Darwin's sacred cause : how a hatred of slavery shaped Darwin's views on human evolution / Adrian Desmond and James Moore
Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 1st U.S. Edition. There is a mystery surrounding Darwin: How did this quiet, respectable gentleman, a pillar of his parish, come to embrace one of the most radical ideas in the history of human thought? Darwin risked a great deal in publishing his theory of evolution, so something very powerful--a moral fire--must have propelled him. That moral fire, argue authors Desmond and Moore, was a passionate hatred of slavery. They draw on a wealth of fresh manuscripts, correspondence, notebooks, diaries, and even ships’ logs to show how Darwin’s abolitionism had deep roots in his mother’s family and was reinforced by his voyage on the Beagle as well as by events in America. Leading apologists for slavery in Darwin’s time argued that blacks and whites were separate species, with whites created superior. Darwin believed that the races belonged to the same human family, and slavery was therefore a sin.--From publisher description. An exceptional copy; fine in an equally fine dw. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. Literally as new.; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 484 pages; Description: xxi, 484 p., 16 p. of plates : ill., maps ; 24 cm. Subjects: Darwin, Charles (1809-1882) --Ethics --Political and social views --Human evolution --Philosophy --Slavery --Moral and ethical aspects. Item #173977
Price: €9.95