to make a living.

Another ingredient of success for Darwin was luck--he had a fair amount of it, but most influential was his meeting Robert Edmond Grant one fine day on the beach. Grant was the eminent comparative anatomist of his time, and Darwin met him as a teenager, and worked with him. The book has a lot of details about the wealth of what was known prior to Darwin's epic book, and why it was that others might have chosen not to take on the church and religion in putting forth such a theory--that Darwin was not just a great observer but also that he was in the right place at the right time. (less)

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May 06, 2012 D.J. Butler rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, history, popular-science

It's not clear how haunted Darwin was by these other men -- by Stott's account, he seems to have mostly been ignorant of their work.

Slightly off-the-mark title aside, this is a terrific story, written in highly readable narrative prose. It's about Darwin's predecessors (and, in the case of Alfred Wallace at least, the man who almost beat him to the punch). Starting with Aristotle (not an evolutionist, but a close observer of fact in the natural world) and working through Leonardo da Vinci and on...more

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Jun 14, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, science

A Superb Examination into the Origins of Darwinian Thought

Rebecca Stott’s “Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution” is a masterful overview of the history of science leading up to Darwin’s discovery of Natural Selection as a primary mechanism for biological evolution. Hers is an especially important account, since she places the work of Darwin and his intellectual forebears within the context of the societies and cultures they inhabited, stretching across a vast gulf of time that begins...more A Superb Examination into the Origins of Darwinian Thought

Rebecca Stott’s “Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution” is a masterful overview of the history of science leading up to Darwin’s discovery of Natural Selection as a primary mechanism for biological evolution. Hers is an especially important account, since she places the work of Darwin and his intellectual forebears within the context of the societies and cultures they inhabited, stretching across a vast gulf of time that begins with the ancient Classical Greeks. It is also an extremely lucid account replete with Stott’s vivid, quite descriptive, prose; an account that should captivate and intrigue readers, including those who are unfamiliar with Darwin’s life and work or that others, most notably, Lamarck, had proposed evolutionary theories decades before Darwin and Wallace had stumbled upon Natural Selection independently of each other.

Stott begins in earnest describing how Aristotle became an extraordinary field naturalist on the Aegean island of Lesbos, carefully studying the behavior of fishes and marine invertebrates, devoting two years toward trying to understand reproductive behavior of the marine animals he observed, using the insights he gleaned for the rest of his life in shaping his philosophy, while also working on three books, “Parts of Animals”, “The History of Animals” and “On the Generation of Animals”; the very first works in zoology and biology ever written. Over a thousand years later, Jahiz, one of the most prolific and versatile writers of the Sunni Islamic Abbasid Empire, would stumble upon an understanding of life on Earth unequalled by anyone until Darwin and Wallace’s scientific careers flourished, recognizing that all life was interdependent with other living things, gaining an early understanding of predation and of ecological communities, without conceiving of a suitable mechanism for “descent with modification” – as Darwin described evolution – like Natural Selection. During the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci would recognize the great antiquity of the Earth, understanding that mountains containing the fossils of seashells were once underwater eons ago. Nearly the entire latter half of Stott’s impressive tome is devoted to French Enlightenment scientists like Buffon and Cuvier, who were among those pioneering the systematic study of all life on Planet Earth, while remaining dismissive of “transformist” ideas like Lamarck’s theory of evolution and in-depth discussions of Scottish zoologist Robert Grant – who would teach a young Charles Darwin how to collect and to preserve marine biological specimens and thus have a lasting impact on Darwin’s subsequent field and experimental research in biology and geology – and of the young Alfred Russel Wallace, a dedicated, largely self-taught animal collector, who would begin making important insights into the biogeography of the East Indies, and then, while stricken with an acute case of malaria, would recall his reading and understanding of Thomas Malthus’ “Essay on Population”, and then stumble, independently of Darwin, on the mechanism of biological evolution which would become known as Natural Selection.
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Sep 30, 2012 Harry Hemstreet rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Less to do about Darwin, more of a tracing of the ideas of evolution and origin of species from the time of Aristotle - the many shoulders that Darwin stood upon to complete his 'Origins'. Amazing how far we have progressed but are still fighting the same prejudices that were fought from the 13th century onward. All of the giants of natural history were in constant fear for their lives and reputations as the church steadfastly defended Genesis - to the point of branding these geniuses heretics....more

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Dec 30, 2012 Lauren rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Rebecca Stott's Darwin's Ghosts is an in-depth account of the figures who tirelessly studied animal anatomy and questioned the origin of life before Charles Darwin published his On the Origin's of Species. Stott devotes a chapter to each of the scholars who probed this existential question beginning with Aristotle. She captures the idea that history doesn't run in a straight line. It ebbs and flows and knowledge, at times, must be rediscovered and re-examined. Stott emphasizes how scientific kno...more

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Aug 08, 2012 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: book

Among the criticisms aimed at Darwin after he wrote "On the Origin of Species" was his failure to mention scientists before him who worked on evolution or, as it was called earlier, transmutation. Darwin, in subsequent editions of the book, attempted to cite earlier work but Darwin was not an historian so his attempt was incomplete and, in some cases, wrong. Stott does some of the job Darwin would have liked. Numerous people prior to Darwin, as far back as Aristotle, came close to our current un...more

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Aug 18, 2012 Holly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-reads

It's history of science focusing on the personalities and historical contexts of Darwin's predecessors, but it's not science. Also not what I expected. The book isn't about Darwin's influences, necessarily - some of whom he hadn't even been aware of. That's not Stott's point or intention. She's telling stories about iconoclasts and ambitious thinkers whose work foreshadowed Darwin. I worried that some readers might assume that an Aristotelian method of examining phenomena, for example, has somet...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Steven rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history, natural_history, science

