5 comments about Schrödinger: Life and Thought.

1. If you look on page 238 on Walter Moore's book and view the Solvay Conference of Physics in 1927, you should think carefully of the world that Erwin Schrodinger was part of. All of those great minds were around him, Curie, Pauli, Einstein, etc, plus he lived through two world wars, and he had to deal with the Nazis and so on. Has anyone every lived at a better (or worse) time? The Schrodinger equation was probably the greatest discovery of the 20th century, but because of the wave mechanics involved, most people credit Einstein with being the smartest guy around because they would rather talk about relativity than a complicated equation. Our QM world is based on his equation for the most part and he did this in 1925! There is no denying this is a most complete book, having virtually every detail of ES life mentioned (some where) in it. My problem with this is it really necessary? Physicists will probably like this book because they can relate to it much better, but I guess you could skip the math and just read on. You can see how the scientists of the time pretend not to compete with one another, yet it is evident Schrodinger is the man for most of this period in time. This story is that of a great physicist that many times is overlooked because of the company he kept. He was horrified by the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, as were most of his friends and considered it mass murder, but later managed to solve the Peierls equation which allows one to calculate the critical mass of a nuclear explosive. I would recommend this book for reading, but must warn you that every sexual encounter is included and you will not complete it in a day. It was quite interesting to read of the closeness between ES and Einstein. However, this exposure of how great ES was should impress upon you how often a man of such importance is virtually unheard of in many parts of the modern world--even today. guyairey



2. If there is some way I could rate this book as five star plus, then I would love to do that. This is a very well researched book by an author who makes a passionate presentation of the mind and work of one of the greatest physicists of 20th century. Erwin Schrodinger is an enigmatic figure, a brilliant scientist, philosopher, poet and a humanist who lead a complex personal life; several love affairs allowed and approved by; his wife Annemarie, and husbands of his girlfriends. The author has examined and reviewed many archived materials from Schrodinger's family, friends, and universities/academic institutions who knew Schrödinger. The reader becomes fascinated by sheer brilliance, wisdom, sadness, and struggle in personal and professional life of Schrödinger.
   
   Schrodinger was deeply philosophical in his thoughts than any other scientist of his time, but he apparently did not make far-reaching philosophical conclusions from his work in quantum physics. He was held back because he knew there was a lack of clarity. Schrödinger was deeply influenced by the thoughts of Schopenhauer, and developed strong interest in Buddhist philosophy and Vedanta (one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy.) Schrodinger intensively studied the works of Schopenhauer, Henry Warren, Max Welleser, Richard Garbe, Paul Deussen, Max Muller, and Rhys Davids to understand Hindu and Buddhist philosophies. Erwin's interest in Vedanta and Upanishads started at a young age when he was accustomed to cold hungry time in war-torn Vienna. His search for the truth never reached conclusion as his one time lover Hansi Bauer noted, but his belief in Vedanta remained the same since 1920 until his death. He was a life long believer of Vedanta. He lashed out Christian churches accusing them of gross superstition in their belief of individual souls.
   
   Quantum physics has tremendous philosophical implications, which revolutionized modern thought in science and philosophy because it did not agree with the philosophy of materialism expounded by Newton. Interpretation of quantum world suggested that strict determinism and predictability is not an accurate description of reality, and consciousness is an integral part of the laws of quantum physics. In other words, the human observer (biological system) and the observed (rest of the universe) is not merely a biological (cognition) phenomenon but more than that. One can not actually derive the Schrödinger wave equation from classical physics. It is a justification and hence the final equation is used to calculate the energy levels that fit the experimental results such as the observed UV spectra of a hydrogen atom. Schrodinger developed relativistic equation first and then the non-relativistic equation. The relativistically framed (without spin) equation did not agree with the experimental result because it did not include electron spin. It was not known at that time that electron has a spin. This equation was good for a particle with no spin and it was the same as fine structure formula of Sommerfeld.
   
   According to Vedanta; there exists only one universal being called the Brahman, which comprises all of reality in an undivided unity. This being absolutely homogeneous in nature: It is pure thought, which is not an attribute but the substance devoid of any qualities. The Brahman is associated with a power or a principle of illusion called Maya. As a magician creates illusion during his act, Brahman through Maya creates the appearances of the material world. Maya is the cause of the material world, and an indivisible Brahman is present in all forms of existence. The soul in reality is an infinite Brahman enmeshed in the unreal world of Maya. The unenlightened soul is incapable of looking beyond this illusion, but an enlightened soul knows the difference between its true self and the external illusory world thus paving the way for identifying itself with Brahman. This unity and continuity concept of All in One expounded in Vedanta is consistent with quantum physics where the universe is superimposed inseparable waves of probability amplitudes. The existence of Heisenberg uncertainty phenomenon and quantum Zeno effect is an allegory to the illusions of Maya or a prelude to the indivisible, All in One, Supreme Brahman. This intense philosophical debate was taking place in the mind of young Erwin in the midst of discovering wave mechanics! Nov 1925 to Dec 1926 is a critical period for the development wave mechanics. Erwin's thought process was so upbeat that his creative power peaked during this period and remains without parallel in the history of science!
   
   In personal life; Erwin had contempt for Nazis but never openly criticized the regime. Schrodinger left Berlin 1933 to protest Nazi regime, in the same year he was awarded Nobel Prize with Paul Dirac. At one time he considered a faculty position at Tata Institute (Indian Institute of Science) in Bangalore, India at the invitation of Nobel laureate C.V. Raman. Erwin's love interests include a long list of women; Felice Krauss, Lotte Rella, Ithi Junger, Hansi Bauer-Bohm, Hilde March, Sheila May Green, Kate Nolan, Betty Dolan, Lucie Rie, and maids of Vienna during war years. He had two daughters Ruth and Linda from his lovers. Hilde March, wife of physicist Arthur March, with whom he had a daughter was his pseudo-wife living side by side with wife Annemarie under the same roof. It is ironic that the personal stress associated with his daring extra martial affairs unperturbed by the pressures of the society, and sadness created by financial problems and deaths of his parents and the terrible guilt that ensured due to his inability to do more to care them may have helped rather than hindered his creativity. In a letter of 1930, he recalls how his father's death on the Christmas Eve of 1919 left little cheer in his soul for the festive season throughout his life. This demonstrates the emotional and human side of Erwin; the deaths of his parents shook his consciousness and left him with tremendous pain and loss. Schrödinger's life is filled with drama and sadness caused by several failed romances; three illegitimate children, infidelity, two wives, nervous breakdown of his wife Annemarie, and some of his lovers, and his own illness due to various health problems, and constant displacement due to war and the Nazi regime. Yet his contributions to mankind are immortal. At the end of the book you feel like crying at the triumph and tragedies of this great human being.
   
