Browne, Janet. Darwin's Origin of Species, a biography.

BROWNE, Janet. Darwin's Origin of Species, a biography. (Books That Changed the World.) Grove. 192p. notes. bibliog. index. c2007. 978-0802143464. $13.00. SA *

Another entry in the Books That Changed the World series, this is a concise but thorough biography by a Harvard professor of the history of science, noted for her two-volume life of Charles Darwin. Readers follow Darwin from his birth in 1809, through his childhood and early schooling and his brief journey through medical school. His three years at Christ College, Cambridge landed him a berth on the Beagle, a voyage around the world that lasted five years and resulted in his theory of evolution. Browne covers Darwin's lifelong ill health, religious ideas, eugenics, Victorian capitalism, the furor following the publication of the Origin, paleontology, other contemporaneous scientists and theologians, Darwin's later books, and finally his death in 1882. His legacy includes eugenics, the Scopes trial in 1925, creation science, and the decision by the Kansas Board of Education in 1999 to make evolution optional in science teaching. Browne concludes that the Origin is "one of the hubs of transformation in Western thought." Janet Julian, English Teacher (retired), Grafton, MA

S--Recommended for senior high school students.

A--Recommended for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help extend KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries.

*--The asterisk highlights exceptional books.