The Book That Changed America

Posted on 17 March 2017 by Randall Fuller

A compelling portrait of a unique moment in American history when the ideas of Charles Darwin reshaped American notions about nature, religion, science and race A lively and informative history The New York Times Book ReviewThroughout its history America has been torn in two by debates over ideals and beliefs Randall Fuller takes us back to one of those turning points, in 1860, with the story of the influence of Charles Darwin s just published On the Origin of Species on five American intellectuals, including Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, the child welfare reformer Charles Loring Brace, and the abolitionist Franklin Sanborn.Each of these figures seized on the book s assertion of a common ancestry for all creatures as a powerful argument against slavery, one that helped provide scientific credibility to the cause of abolition Darwin s depiction of constant struggle and endless competition described America on the brink of civil war But some had difficulty aligning the new theory to their religious convictions and their faith in a higher power Thoreau, perhaps the most profoundly affected all, absorbed Darwin s views into his mysterious final work on species migration and the interconnectedness of all living things.Creating a rich tableau of nineteenth century American intellectual culture, as well as providing a fascinating biography of perhaps the single most important idea of that time, The Book That Changed America is also an account of issues and concerns still with us today, including racism and the enduring conflict between science and religion. Download The Book That Changed America by Randall Fuller – kino-fada.fr 3.5 stars actually This was a very heavy book , it supposes the reader already has a knowledge of natural selection and it doesn t explain what it is actually about too much, it mostly deals with the repercussions the book had in America , how it engrained itself in the abolition movement, how it could have been used by both pro slavery supporters and abolishers alike Also time is spent In the repercussions the book had in spiritual America , most people felt that the world Darwin envisioned c 3.5 stars actually This was a very heavy book , it supposes the reader already has a knowledge of natural selection and it doesn t explain what it is actually about too much, it mostly deals with the repercussions the book had in America , how it engrained itself in the abolition movement, how it could have been used by both pro slavery supporters and abolishers alike Also time is spent In the repercussions the book had in spiritual America , most people felt that the world Darwin envisioned could not exist , since it robbed humans from being the apex of creation and it likened them to animals , it is no surprise that there were a lot of arguments in that side as we still experience it today I have a background in anthropologist therefore these notions get familiar to men, but like stated before this book do...The Book That Changed America is an examination of the ways in which Darwin s idea of biological evolution by means of natural selection influenced the scientists, authors, and social reformers who read it and therefore influenced the trajectory of our country Non Americans and many Americans, too are often baffled by our country s long standing issues with the acceptance of the scientific theory of evolution I think this book helps to explain why evolution has been so contentious for us The Book That Changed America is an examination of the ways in which Darwin s idea of biological evolution by means of natural selection influenced the scientists, authors, and social reformers who read it and therefore influenced the trajectory of our country Non Americans and many Americans, too are often baffled by our country s long standing issues with the acceptance of the scientific theory of evolution I think this book helps to explain why evolution has been so contentious for us because the idea is all wrapped up in our national troubles with the repercussions of slavery and institutionalized racism as well as the popular yet flawed idea of our history as a Protestant Christian nation.The book is written in a narrative style that makes the profiled individuals feellike interesting characters than plain old names out of history books, which I mostly enjoyed Some bits kinda dragged for me, and there were a fe...In the months after John Brown s execution, America s public intellectuals got their hand on a provocative new book from the UK Darwin s Origin of Species First sent to Asa Gray, Harvard s pioneer botanist, it quickly passed to Gray s cousin in law Charles Loring Brace of slum reform and Orphan Trains , who took it to a dinner party with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn recently returned from fleeing the country after sending money and guns to Brown Th In the months after John Brown s execution, America s public intellectuals got their hand on a provocative new book from the UK Darwin s Origin of Species First sent to Asa Gray, Harvard s pioneer botanist, it quickly passed to Gray s cousin in law Charles Loring Brace of slum reform and Orphan Trains , who took it to a dinner party with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn recently returned from fleeing the country after sending money and guns to Brown This is fascinating both for the study of transmission of information along networks of interested people as well as the way that each absorbed Darwin s ideas about plants and animals and applied them to their own