   1. What Is Life?: with "Mind and Matter" and "Autobiographical Sketches"
   2. Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries Tag: Author of In Search of Schrod. Cat
   3. 'Nature and the Greeks' and 'Science and Humanism' (Canto original series)
   4. Space-Time Structure (Cambridge Science Classics)
   5. Letters on Wave Mechanics: Schrodinger-Planck-Einstein-Lorentz
   6. The Historical Development of Quantum Theory: Erwin Schrodinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics, Part 1 : Schrodinger in Vienna and Zurich 1187-1925 (Historical Development of Quantum Theory)



3. Walter Moore captures the life of Erwin Schrödinger, one of the most important theoretical physicists of the 20th century, covering his career, science, philosophy and personal life.
   
   In this ambitious book Moore tries to shed light on all aspects of Schrödinger's life, and tries to connect them, but no coherent picture evolves. I had the impression, however, that this is not Moore's fault, but that the pieces that made up Erwin Schrödinger did not fit into a coherent whole.
   
   A gifted student from an early age on, he took on physics. After initially dwelling in different sub-fields, he developed wave mechanics at the (for creative work in theoretical physics) late age of 38. His almost unparalelled mathematical skills made this advance possible. Schrödinger never saw mathematics only as a tool, but he greatly appreciated it's beauty. Moore does an excellent job in describing the intellectual journey towards this discovery, as well as the giants on who's shoulders Schrödinger was standing. For this work Schrödinger received the Nobel prize in 1933.
   
   In his later years, he dedicated a substantial part of his efforts to the search for a unified (quantum mechanics - relativity) theory of physics. Just like Einstein, with whom he had an extensive correspondence about the mater, he failed. Schrödinger's scientific work is explained in quite a bit of detail. Despite being quite familiar with differential equations, but without a background in theoretical physics, I must admit that I had a hard time following Schrödinger's insights as presented by Moore.
   
   From his student days on, Erwin Schrödinger was a believer in the Indian teachings of Vedanta, proclaiming a one-ness of all minds, which make up reality. It is hard to see how a rational 20th century scientist could adhere so uncritically to an ancient religion. However, these beliefs seemingly did not influence his science much and neither did they influence his personal life.
   
   His personal life was, nevertheless, unusual. He was a lover of interesting women, and he had many (I am all for that!), but many of his loves were still teenagers, while he was in his 30s and 40s (very weired!). For a man of such high intellectual capacity, this shows very poor moral judgment. He was not solely interested in sex, but sincerely in love with many of them and wrote them love poems.
   
   Schrödinger also showed somewhat poor moral judgment in terms of politics, although the turmoils of the 20th century greatly affected him (he was removed from his professorship in Graz by the Nazis). He was not an opportunist, like so many of his fellow Austrian and German physicists. Although he leaned to the left, he basically was not interested in politics at all. An irresponsible neglect during the rise of fascism in Europe!
   
   Moore brings together all these aspects of Erwin Schrödinger, and he does so with lots of knowledge of the local culture and history of the places Schrödinger visited and lived at (Vienna, Graz, Dublin, Cambridge). This is a well researched book in all aspects and one with lots of sympathy for "Erwin".



4. This is a masterful biography, but one need to have a profound knowledge of higher mathematics and a basic one in physics to fully understand it.
   
   Walter Moore shows that Schrödinger's life and thought was at least controversial.
   
   Life
   Schrödinger's personal itinerary is exemplary for the 20th century. He was born in a comfortable upper-middle class, but his parents lost their savings in the German inflation after WW I. The result was famine and diseases. It marked the rest of his life. As a young man he was confronted with unemployment and nearly left physics for financial reasons!
   He found a decent job only at the age of 34. Even after winning the Nobel Prize he was still confronted with 'pension' problems.
   
   Science
   Walter Moore gives us a magisterial and detailed analysis of the scientific discoveries of ES, from his humble beginnings to the elaboration of the quantum wave function and after.
   It shows that ES was above all a mathematical genius and a not so brilliant experimenter.
   ES remained all his life opposed to the complemantary (particle/wave) interpretation of quantum mechanics (the 'Kopenhagen oracle' for ES). For him, there were only waves!
   
   Sex
   Beside science, sex was the principal occupation of his life, with all combinations imaginable. He lived a ménage à trois and sometimes à quatre, but still fell in love with other women, also with very young ones for he had a Lolita complex. He could without doubt have been accused of paedophilia.
   But his intense love affairs stimulated highly his scientific creativity.
   One can only wonder if his 'wild' behaviour and negative view of bourgeois marriage were not fundamentally influenced by the fact that he couldn't marry his first true love, because her family found that he was too poor!
   
   Politics
   He had a deep contempt for the governing classes (politicians, clergy) who 'enslave men by violence and use the religious desire of many people to promote superstition to rule over the dispossessed'. He also distrusted democracy!
   
   Philosophical world view
   This is certainly one of the strangest aspects of his thoughts.
   He was convinced that physics provided absolutely no answers to philosophical questions (e. g. free will). All his life he remained, like Einstein, an adept of determinism.
   His philosophical views and ethical principles were completely dissociated from his real life!
   As an adept of the Vedanta, he believed the Buddhist wisdom that a thing could be both A and non-A (horribile dictu)!
   He was also heavily influenced by the philosophy of Schopenhauer.
   
   This work gives excellent explanations of the Vedanta, and the philosophy of Mach and Schopenhauer.
   It contains a very painful paragraph on Heidegger.
   
   I see only one minus point: the author doesn't give Bohr's pertinent response to the EPR-article against the Copenhagen interpretation of qm.
   
   This is a brilliant book and certainly the definitive biography of Schrödinger. It is by no means a hagiography and doesn't dodge some 'weird' aspects of Schrödinger's life.
   Not to be missed.



5. This book, is amazing. I came across it because I was forced to do a project for chemistry on Erwin Schrödinger, and I'm glad I did. It's a 512 page biography of him, and I think that says it all. It covers and extensive amount of ground, and is very useful for anyone doing any researh on the man. It gives a lot of background information about what was going on in his life, and the events in the world around him. Whenever he went to a new college, there was always some information on the college itself. If Schrödinger did research on a topic, there would be a small history on the scientist that came before him and how they affected him. The book is virtually packed with quotes form other people, letters, and speeches. One of the other things I liked was that it contained details of Schrödinger's personal life, such as his extramarital affairs and details on his marriage, and his family history. Want to see some pictures? There's that too. Bet you didn't know that Schrödinger wrote poetry. Well he did, and all of it is here too, in both German and an English translation. Another thing that makes the book stand out it that it is bery readable. Walter Moore did an excellent job writing the book, and it shows. I can say that you only need to read one book about Schrödinger: this one.

3 comments about A Life of Discovery: Michael Faraday, Giant of the Scientific Revolution.