Stott takes a look at the historical notes which Darwin included in later editions of On the Origin of Species (but which he left out of the first edition in order to rush it into print), to look at the work that Darwin's predecessors did in working toward a theory of evolution. She starts with Aristotle and works all the way up to Alfred Russell Wallace, and includes all kinds of interesting people in between, from the French scientists Lamarck and Cuvier, to the intriguin 18th century French e...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Diana rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book elucidates the many people who came to some sort of evolution idea from their own studies prior to (or at the same time as) Darwin, showing that no idea exists in a vacuum quite well. I had no idea there were so many, or the insanity they dealt with at the hands of religious prejudice. A true book for geeking out and wondering why you never knew this stuff before, especially if you like scientific history. Really drove home the idea that these people worked, so hard, and came to conclu...more

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Aug 04, 2012 Danny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-book, listened-to, non-fiction

Explores the history of scientific inquiry into the origin of species on our planet, pre-Darwin. It feels like we learn that Darwin came up with his theory of evolution by creating the whole idea for species change all on his own. But while he was the first to theorize on the the mechanism behind evolution (survival of the fittest) many scientists had noticed that animals seemed to have structures in common, which hinted that they might have common ancestors.

And this tells you all about it, sta...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Lisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was an absolutely fascinating book! I was hooked immediately in the preface when the author described her childhood quest for knowledge outside the restrictions of a religious household. Each chapter thereafter is assigned a person of importance who contributed to the theory of evolution, be they naturalists or scientists, culminating with Charles Darwin (who later added an "Historical Sketch" to his famous book to acknowledge his predecessors of thought - proving that their contributions a...more

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Jul 04, 2012 J.R. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

The ghosts of the title refer to the predecessors of Darwin, the thinkers whose quest for an understanding of the essential questions about life culminated in his theory of evolution.

Darwin himself realized others before him had speculated on these matters which, as Stott points out, led him to attach an historical sketch to the fourth edition of Origins. Some of these earlier thinkers came very close to what he concluded, others were far from the mark. What they shared was that stubborn streak...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Steve Goble rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, science, history

I gave this another go after a first attempt stopped me short. It is a collection of essays about the people who glimpsed pieces of the evolutionary puzzle before Darwin put it all together. The subject matters interesting, and the book is worth a read. However, I have a complaint. Stott apparently loves writing descriptions of ancient cities, marketplaces, caravan stops, etc. Scene setting in a book like this is necessary, but it can be overdone. Scott seems to enjoy setting the scene so much t...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Michael Connolly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, evolution

Darwin's theory of evolution was built on earlier ideas by his predecessors. Darwin's main fear was to be accused of blasphemy by the Christians. Immediately after the publication of The Origin of Species, Darwin's main problem was he was accused of failing to acknowledge his predecessors. Most of his predecessors were Europeans, but some were Arabs. A major obstacle to scientific progress in Europe was the Roman Catholic Church, which prosecuted as heresy any scientific ideas that contradicted...more Darwin's theory of evolution was built on earlier ideas by his predecessors. Darwin's main fear was to be accused of blasphemy by the Christians. Immediately after the publication of The Origin of Species, Darwin's main problem was he was accused of failing to acknowledge his predecessors. Most of his predecessors were Europeans, but some were Arabs. A major obstacle to scientific progress in Europe was the Roman Catholic Church, which prosecuted as heresy any scientific ideas that contradicted the Bible. Many biologists published their ideas anonymously, to avoid persecution. Much of the publishing occurred in more liberal cities, such as Paris, Amsterdam and London. Essentially all of the early biologists were both observers of living things and theorists. There was much less of a division of labor into experimentalists and theoreticians, as there is now in science. The general belief over the past couple thousand years has been that species are immutable, that is, they breed true and do not transform into each other. It was believed by Christians that God created the world with all the species it currently has. When scientists started digging up fossils, they discovered that there were some animals that had existed in the past, but which were now extinct. So the world was not unchanging. The idea of transmutation of one species into another preceded Darwin, and those who advanced it were treated as heretics. Similarly, the idea that there were originally only simple life forms on Earth, and all current species evolved from them was also present before Darwin. Prior to Darwin, the biologists dissected large numbers of different animals, and discovered that while they looked very different on the outside, they possessed similar internal organs. The main theoretical problem was explaining how one species transformed into another species. Lamarck put forth inheritance of acquired characteristics. Darwin's contemporary, Alfred Russell Wallace, hit upon natural selection about the same time as Darwin, and they published together. (less)

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Mar 04, 2013 G Hodges rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I can’t say I thought this was a worthwhile read. I was1/3 through before I learned something I didn’t already know. I didn’t really get the point of the book. Was it that people were involved in empirical thought before Darwin? Knew that already. Was it to tell us people thought of the evolution concept before Darwin? Knew that already. That Darwin expanded the ideas of others? We knew that. Was it an attempt to put together Darwins intellectual forebears? If so, it was not well realized. In fa...more

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Aug 20, 2012 Anna rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a big fan of Thomas Kuhn, I really like the idea of the evolution in scientific thought as well as the idea of evolution itself. I think Rebecca Stott is a wonderful writer (I also liked her novel The Coral Thief). Darwin's Ghosts outlines the early thinkers and scientists regarding evolution - the forerunners of Darwin's On the Origin of the Species. Darwin learned that Alfred Wallace was about to publish his theory of evolution, a theory that was pretty much the same as Darwin's (which he h...more

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About Rebecca Stott

Rebecca Stott was born in Cambridge in 1964 and raised in Brighton in a large Plymouth Brethren community. She studied English and Art History at York University and then completed an MA and PhD whilst raising her son, Jacob, born in 1984.

She is the author of several academic books on Victorian literature and culture, two books of non-fiction, including a partial biography of Charles Darwin, and a...more

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