The Evolution of Charles Darwin by Diana Preston

One reviewer described this as an irresistible scientific biography and adventure story with a happy ending. Agreed. The argument is made that of all scientists across known time, from Aristotle to Galileo, Newton to Einstein, that Darwin could arguably be the most significant. This book chronicles the voyage of the Beagle and what it lead to. When twenty-two-year-old aspiring geologist Charles Darwin boarded HMS Beagle in 1831 with his microscopes and specimen bottles—invited by ship’s captain Robert FitzRoy who wanted a travel companion at least as much as a ship’s naturalist — he hardly thought he was embarking on what would become the most important and epoch-changing voyage in scientific history. Nonetheless, over the course of the five-year journey around the globe in often hard and hazardous conditions, Darwin would make observations and gather samples that would form the basis of his revolutionary, evolutionary theories about the origin of species and natural selection. Spending more than half his time on shore, he traveled thousands of miles by horse, mule, or foot, often suffering intensely and relying for protection, food, and hospitality on horsemen, ranchers, soldiers, and local officials. Unlike most world travelers who wrote their books and got on with their lives, Darwin thought deeply about his observations and, unhappily, concluded that they contradicted the traditional account of Creation, which almost everyone took for granted. Species varied from place to place, and differences grew when creatures better adapted to an environment thrived at the expense of those less adapted. He called this natural selection. Preston rightly points out that Darwin did not discover evolution. Thinkers throughout history speculated that life was ever changing, but no one explained how. Natural selection was the first testable explanation, and Darwin’s On the Origin of Species delivered the evidence. The book appeared at a critical historical moment, becoming an international sensation and bestseller.