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Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide.

Print Price: $13.50

Format:
Paperback
144 pp.
halftones and drawings, 111 mm x 174 mm

ISBN-13:
9780192854544

Publication date:
February 2001

Imprint: OUP UK


Darwin: A Very Short Introduction

Jonathan Howard

Series : Very Short Introductions

Darwin's theory that our ancestors were apes caused a furore in the scientific world and outside it when The Origin of Species was published in 1859. Arguments still rage about the implications of his evolutionary theory, and scepticism about the value of Darwin's contribution to knowledge is widespread. In this analysis of Darwin's major insights and arguments, Jonathan Howard reasserts the importance of Darwin's work for the development of modern biology.

Readership : General readers interested in Darwin and evolution; students of evolutionary biology and evolutionary psychology.

Reviews

  • `Jonathan Howard has produced an intellectual tour de force, a classic in the genre of popular scientific exposition which will still be read in fifty years' time.'
    Times Literary Supplement

List of Illustrations
1. Darwin's life
2. The foundations of Darwinism
3. Natural selection and the origin of species
4. The evidence for evolution by natural selection
5. Sex, variation, and heredity
6. Man
7. Perfection and progress
8. Darwinism and ideology
9. Darwin as a scientist: an evaluation
Further Reading
Index

There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.

Jonathan Howard was Head of the Department of Immunology at the Babraham Institute, near Cambridge, and is now Professor of Cell Genetics at the Institute for Genetics, University of Cologne, Germany. He is a fellow of the Royal Society.

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Special Features

  • There is a huge interest in Dawin and evolution, and the developments of his ideas are still controversial
  • Darwin's theory of evolution revolutionized not only biology, but the world view of ordinary people, by undermining belief in God's creation
  • First published in the Past Masters series, where it has sold 12,000 copies