1. Although it might sound as a very good idea, it is obviously pretty brave to write about Michael Faraday when you're not a scientist. Hamilton does complain in the editorial already to have accepted this work, and worthy enough to mention, he does not do a good job. Reading this long book you do get a lot of more or less single informations on the life of MF that taken together do not make up more than a small-minded reconstruction of whome he answered which letter when and using which tone. Pretty few notes on where science came from and what the dream of a final theory was about. Nothing at all on Maxwell and his electrodynamics, this alone is inexcusable. Nothing of course on how the theory failed already with Michelson and Morley in the late 1880's. Einstein, who admired Faraday like almost nodbody else, isn't even mentioned once. We do not get an insight into the Sandemanian sect. What we do get is pages of analysis of random photographs showing MF and others. This book has little understanding of the matter and therefore no life in it. Sorry.



2. It is a sad fact of modern life--at least in America--that so many of the great scientific minds that helped create our modern life are forgotten. As a high school science teacher, I try to give my students some knowledge of the important figures of scientific history. Standing as one of the giants of nineteenth century science is the subject of this book, Michael Faraday.
   
   Faraday's rise to the top of the scientific world is an interesting one. The son of a blacksmith, Faraday was apprenticed at an early age to a bookbinder. During his apprenticeship, however, he became interested in science through the popular public lectures on the subject and likely through reading some of the books he was binding. As his apprenticeship came to an end, Faraday tried to apprentice himself to a scientist and, through both hard work and good luck, attached himself to one of the most important scientists of the day, Humphrey Davy.
   
   While working with Davy, Faraday learned the fundamentals of scientific research, demonstrating extraordinary ability as an experimentalist. In time, Faraday became his own man, achieving a place of honor at the Royal Institution where he loyally remained for the rest of his career. During that time, he made a number of important discoveries, including the basics of electromagnetism, developing the prototype of the modern electric generator among other devices that will become integral to our modern society. He also made a name for himself as a popular lecturer on science whose fame at the time could only be equaled by Charles Dickens. Through this, he made known his lifelong belief in universal scientific education for the young. Most significantly, he did this all with minimal formal schooling leaving him forever limited in some respects such as mathematical ability.
   
   James Hamilton does a very good job of taking us through Faraday's life with depth but also in a very readable way. He brings out not only Faraday's scientific achievements but also his dedication to his strict form of Christianity (the Sandemanians) and the tension this sometime brought to his life. He showed Faraday's constant struggle against illness and his own limitations. Also, he shows something of Faraday's artistic side and how this influenced Faraday's research, most obviously in his support of the developing science/art of photography.
   
   Though Hamilton's expertise in art gives an added dimension often missing from scientific biography, it also contributes to the two main weaknesses of this book. In general, Hamilton's explanations of Faraday's work is quite good, particularly for the general reader, but he does miss some opportunities. Most noticeably, he gives a very cursory coverage to Faraday's development of the field concept which plays such an important role in physics today. This is quite surprising considering how easily it lends itself to artistic depiction. Additionally, from his previous work it seems he has a fixation on the British landscape artist, J. Turner, and refers to him repeatedly throughout the book (particular in the latter part) whereas I could not see how this contributed in any real way to the story of Faraday.
   
   Despite this, Hamilton has written a very good book here that will hopefully contribute to a revival in interest in this very important scientific figure, particularly here in the U.S. When I traveled to England some years ago I was surprised upon turning over a twenty pound note to see an image of Michael Faraday. Clearly Faraday still retains respect in his homeland. Scientific figures don't command that kind of respect here but Hamilton's book helps to show why they should.



3. One thing that delighted me about this book and about the person of Michael Faraday was the mixture of science and faith. While these two disciplines have parted ways and are no longer intertwined for many in the modern world, Michael Faraday is an intriguing example of both a devout believer and a ground breaking researcher.
   Faraday's story also has immense appeal as it relates his rise out of humble beginnings on the basis of his own genius and merit, in contrast with the lingering emphasis of his time on inheirited wealth and position.
   My only criticism is that the author, who evidently has written much in the realm of art history, adds a bit more content on art to this biography than seems justified.
   On the whole, I recommend this book as it is a well told tale about a significant and intriguing character whose story is very much worth retelling and considering anew.

5 comments about Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling.

1. Linus Pauling was indisputably one of the greatest Americans of the last century. He revolutionized chemistry, helped to start biochemistry, was a well-known political activist, and later put his energies into health science research. For these accomplishments, he became the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes. There are, indeed, those who claim that he was very close to being the first person to determine the structure of DNA, but did not do so because he was unable to attend a crucial meeting, at which some pivotal discoveries about DNA were reported. The two scientists who did discover the structure of DNA were, of course, rewarded with the Nobel Prize.
   
   Any biography of such a prodigy must suffer under the dearth of biographers able to do their subject justice. Hager, who knew Pauling before his death, has done a very good job of making Pauling come to life; the book, which bears close reading, is easily worth five stars.
   
   Nevertheless it has a few deficiencies. One is that Hager barely explains Pauling's scientific accomplishments. Obviously excessive detail is beyond the scope of the book, but a hundred or so pages devoted to the basic concepts and the ramifications of Pauling's work would have made for a vastly more interesting book. Hager, as is to be expected of one of Pauling's friends, is somewhat protective of Pauling. He describes how Pauling repeatedly made fools of many American "Anti-communists" who were, at times, paranoid and ignorant, at times, vindictive, and, at times, outright liars. The climate of "loyalty oaths" and of various government agencies suspecting anyone who had ever had anything to do with anyone under suspicion was chilling.
   
   And yet Hager doesn't adequately describe the other side of the coin. The United States certainly had warts, but he utterly neglects the Soviet Union's abject disregard for human rights, its forced labor camps, and its many other flaws. Neither does Communist China's self-genocidal Cultural Revolution merit a single mention, not even when Hager describes Pauling's controversial visit to the Chinese attempt to create a "Worker's Paradise." Pauling, who was drawn into the demimonde of fringe left-wing politics, and Utopian political ideas by his wife, appears to have been completely oblivious to these unpleasant realities. By neglecting to duly describe these rather poor judgments on Pauling's part, which did so much to discredit him, Hager doesn't portray Pauling as the political knight errant he so clearly was. All the same, this biography is well worth reading.



2. There are very few scientists in history who can truly be called 'giants'. Two times Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling was undoubtedly one of them, and also a great humanitarian. In this biography, Thomas Hager brings a fine perspective to the life of this remarkable man.
   Hager puts every part of Pauling's life and science in the spotlight; growing up in Oregon among difficult times without a father, attending college and university through sheer grit and determination, learning the new sciences of x-ray crystallography and quantum mechanics, and finally applying this knowledge to an amazing array of fields in chemistry, physics, biology and medicine, in the process becoming one of the greatest scientists of the century.
   
