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Title: Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life by Peter Raby ISBN: 0-691-10240-6 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.14 (7 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An informative overview
Comment: Victorian Britain was a time of exploration, industrial advance, social and political experiments and scientific speculation. Although many key figures appeared, few covered so many elements of this dynamic as did Alfred Russell Wallace. From almost desparately poor beginnings, Wallace became a dedicated explorer and specimen collector. Raby's sympathetic portrayal of this complex character is a good introduction. Wallace travelled and collected far more widely than did his contemporary Charles Darwin. That both developed the same concept, evolution of species by natural selection, was the result of keen powers of observation. Wallace's wide-spread interests took his attention into areas Darwin either ignored or avoided. Unlike the retiring Darwin, Wallace was at the forefront of many issues, speaking and writing on many issues. Some of these, as Raby carefully recounts, led him into difficulties, both financial and intellectual.
Raby traces the development of a man who almost beggars analysis. Wallace's life was dogged by near penury due to family commitments and lack of regular employment. His decision to explore the upper Amazon basin was almost an act of desparation, but it led to a lifelong interest in nature and "primitive" people. Overcoming the loss of four years of exploration and study, he recovered deftly with a long-term examination of the East Indies archipelago. Early flirtations with socialist ideals gave him a more sympathetic view of indigenous people than the average Victorian Briton. He adopted a strong sense of independence from authoritarian measures, leading him to oppose land enclosures and vaccination, which he saw as doing more harm than good. The great issue in his later years was spiritualism. This last proved a stumbling block to his scientific ambitions. Although many authors disparage this interest as demeaning, in Raby's view it is simply another aspect of Wallace's probing intellect.
The primary concern with Wallace remains his co-authorship of evolution by natural selection. Darwin's insight occupied his thinking for two decades while he considered evidence. Wallace had been considering the issue for several years, finally synthesising his ideas during confinement from a malarial attack. Wallace never disputed Darwin's priority nor his superiority as a scientific genius, although recent historians have taken up his "cause" in an attempt to erode Darwin's reputation. Raby examines these claims in some detail, either refuting them or questioning the validity of the evidence. Wallace diverged from Darwin's version of natural selection in some details, most notably over human evolution. In line with his spiritualism, Wallace insisted the human mind could not be an adaptation and must be the result of influence by a "higher power". He wasn't alone in that view either then or now.
Raby's examination of the life of another "tormented evolutionist" is an engaging read and fluent introduction to this charismatic figure. With his long life encompassing an era of many new ideas, Wallace doesn't stand out in the history of science nearly as much as is his due. This book goes far in restoring his image. Raby's prose style is clear and expressive without descending into unnecessary adulation of his subject. The greatest lack is in his failure to place Wallace more fully in the context of his times. Since that would cover the whole of the Victorian era and beyond, we may forgive this curtailment. There are, after all, numerous works providing that overview. A valuable summary for the reader interested in exploration, natural science and Victorian personalities. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Rating: 5
Summary: Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life
Comment: Raby (drama and English, Cambridge Univ.) has written a very readable biography of Victorian naturalist Wallace. He describes how Wallace's friendship with the budding entomologist Henry Walter Bates led to travels with Bates to the river basins of the Amazon.com and Rio Negro in South America and to his subsequent journey to the archipelagoes of the East Indies where he formulated his own theory of evolution. The "luxuriance" and "diversity" he witnessed there profoundly influenced his maturation as naturalist and evolutionist; i.e., his concept of zoogeography (symbolized by the term, "Wallace's Line") was the result of his observations on the distribution of flora and fauna. Raby indicates that Charles Darwin's discoveries in organic geography and geology, Charles Lyell's geological contributions and ideas on the "antiquity of man," and the evolutionary theories of Jean Baptiste de Lamarck and Robert Chambers led Wallace to develop an evolutionary theory quite similar to that of Darwin, thereby prompting the latter to publish his own ideas on evolution. The book is well documented and will be a good resource for historians of science and students of Victorian history and ideas. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through professionals.
Rating: 4
Summary: worth reading
Comment: Bronowski's Ascent of Man acquainted me with the main facts of Wallace's life. Frankly, that sufficed... Raby did not delve deeply enough into aspects of Wallace's character or contributions. The value of Raby's detailed biography lies not in learning more about Wallace's travels or seances, but in his careful, evenhanded examination of the relation between Darwin and Wallace.
Anybody pondering accusations of conspiracy would be well advised to read this book. The ending is particularly well done.
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Title: Charles Darwin: The Power of Place by Janet Browne ISBN: 0691114390 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: Charles Darwin: Voyaging ISBN: 0691026068 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Malay Archipelago by Alfred Russel Wallace ISBN: 9625936459 Publisher: Periplus Editions Pub. Date: 01 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Island Life (Great Minds Series) by Alfred Russel Wallace ISBN: 1573921777 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: 01 December, 1997 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Alfred Russel Wallace Reader: A Selection of Writings from the Field (Center Books in Natural History) by Alfred Russel Wallace, Jane R. Camerini ISBN: 0801867894 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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