Book ID: CBB001202298

Alfred Russel Wallace: Explorer, Evolutionist, Public Intellectual - a Thinker for Our Own Times? (2013)

unapi

Benton, Ted (Author)


Siri Scientific Press


Publication Date: 2013
Physical Details: 223 pp.; ill.
Language: English

Only now is Alfred Russel Wallace beginning to get his long overdue recognition. In his own time he was acknowledged as joint author, with Darwin, of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Since then, the bright light shone on Darwin’s achievements has cast Wallace into shadow. this book shows how Wallace’s independent discovery of natural selection was no mere flash of inspiration, but the outcome of many years of study and reflection on his extraordinary early life as a field naturalist in South America and the rain forests of the ‘Malay Archipelago’. Surviving fever and insect bites on the amazon, he was shipwrecked with the loss of most of his notes and collections on his return journey. Astonishingly, within two years he was preparing for his second major expedition, this time to South East Asia, and for a stay of eight challenging years. It was here that he made his great scientific breakthrough, and provoked Darwin into prompt publication of his Origin. Wallace used his experience in the tropics as the basis for his next major achievement – a classic work that established biogeography as a scientific specialism of great importance for today’s urgent challenge to protect the world’s biodiversity. As if this were not enough, Wallace became a bold and controversial public figure, campaigning on such issues as compulsory vaccination, parliamentary reform, and the rights of workers and colonised peoples. He was for many years president of the Land Nationalisation Society, and an ardent critic of the injustices of 19th century capitalism. Later in his life he engaged with radical thinkers such as William Morris, Edward Bellamy, Henry George, Robert Blatchford and Ebeneza Howard in envisaging just and sustainable alternative social and economic futures.

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Reviewed By

Review Lester, Ahren (2014) Review of "Alfred Russel Wallace: Explorer, Evolutionist, Public Intellectual - a Thinker for Our Own Times?". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 740-742). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001202298/

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Authors & Contributors
van Wyhe, John
Flannery, Michael A.
Medina Precioso, Juan Ramón
Geoffrey West
Smith, Charles Hamilton
Slotten, Ross A.
Concepts
Evolution
Natural selection
Natural history
Travel; exploration
Biology
Biographies
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
Places
Great Britain
England
Amazon River Region (South America)
South America
Malay; Malaysia
Southeast Asia
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