   Pauling's life can really be divided into two parts, both of which Hager discusses in detail. In the first part, he became the foremost chemist in the world and made contributions to an almost unbelievable variety of topics; the chemical bond and quantum chemistry, inorganic and organic chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biology, and medical research. In at least two of these, quantum chemistry and molecular biology, he became their founding father in the true sense of the term.
   In the second part of his life, Pauling became a great humanitarian, relentlessly protesting against nuclear testing in the face of great troubles brought about by McCarthysm and the Cold War. After World War 2, Pauling's life was a constant struggle as he waged war against nuclear weapons, was accused of having Communist sympathies and denied a passport for travelling to England by the State Department (thus possibly missing out on winning the race to discover the DNA structure), and had to leave his beloved Caltech of many years because of tensions between himself and the administration. When he received the Nobel Peace prize, a prominent newspaper called it 'a weird insult from Sweden'.
   In spite of all this, Pauling still found time to make the great discovery of protein structure, and make decisive contributions to molecular biology and medicine. He was the first person to describe a genetically inherited disease, sickle cell anemia, in molecular terms. This is one of the harbingers of the modern age of drug discovery and gene-therapy. Hager portrays both Pauling's scientific as well as political crusades in an excellent way. He also manages to put the man in context, and discusses the general changing political and scientific scenario of Pauling's times. This includes the beginning of 'big science', the permanent moulding of science and politics, and the coming of age of American academia and industry.
   
   In later years, Pauling was even more bitterly criticized for his espousal of unorthodox ideas in nutrition and medicine (especially his insistence about the benefits of unusually large doses of Vitamin C as a puported cure for almost everything, from the common cold to cancer). However, the last words on his medical theories has not yet been said and research continues.
   From very early on in all of Pauling's endeavors, he was constantly supported by an extraordinary woman; his wife, Ava Helen, and Hager very rightly gives due and important attention to her in this book; many times, the essential strong and silent women behind the men are forgotten and fortunately Hager does not do this.
   
   There are many biographies of Pauling ( the ones by Serafini, Goertzel and Mead being the main ones). In its scope and comprehensivenes, Hager's is probably the best. All in all, a great read about a truly important scientist-citizen of the last century



3. The Hager book is not bad at all, though I would not rank it above the Serafini book. Probably the motivation for saying this is that there is less of Pauling's science in the Serafini book and more in Hager's book. However, many reviewers miss the point that the purpose of a biography is to delve into a subject's life and personality -- not the details of his work. And, in any case, Pauling stopped doing any serious science before the 60's began and in fact left Caltech near the beginning of that decade, thereafter devoting his life mainly to silly peace crusades, vitamin C hokum and such things. So in this respect the Serafini book is actually more in proportion to Pauling's serious work in science and does a fairly good job. In this respect also, the Goertzel book in my view also does well, although the latter is a bit too "psychoanalytical" for my taste .



4. Editor: I wrote one of the reviews of this book already included on your website. But there was a typo in my original version. I wrote "21st century" when I obviously meant "20th century" in describing the century in which Linus Pauling lived. Do you think you could correct this typo? Thanks.

   William Ott
   Montgomery Village, MD




5. Linus Pauling loved America. Born in the USA in 1901, of humble, working parents, he was a winner of two Nobel Prizes and a witness and participant in almost all the grand events of the 21st century: the discovery of quantum physics, the gradual understanding of how chemistry works, the discovery of DNA, the development of the atomic bomb, two world wars, the cold war and McCarthyism, the emergence of big science and super-universities like Cal Tech, and the social activism of the 60s. Pauling, like the fictional character, Forest Gump, had a remarkable life in which he encountered and influenced almost all the major characters of 21st century science, politics, and society. A loving husband and father, Pauling was devoted to his wife of 60 plus years, which provides another fascinating undercurrent to his life. This is one book I was sorry to have finished -- I found it relaxing AND educational. Author Tom Hager has an enviable ability to explain complex, scientific concepts in everyday language, whether they come from the world of physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, or drug development. He expertly weaves the science in with the modern history of our country, from life in rural Oregon where Pauling was born and raised, to the capitals of the world where he influenced presidents and national leaders, to Hollywood and university campuses where his gregarious, fun-loving personality, communication ability, and liberal politics turned him into a media darling. With short, snappy chapters, this book is hard to put down.......

No comments about Taxes, Estate Planning, and Asset Protection (Secrets of the Great Investors).

No comments about The Voice of Dr. Wernher von Braun: An Anthology (Apogee Books Space Series).

5 comments about In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History.

1. I felt I got a well-rounded view of Wallace as a person from this book. And I felt the treatment was fair, fairer than I expected from an arch-skeptic of and enemy of anything spiritual, Wallace's "weakness." Omitted, though, was adequate coverage of some of Wallace's strongest arguments against natural selection. As I understand it, Wallace said that the talents induced in us by civilization must have been built into our species at inception, but through not being useful prior to civilization should have been lost through disuse, here following Darwin's terminology. A good argument. Just as the author gets here the discussion shifts onto sexual selection and "the problem of incipient stages," as if the author's nerve failed. Otherwise I thought this a good "life."



2. After reading a review in NY review of books of Shermer's book I snapped out of my previous opinion and decided to revise my previous review here. Distracted by the issues raised in A. Brackman's book, A Delicate Arrangement, 'rebutted' by Shermer, I wavered wrongly in my original view at what appears now as a clever whitewash of Darwin.
   Putting Brackman's arguments to one side for the nonce, the plain fact of the matter is that Darwin was, and has been ever since, engineered by Big Science propaganda into the exclusive icon for the discovery of evolution. And is Shermer just the fellow for this displacement job on Wallace. Wallace confuses people because they think that Darwin on the descent of man is established science, when the reality is that an immense con job has always finessed the fact that science has no conclusive theory here, and Wallace honestly pointed it out. Period.
   As to the rest of Shermer's arguments in his book, viz. on the 'science' of history, they are without merit and constitute another of the 'bilge and balderdash' necessary to cover up the fact that there is no science of history, also.
   The whole Darwin field is addicted to a pack of lies and it seems all parties have lost the ability to distinguish truth from distortion. Reviewing the details of the Ternate affair, we seem to see the ambitious Darwin concerned to rescue his priority, after years of so doubting his theory he couldn't publish it, and getting his priority by rigging the priority list and rushing into print. We have spent over a century beholden to this farce. Time for a little skepticism.



3. Alfred Russel Wallace seems to rate hardly more than a footnote in the history of the theory of evolution. Like most who have studied this subject, I knew of Wallace's mutual discovery of the theory and evidence in support of it. I knew too of Darwin's generous introduction of the man as a co-discoverer, and even of the theory that that introduction might have been more premeditated and less generous that it appears. In some of my reading I had even learned of Wallace's "defection" to spiritualism. However, where Darwin's life is everywhere paraphrased and his thoughts on the subject of evolution almost subject to canonization, Wallace's life and thoughts seemed just to have "fallen out" of the picture. Michael Shermer's book, In Darwin's Shadow, The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace, provides a more detailed look at Wallace the man and scientist. It also looks at the subject of how history and biography reflects the psychology of their time-in some ways, he does so unintentionally.

