{"product_id":"9780812981704","title":"Darwin's Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES \u003c\/i\u003eNOTABLE BOOK\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e“[An] extraordinarily wide-ranging and engaging book [about] the men who shaped the work of Charles Darwin . . . a book that enriches our understanding of how the struggle to think new thoughts is shared across time and space and people.”—\u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e (London)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChristmas, 1859. Just one month after the publication of \u003ci\u003eOn the Origin of Species, \u003c\/i\u003eCharles 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 from \u003ci\u003eOrigin of Species\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eDarwin’s Ghosts\u003c\/i\u003e 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, from 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, advanced 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 considered heresy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith each chapter focusing on an early evolutionary thinker, \u003ci\u003eDarwin’s Ghosts\u003c\/i\u003e 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 notions, and developing over stretches of time\u003ci\u003e. Darwin’s Ghosts \u003c\/i\u003epresents a groundbreaking new theory of an idea that has changed our very understanding of who we are.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eDarwin’s Ghosts\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Absorbing . . . Stott captures the breathless excitement of an investigation on the cusp of the unknown. . . . A lively, original book.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Stott’s research is broad and unerring; her book is wonderful. . . . An exhilarating romp through 2,000 years of fascinating scientific history.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Stott brings Darwin himself to life. . . . [She] writes with a novelist’s flair. . . . Darwin and the ‘ghosts’ so richly described in Ms. Stott’s enjoyable book are the descendants of Aristotle and Bacon and the ancestors of today’s scientists.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Riveting . . . Stott has done a wonderful job in showing just how many extraordinary people had speculated on where we came from before the great theorist dispelled all doubts.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Guardian \u003c\/i\u003e(U.K.)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Random House Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47007808782576,"sku":"9780812981704","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780812981704_p0.jpg?v=1763745459","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780812981704","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}