Evolution's Workshop by Edward Larson

This book is thoughtfully conceived and expertly written and serves as a good companion for travelers to the Galápagos islands and students of the history of science alike--which applies to me right now! Having read several books about the isolated islands, this one highlights best the well known authors who have visited and written about the Galápagos. European explorers who came across the islands in the 16th century had a less exalted view of the rugged volcanic archipelago, noting on their maps and in their logs that they had seen a bit of hell on earth; even as late as the 19th century, Herman Melville would call the islands “evilly enchanted ground.” Those who landed on the islands, as Charles Darwin would do on the voyage of HMS Beagle, encountered odd, novel species that turned the notion of the great chain of being on its head. Some scientists preferred to ignore the giant tortoises and candle-like cacti of the place, which did not neatly fit into the prevailing natural history of the time. Others, like Darwin, were intrigued by the evolutionary patterns that emerged, whereby species exhibited perceptible differences from island to island, suggesting that geographical separation had some influence on the course of nature. Darwin’s findings, and those of the generations of scientists who followed him, would undermine special-creationist accounts of how life came to be. Their arguments changed the face of science—and also of the islands, which gave up hundreds of thousands of specimens of birds, reptiles, and plants to collectors from museums all over the world. Amazing that there is anything left to see today, but there is. This is an absorbing study of the role of the South American island chain in shaping evolutionary theory.