   In many ways A. R. Wallace, though not a formally educated man, was more of a research scientist than Darwin. He apparently plunged into the pursuit of regional studies with a vengeance for most of his youth, some twelve years abroad, studying natural subjects in their native habitat. Whether it was beetles in the tropics, indigenous people in their native and in their European dominated settings, the communities of animals characteristic of different regions in Southeast Asia, or the geology of various regions, etc, his studies were extensive and detailed. According to Shermer, he logged in over 20,000 miles on various collecting trips, and just on his Malay trip collected almost 125,000 specimens, over a thousand of which were new species (p. 14).

   His reputation for openness and exposure to new experiences was amazing, especially for the day, and recognized even by those who did not necessarily agree with his opinions. His written output was prolific and varied, with topics ranging from ancient history, animal behavior, botany, ethics, history of science, linguistics, plurality of worlds, phrenology, spirtualism, taxonomy, womens rights, agricultural economics, literature and poetry, poor laws, and trade regulation (p. 15). Shermer indicates that even into old age Wallace wrote on a variety of subjects and had a life-time average output that ranks high, even when compared to modern writers like Gould, Sagan, and Ernst Mayr.

   While I found Shermer's historical matrix model interesting, I felt that I learned more about how history and biography are created in our own time and what it says about us than I did about Wallace or his contemporaries. The matrix model seems to smack of psychobabble and Oprah "awarenesses" and introduces a lot of introspection into the possible effects of birth order, etc. on behavior. It tries to hard to get at the "whys?" of human behavior and motivation for which there is little proof for or against. It was only once the author got into the life and times of the man himself that I could more easily settle into Wallace's world. For one thing, I understood better what the flap about the man's delving into spiritualism was all about. I also learned where Wallace and Darwin differed, even from the beginning, in their own individual approach to evolution, and why Darwinian evolution is the model that gained the greatest respect and serves as the foundation of modern theories.

   I think more than anything, the book introduces the reader to the fact that science is a communal thing, a human thing, and is subject to the vicissitudes of other human endeavors: chance, political and social prejudices, personalities and egos, readiness for new ideas, plain old mistakes, etc. I learned again that scientific discoveries occur in tandem, when the world is ready to receive them, that they're sort of "in the air." I learned that more than one person can come up with the same or similar idea, putting their own personal stamp on the concept, thereby forwarding human knowledge just a little bit more. I learned that scientists can be wrong or partly wrong about their topic and can be wrong or partly wrong about topics outside their expertise, and most importantly, that reputation should not be given total credence without proper thought. Because a person is famous does not mean that their opinions are any more valid than anyone else's.

   An enlightening biography of an interesting man. While I think that Darwin's is the more carefully thought out and supported theory of evolution, I think that Wallace was the more interesting and happier person. I suspect it would have been more fun to have known him than to have known Darwin.




4. A nice story of the scientist who came to a similar conclusion about natural history as his elder and more famous colleague, Darwin. I enjoyed reading about Wallace's background (quite different than Darwin's), his world travels, and the ways in which his theories differed from Darwin's. The author uses multivariate analysis on personality traits to attempt to explain some of these differences; I'm not fully convinced of the validity of that (for every statistical rule there are exceptions, and as Mark Twain colorfully observed, "there are lies ..."), but it's an interesting possibility.



5. I bought this book rather in spite of than because of the other Amazon reviews, and lugged it with me on a flight out to the West Coast. The book lasted from Boston to Atlanta, and when it was over I closed it with a sigh of relief. While Shermer is certainly at times an engaging writer here he indulges in a rather peculiar form of quantitative psycho-history mixed in with the equally peculiar allocation of behavioural traits to birth order. There MAY be something in this somewhere, but at the same time it smacks of the 19th century Victorian fetish about cranial measurments that Shermer's evident hero-mentor Stephen Gould took to task in THE MISMEASURE OF MAN. That Shermer is so obsessed with his methodologies (he devotes a substantial portion of the book to 'how he did it") is a shame because it lessens and weakens his focus on his putative topic, the fascinating Alfred Wallace. Instead of really delving intoWallace's background and early experiences we get a few pages of quick gloss intertwined with what frankly struck me as mumbo-jumbo about what it means to be a Younger Child. This may be all very new Age & Hip right now, but I strongly doubt it will prove to have much in the way of scholarly legs. Then there is the tedious re-hashing of Gould's speculations which other reviewers have already re-hashed. Yup, they are old, they are trite, and can we please now move on? Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the discussion of Wallace's involvement with various "Spiritualist" frauds during the second half of his career. Here the writing really picks up & one has the sense that "aha, now we are going to get somewhere". Alas, the excitement soon fades & the book itself fades out to a gentle glow at the end. i really don't know how to categorize this text. It is far too incomplete for someone unfamiliar with Wallace's life & work to get a real sense of the man and it offers such an odd view on Wallace's relationships with friends, family, colleagues & rivals that one is left wondering just what was intended. A footnote to a more general study? Maybe, but i agree with the reviewer who calls for the need of a REAL biography that puts Wallace AND his science in proper context.

5 comments about Descartes: The Life and times of a Genius.

1. I appreciate the efforts of A. C. Grayling to produce a book, DESCARTES The Life and Times of a Genius (2005), which pictures how intellectual efforts produced many of the changes that we currently benefit from 400 years after the life of René Descartes (1596--1650). Being able to rely on a few clear truths to produce knowledge was fruitful in ways that those opposed to profiting from forbidden fruits had never imagined, but the emphasis placed by Grayling upon tumultuous events which Descartes witnessed early in life reminds me of cultural changes which the modern world is still having difficulty digesting.
   The French King Henri IV (1553--1610) founded the Jesuit college La Flèche in 1604 and Descartes was a student there from 1606 until 1616. One of the major ceremonies which took place when Descartes was 16 years old involved burying the heart of Henri IV in the chapel at La Flèche. Grayling attempts to fathom the significance of such events:
   
   ". . . Henri IV had been murdered by a Jesuit called Ravillac, so there is black irony in the fact that, by his own wish, the king was buried by Jesuits among the Jesuits, whom he had patronised and supported with such generosity. . . . The Jesuits, as already noted, were the advisors and encouragers of the Hapsburgs, who, like their Jesuit mentors, saw themselves as the champions of the Catholic church, and who were soon to plunge Europe into three decades of hideous war in an effort--ultimately unsuccessful--to reclaim for Catholicism all territories lost to Protestantism." (pp. 23-24).
   