fields in some cases ignitingferocious embrace of abolition, in others, looking for ways to help people adap...GNAB I received a free electronic copy of this history from Netgalley, Randall Fuller, and Penguin Group Viking in exchange for an honest review Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me I forget, over time, just how busy the mid 1800s were with new breakthroughs in knowledge and excellent writers bringing their ideas to the world 1859 and 1860 saw publications by Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Henry David Thoreau, John Stewart Mills, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Washington Irving, Nathanie GNAB I received a free electronic copy of this history from Netgalley, Randall Fuller, and Penguin Group Viking in exchange for an honest review Thank you all, for sharing your hard work with me I forget, over time, just how busy the mid 1800s were with new breakthroughs in knowledge and excellent writers bringing their ideas to the world 1859 and 1860 saw publications by Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Henry David Thoreau, John Stewart Mills, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne and...America in 1860 was a country on the threshold of war, a land preoccupied with race, the evils of slavery and economic and social tensions between North and South Then Darwin s Origin of Species crossed the Atlantic This book traces the influence of Darwin s masterpiece on some of the foremost writers and thinkers in America at the time the scientists Asa Gray and Louis Agassiz, the great transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and the novelist Louisa May Alcott and he America in 1860 was a country on the threshold of war, a land preoccupied with race, the evils of slavery and economic and social tensions between North and South Then Darwin s Origin of Species crossed the Atlantic This book traces the influence of Darwin s masterpiece on some of the foremost writers and thinkers in America at the time the scientists Asa Gray and Louis Agassiz, the great transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and the novelist Louisa May Alcott and her father Bronson The tension between a designed and a random contingent universe is a theme that gets some attention in this book particularly in the later chapters but the other questions that it raised are muchfascinating How did Darwin s ideas of a materialist universe square with the romantic spiritual nature of the transcendalists What implications d...It took me quite a while to really get into this book I was confused by the jumping around to mostly unfamiliar names, and found it quite jarring It lead me to read this really sporatically, which then certainly did not help the confusion But around 40% through I started reading itconsistantly not sure if that s because I got less confused or I was less confused because i wasn t waiting a week between readings, but either way, I read it fairly quickly after that All in all it was a r It took me quite a while to really get into this book I was confused by the jumping around to mostly unfamiliar names, and found it quite jarring It lead me to read this really sporatically, which then certainly did not help the confusion But around 40% through I started reading itconsistantly not sure if that s beca...Between the execution of John Brown in late 1859 and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, American intellectuals of the antebellum period were discovering Darwin as copies of The Origin of the Species began to circulate through the United States Randall Fuller deftly transports us to this era with a novelist s skill for evoking character, but without inventing facts These characters include some of the usual suspects such as Thoreau, Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, as well as some less familia Between the execution of John Brown in late 1859 and the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, American intellectuals of the antebellum period were discovering Darwin as copies of The Origin of the Species began to circulate through the United States Randall Fuller deftly transports us to this era with a novelist s skill for evoking character, but without inventing facts These characters include some of the usual suspects such as Thoreau, Emerson, Louisa May Alcott, as well as some less familiar figures such as Harvard botanist Asa Gray, the somewhat ineffectual but likable Bronson Alcott Louisa s fat...Most would agree that Charles Darwin s On the Origin of Species created a stir among the scientific and religious communities when it was first published some could argue it s still wreaking havoc to this day However, in America the hubbub was less about where God fit into the picture andhow Darwin s theory solidified the stance against slavery The Book That Changed America How Darwin s Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation by Randall Fuller explores how this one book helped abolitioni Most would agree that Charles Darwin s On the Origin of Species created a stir among the scientific and religious communities when it was first published some could argue it s still wreaking havoc to this day However, in America the hubbub was less about where God fit into the picture andhow Darwin s theory solidified the stance against slavery The Book That Changed America How Darwin s Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation by Randall Fuller explores how this one book helped abolitionists build arguments based on scientific fact while at the same time forcing long held rigid beliefs to be questioned I m looking at