   I can appreciate the idea of the Jesuits as an intellectual elite with a faith that they could change the nature of society by using whatever weapons were readily available. The same kind of thinking dominates those who think of themselves as a universal panacea. This becomes hideous when it is viewed with the sense of monstrosity that a knowledge of intellectual history is able to produce.
   
   Grayling considers it possible that Descartes was a spy for the Jesuits, which was highly suspect in his native France, so he spent years in an area that has become Belgium. The most prosperous Protestant area, "The seven dissenting Protestant provinces in the Union of Utrecht were Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, Friesland and Groningen (without its city)." (p. 32). When Descartes traveled from Breda to join Duke Maximilian's troops for the Battle of White Mountain outside Prague, and to attend the coronation of emperor Ferdinand II in Frankfurt in September 1619, following the death of Matthias in March 1619, his circuitous route was through regions controlled by the Jesuits. With perfect timing, the battle had been revenge for the famous Defenestration of Prague on May 22, 1618, after Matthias had given Catholics the leading posts on the council of Regents, "The new regents' first act was to require that all Bohemian religious bodies should revert to the terms of their original foundation, thus at a stroke returning all Protestant churches to Catholic control, complete with their endowments and other property. The Bohemian Protestants immediately rebelled." (pp. 51-52).
   
   Try to imagine results like:
   
   "As these armies amassed, Frederick V arrived in Prague with his German Calvinist entourage, to whom the Bohemian Lutherans took an immediate dislike. Sweden, Venice, Denmark and the United Provinces of the Netherlands had all recognized Frederick's accession to the throne of Bohemia as a way of thumbing a nose at Ferdinand II, but they had no intention of sending troops to help him." (pp. 53-54).
   
   Instead of trying to separate these things from the life of Descartes, Grayling sees a link with the ideas that promoted a scientific revolution. "Of course the two things cannot be separated, just as Descartes' story cannot be told without reference to both." (p. 55).
   
   My own life and times have been interesting in ways that are all too much for those whose sanity claims that what is simple is true. Systems that are highly complex are prone to fail in unexpected ways, and Descartes was able to observe the rise and fall of human affairs in a way that suggests the wave motions studied in fluid mechanics. I took a few courses in fluid mechanics at the University of Michigan College of Engineering, and a professor there tried to interest me in the problems that he was working on, much like Descartes met Isaac Beeckman in Breda in November 1618. Descartes dedicated a treatise on harmonics to Beeckman and worked on a set of four problems in hydrostatics. Trying to figure out the problems Beeckman suggested, the modes of argument led to "the essence of Cartesian micro-mechanism in optics, cosmology, physiology, and natural philosophy generally, after being refined over the next fifteen years through practice, criticism, and deliberate metaphysical reconstruction." (p. 43, quoting Schuster, Descartes and the Scientific Revolution I.101).
   
   Recent biographies of my favorite philosophers are considered in Appendix II. On war, "In this, Descartes and Wittgenstein followed the example of Socrates, who was a hoplite--a heavily armed infantryman--in the Athenian army at the battle of Potidiae." (p. 254). Even Immanuel Kant can be found interesting if he is considered as "an atheist in a city wracked by religious strife, in which the Pietist community from which he sprang played a leading part." (p. 254). Nietzsche gets credit for "his revolution was not effected in the sphere of philosophy and science, as with Descartes, but in the psychology of an age." (pp. 258-159). Kant, Nietzsche, and Althusser are mentioned in connection with "their descents into madness or dementia at the last, are untypical of the general run of philosophers, who tend to live long and enjoy an alert old age," (p. 262), probably as a result of finding that what is simple is true, in spite of being alert to the forms of psychotic multiplicity that outrageous thinkers deal with daily.



2. This book is an extremely well written historical (rather than scholarly) biography, but fails to really present the substance of Descartes' ideas and theories. I also have the following criticisms, in no particular order:
   
   1) I was taught to write in clear simple English. To read this book, you'd better have a dictionary handy. The book, understanably, is written in British English, not modern American English. This is not a fault, but the reader should be aware.
   
   2) This book covers Descartes' journeys theroughout 17th century Europe. Accordingly a map of 17th century Europe, with the cities Descartes visited or lived in would have been invaluable.
   
   3) An Introduction or Appendix discussing at some length the the SUBSTANCE of Descartes' books would also have been invaluable.
   
   4) This book mentions many, many persons in Descartes' life. A brief Appendix commenting on the more critical of these persons would have been helpful. Also, the book sometimes notes that certain characters played key roles in Descartes' life, but sometimes fails to provide much depth about such roles.
   
   5) The book notes that Descartes was held in high regard by other contemporary scholars and intellectuals. Based solely on Mr. Grayling's book, I fail to understand why. But I think that's more a failing of Mr. Grayling's book.



3. This book brings up a very intersting set of connections that seem to explain a lot. True to program this book's focus is on biography instead of philosophy. But the biographical insights are well worth the read on their own. There is a good summary of Descartes' philosophical position in the first appendix. One surprise is how little mention there is of Spinoza especially in those sections that presents Descartes' impact on those who followed him. All in all, this is an excellent book to recommend to those students that want to spend some time on Descartes in an introductory course.



4. I found Grayling's "Descartes" to be an interesting read from a pure biographical perspective. Although I have an interest in philosophy, Grayling writes in a way that reasonably intelligent laypersons can understand. Unfortunately, though, Grayling treads very little new ground, relying on past biographers of Descartes to do the legwork for him. The only new ground the author treads is relaying the proposition that Descartes was a spy. I actually find this plausible for two reasons: one, it explains Descartes' travelling; two, Descartes doesn't talk about his travelling much in his writings. These two factors give Grayling's hypothesis some weight. Grayling doesn't take too much time expositing Descartes' philosophy, but in an appendex he does give a brief introduction to it. Like I mentioned, the author does rely on other biographers for information, but that fact doesn't take away from the quality of the book. One fact that Grayling kept mentioning was that Descartes seemed to want to portray his ideals as acceptable to the church, and also to have his beliefs fit into the framework of "orthodox" theology of the time. I wondered why Grayling kept hitting on this point so many times, and then I came to the following conclusion: Grayling wants to excuse Descartes. One would imagine that if Descartes applied his method to the idea of the existence of God, one would conclude that it would be necessary to doubt, or even reject, the existence of God. Descartes never stated that God didn't exist, nor did he (as far as I know) even doubt it. By not stating that he doubted it, Descartes attempted to stay on good terms with the church. Descartes' later politiking shows me that he was concerned with ensuring his own safety, both physically and financially, which is fine. Grayling doesn't go this far in the book, but I think it is a necessary and unavoidable conclusion; I'm just surprised Graying didn't call Descartes out on it. To conclude this review, Grayling's bibliography is strong, giving the reader lots of roads to travel if one wants to explore the subject further, which I plan to do.



5. This is a very readable, enjoyable and informative book. Professor Grayling takes a lot of time putting Descartes into his proper historical context, which I think is essential to understanding him, or any philosopher. Even abstract ideas don't develop without any reference to what is going on at the time. The problem of reconciling faith with the nascent scientific revolution, the relation between the new anatomy and the locus of the mind, and religious wars of the 17th century were pivotal to the evolution of Descartes' thought. Grayling naturally emphasizes Descartes' philosophical ideas rather than his mathematical or scientific ones, though these also are discussed. Grayling also gives us as good a look as we can get at the motives and preferences of so private a person: the expensive green silk suit that he bought in hopes of securing a title show us a man who is vain rather than austere, despite his reclusive life in the Netherlands, for example. HIs arrogance was as expected, but not his pettiness towards, for example, Beeckman. And that he composed librettos for Queen Christina was a real surprise.

3 comments about Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity.

1. Very well planned, full of meaningfull illustrations, accurately written and revised,this book deserves special attention of everyone interested in Einsteins's personal life and scientific production. Recommended with enthusiasm.



2. This beautiful, hardcover coffee-table book, whose text is as delightful as its scores of photographs, retails for $29.95--not the $35 that Amazon advertises. It is an amazing value in this day when trade paperbacks often retail for $24.95 and higher.



3. This is a review of "Einstein: A Hundred Years of Relativity," by Andrew Robinson.
   
   For the last three or four years, I have both actively and passively searched for a good introductory book on Einstein, something that is accessible to me as an intelligent non-scientist, but that is broader in scope than I take most of his biographies to be. I want a good, clear explanation of special and general relativity, but I also want to know more about the pacificist and cultural icon, about Einstein as a humanist. No one book has filled the niche. Either you find good discussions of his physics, or you find books on his love life, or you find books that are beautifully produced but have very little substance.
   
   As the centennial of the "miraculous year" of 1905, 2005 has seen a bumper crop of books on Einstein, many of them poorly conceived and some richly priced. But this book is just what I've been looking for for the last few years.
   
   The Editorial Review is wrong in stating that all entries are new except for Einstein's last interview. In fact, a few pages from Einstein's autobiography are also included--and that indicates one reason why this book is so well done. It is divided into two parts; the first has seven chapters on "The Physicist"; the second has eight chapters on "The Man." All of these are written by Andrew Robinson. But interspersed with this biographical-chronological-topical layout are essays by other authors. Einstein contributes a few pages to Part One and a few to Part Two. But there are also four essays by others in Part One and five essays by others in Part Two. It's thrilling to read Stephen Hawking on the history of relativity and Philip Glass on his operatic take on Einstein. The book is not hagiographical. Freeman Dyson's preface mainly discusses the embarrassing (for Einstein) peculiarity that Einstein did not believe in black holes.
   
   The book is full of other goodies. Though the text is more than one finds in a typical coffee-table book, the illustrations are of that beauty and quantity. It's an illustrated book with well-chosen pictures, always with captions. There are notes in the back, a detailed chronology of his life, and a (non-annotated) bibliography. The whole is made authoritative not only by the caliber of its contributors, but by its use of Einstein's archives housed at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
   
   The only way this book could be better is if there were more of it; sometimes the discussions feel rushed and compressed. Also, despite Robinson's literary credentials, I'm not partial to his somewhat awkward, hypertactic writing style.

5 comments about American Dreamer: The Life and Times of Henry A. Wallace.

1. Doesn't anyone here know how pathetically naive this man was? I mean he wanted to pursue a policy of appeasement with mass-murderer Joseph Stalin - much as Neville Chamberlain had done not a decade earlier with Hitler. Thank God Roosevelt had the sense to remove him from the Vice Presidency.
   
   Don't waste your time; the man, however "idealistic" (meaning he didn't listen to anyone else), is a historical nonentity.



2. This book is very readable and engaging. In parts, you'll learn more about corn and agriculture than you ever thought you would from a political biography, but it isn't dull. American Dreamer gives great insight into many facets of American life from the 20s through the 50s, from the collapse of agriculture to the red scare (among the many things Mr Wallace so accurately predicted or feared). Most importantly American Dreamer throroughly introduces one to Mr Wallace, his faults and greatness.
   
   Even if you're not too interested in Henry Wallace (or vaguely know of him), if you're interested in American history or politics of that era, you'll be fascinated as I was.



3. This is an extremely well written book. Th most amazing thing about it is that is corrects some of the conventional wisdom about Henry Wallace that more "popular" historians of this era like Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough use without questioning.

   A remarkable book about a remarkable man.




4. A biography of one politician written by another could have been a nightmare this fall, but this one is a dream. Culver and Hyde have done a masterful job of telling a great story about someone who has been overshadowed by the giants of the era--Roosevelt, Truman, Stimson, George Marshall, etc.--but who certainly was one of the great minds of his generation. Henry A. Wallace was not only a cabinet member and vice president, he was a journalist, scientist, philosopher and theoretician. Culver and Hyde have captured all the aspects of his public life in an interesting, readable style. This may be more than you thought you ever wanted to know about Henry A. Wallace, but it's worth the time to learn about this fascinating man and his times.



5. This is undoubtedly one of the most impressive political biographies I've ever read. I have to confess from the outset (with a tad of embarrassment) that I pretty much had no idea who Henry A. Wallace was when I picked up this book. What shocked me most after reading 'American Dreamer' was how a man that was so revered and despised in his time has been so conveniently left out of any present discourse on that era.

   In 'American Dreamer', Hyde and Culver give a well-written and balanced account of the life on one of the most enigmatic and progressive political leaders that America has ever produced. Why his name has never come up in years of taking history courses amazes me- especially in light of the fact that his thoughts on the cold war, which he tried desperately to steer us away from, turned out to be quite prescient.

   Henry Agard Wallace was Secretary of Agriculture for eight years, Vice President for four and Commerce Secretary for a short time before his forced ouster. Wallace ran for the Presidency in 1948 on the Progressive ticket, lost, and then left public office. What Wallace left us during this time was a legacy of innovative leadership, genuine public service and a virtual revolution in agriculture.

   Wallace eschewed the world of dog eat dog politics and preferred appealing directly to the public than orchestrating back room machinations. He was honest, direct, practical and always put the public good above his own wants or ambitions. In short, he had everything that seems to be lacking in the American political spectrum today.

   As I read the book I couldn't help but think what would have happened if Wallace had remained Vice President (instead of Truman) and therefore become President at Roosevelt's death. It seems to me that the worse excesses of the cold war and the red scare could have been avoided and that US policy in just about every area may have been put on a more evenly keeled tack for the future (it would have been undone later, but hell, it's a start).

   Wallace was often accused of being an impractical dreamer- but if what he accomplished in his years of public service were the deeds of an impractical dreamer- then we can certainly use more of them.

5 comments about Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution.

1. This book is a great introduction to Charles Darwin, the human being.
   
   So often we think of Darwin as a thinker, a philosopher, a scientist, a villain, a hero, and associate him only with the theory of evolution that we don't think at all about him as a real person. We never bother comtemplating who Darwin was or where he was coing from.
   
   This book explores the life, lifestyle and personality of Charles Darwin and looks at the forces that shaped him and his writings. His love for his children, his grief over the loss of his beloved daughter from a painful chronic disease, his struggle with the idea of faith in God, his doubts about the meaning of life, all come together to introduce us to Darwin like no other books before has done.
   
   Anyone at all interested in Charles Darwin, his writings or evolution must read this book. The reader will stop thinking of him as a caricature and start seeing him as a human man.
   
   Superbly done!



2. Currently, there is a lot of talk about as well as charges being hurled at the theory of evolution. There are people who are evolutionists pure and simple. There are the doubters who go along with the theory because nobody has a better explanation. And, there is the intelligent design crowd. "Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution" written by a descendant of Charles Darwin does a great service to the humanization of the misunderstood gentleman scientist. It also brings to light the social climate of Victorian England. But most of all it shows Darwin as a family man with the fears and self-doubt that all parents experience especially when confronted with illness of a child. You will learn more about the process of a genius at work as well as get to know a truly gentle man.



3. Not long ago I reviewed a book on Alfred Russell Wallace, In Darwin's Shadow, where I suggested that Wallace's life had probably been a happier one. A reader of that review suggested that this was not necessarily the case, and suggested that I do further research on Darwin's personal life. When I discovered the book Darwin, his Daughter, and Human Evolution by Randal Keynes, a descendant of both Charles Darwin (who was his great-great grandfather) and the economist John Maynard Keynes, I felt that I had found a gold mine. Privileged to the access to family documents and memoirs, Keynes was able to do a very thorough work on the private life of the Darwin family, and a creditable discussion of the effect of Darwin's experiences as a husband and father on his theory of evolution.

   Above all the book is a charming visit to the Victorian era and a lovely story of a devoted family of that time. The more tragic events that occurred in the Darwin household were not unknown to many families up and down the social scale. The loss of their second child shortly after birth, the death of the ten year old Annie, the birth and death of a Downe's syndrome child later in their life, were all events that occurred in other households as well. Probably more unusual was the closeness of the husband and wife, and the involvement of Darwin with the upbringing of his children, although these aspects are similar to those of the lives of Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert. One wonders if these situations were just unusual or if one has a skewed sense of family in the Victorian age.

   Above all, the intense observations Darwin made of his growing children and the sometimes painful conclusions with respect to evolutionary theory that these studies reinforced were surprising to me. I would tend to agree with the author that his family did have a profound impact on Darwin's theories.

   I thank the individual who suggested further research on Darwin and his personal history.

   For THOSE WRITING PAPERS: in biography, history, evolution studies, sociology. Compare some of the other biographies of Victorian era individuals. Can one create a sense of the character of a society by studying individuals? How might the fact that they were unique enough to rate a biography at all prejudice ones view of society by doing this? Were Darwin, Wallace, Victoria and Albert, and other famous individuals "characteristic" of their age? Look at biographies like In Darwin's Shadow, Victoria's Daughters, and Darwin, his Daughter, and Human Evolution and suggest how family has an impact on scientific discovery, politics, philosophy, or other aspects of the human endeavor. Do you think that the theory of evolution would have been the same had Darwin and Russell switched places socially?




4. Having no real knowledge of Charles Darwin beyond myths and some sketchy memories of high school science, I was eager to read this book and finally become acquainted with the Charles Darwin, the man.

   Randal Keynes did not disappoint. His access to a veritable treasure trove of family journals, letters, and records allows Keynes to develop a fully dimensional, complex individual who far exceeds the simple titles of "Evolutionist", "atheist," or any other ordinary label. Far from being a simple scientist (one of the myths dispelled in the book) or a once devout minister-in-training-turned-atheist (another myth), Darwin here is presented as a man of great warmth, devotion, and intellect.

   Especially appealing to me was the emphasis Keynes places on Darwin's family life, as opposed to a lengthy discussion of his evolutionary theory. Darwin comes across as a fun, playful, adoring father whose very real grief over the death of his daughter may well have been a turning point in his thinking about God and the nature of the human condition.

   Anyone who dismisses out of hand Darwin's theories as mere instruments by which to bring about the fall of Christianity must read this book. Darwin's struggles with the deepest philosophical issues, i.e. human suffering, the nature of evil, God, and redemption, are all discussed with sincerety even as they are backed up with evidence from Darwin's journals and letters. Those who insist on tagging Mr. Darwin with simple labels will be surprised by this revealing look at the real man.

   The writing is clear, clever, and refrains from striking a tone either too sentimental or one inclined toward evolutionary apologetics. Definitely a worthwhile read.




5. My own ideas about Charles Darwin and his contributions to science were quite frankly limited to a week of study in high school natural sciences, long since forgotten. The ideas I had of him came from popular culture rather than my own investigations. Unsure whether to brand him a revolutionary atheist plotting to bring down Christianity or a zealous naturalist merely satisfying his own curiousity, I was eager to read what Keynes, a well pedigreed descendant of Darwin, had to say.

   Privy to notes, letters, journals, and other information heretofor unseen, Keynes casts the familiar image of Charles Darwin in a new light. The man who emerges from this portrait is unexpected in many ways. A singularly devoted father and husband, Darwin's greatest joys came from ordinary family life. Romping with his large brood, noting details small and grand in their development and children, tenderly corresponding with his beloved wife Emma during their few seperations, Darwin was no cold and ruthless scientist out to cripple the faith of the believers. Keynes portrays him as a man brimming with affection, kindness, and love. Annie, the daughter alluded to in the book's title, remains mysterious in many ways; but what is entirely evident is that grief over her untimely death haunted Darwin until the end of his days.

   Keynes so sensitively discusses Darwin's struggles with faith, God, and the human condition that he manages to obliterate the undeserved assumptions I carried with me to the biography. Darwin did not, as many assume, dismiss out of hand the notion of God. Quite to the contrary, he struggled with profound questions about God and lived out his life with a healthy respect for his wife and family's religious ideology even after he could no longer conscientiously participate in it. Darwin's struggles with the Christian faith were based on the central issue of human suffering, and its meaning. His firsthand knowledge of pain and suffering made him acutely aware of the human condition and indeed, of suffering of "all sentient beings... What advantage can there be in the sufferings of the millions of lower animals...?" Even at the end of life, Darwin remained uncertain about the existence and nature of God. Unwilling to use the framework that Neitzsche embraced by pronouncing "God is dead", Darwin instead admitted that he simply did not know and perhaps could not understand.

   Keynes' portrayal of Charles Darwin is a welcome addition to any biography shelf, if only for the incredible amount of personal writings he is able to include.