you Bronson Alcott...Excellent account of the initial impact of Darwin s Origin Of Species in America According to Fuller, this may be one instance in which we know who the first person in the country was to read a given book In any event, it went hand to hand among a few intellectuals bwfore its general publication in a pirated edition and began to make itself felt.It was 1859, the year of John Brown, and Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, Franklin Sanborn, Emerson and others were impacted by Darwin s new hypothesis A Excellent account of the initial impact of Darwin s Origin Of Species in America According to Fuller, this may be one instance in which we know who the first person in the country was to read a given book In any event, it went hand to hand among a few intellectuals bwfore its general publication in a pirated edition and began to make itself felt.It was 1859, the year of John Brown, and... The Book that Changed America should have been a better book than it was It also should have been a shorter book than it was If it had been shorter, I think, it would have been better This is not to say that it is a long book It is just longer than it needs to be to do everything it needs to do But it is not nearly long enough to do everything that it tries to do As a result, it is a compelling thesis buried in a lot of false starts.The compelling thesis goes like this When Darwin s book The Book that Changed America should have been a better book than it was It also should have been a shorter book than it was If it had been shorter, I think, it would have been better This is not to say that it is a long book It is just longer than it needs to be to do everything it needs to do But it is not nearly long enough to do everything that it tries to do As a result, it is a compelling thesis buried in a lot of false starts.The compelling thesis goes like this When Darwin s book The Origin of Species arrived in America in 1859, it was immediately read in relation to the debate over slavery because everything in 1859 was read in relation to the debate over slavery Darwin s theory of natural selection was immediately identified by abo...I was drawn to this book by my interest in Henry Thoreau and the recommendation by a fellow Thoreauvian I was also drawn to it by my interest in Thoreau s fellow Concordians of his time, who are featured prominently in the book First, as the title implies, Darwin s theory of evolution enumerated in The Origin of Species had a large impact on American thought, far beyond the scientific community That impact is well described in the book Besides Darwin, the book introduces us to a group of v I was drawn to this book by my interest in Henry Thoreau and the recommendation by a fellow Thoreauvian I was also drawn to it by my interest in Thoreau s fellow Concordians of his time, who are featured prominently in the book First, as the title implies, Darwin s theory of evolution enumerated in The Origin of Species had a large impact on American thought, far beyond the scientific community That impact is well described in the book Besides Darwin, the book introduces us to a group of very interesting characters of the mid Nineteenth Century Some I had heard of from my other readings, like the famed American botanist Asa Gray Gray s work in summarizing and in many ways defending Darwin s work was acknowledged by Darwin himself Another key scientific name that is dealt with is Louis Agassiz, perhaps the most noteworthy critic of Darwin s theory As is documented in the book, it was a stimulating time in the development of American thought and many people in that lan...So very fascinating to see how The Origin of Species affected the Abolition movement and influenced so many important writers and philosophers of the day Emerson, Whitman, Alcott, and perhaps Thoreau most of all.Entering freshmen year of college, my plan A major was Chemistry If that didn t pan out, History was involved in plan B Long story short, plan A stuck it out for four years of college, five years of graduate school and a teaching career wrapping up its second decade The Book That Changed America is a reminder that the space between plans A and B could have been takenseriously The college freshmen version of me didn t know it then, but the one sub genre of science nonfiction I consisten Entering freshmen year of college, my plan A major was Chemistry If that didn t pan out, History was involved in plan B Long story short, plan A stuck it out for four years of college, five years of graduate school and a teaching career wrapping up its second decade The Book That Changed America is a reminder that the space between plans A and B could have been takenseriously The college freshmen version of me didn t know it then, but the one sub genre of science nonfiction I consistently enjoy the most is the history and philosophy of science Author Randall Fuller tells the story of how the single greatest scientific idea anyone ever had, evolution, made its way to and across America starting in late 1859 For America, the story of Darwin s On the Origin of Species is inextricably linked to the years and movements surrounding the Civil War Because of the link between abolition and the literary world of mid to late 19th century Massachusetts, the impact of Darwin s dangerous idea on the transc...This book has been described asA compelling portrait of a unique moment in American history when the ideas of Charles Darwin reshaped American notions about nature, religion, science and raceThat is an accurate description but the book is so much .THE BOOK THAT CHANGED AMERICA How Darwin s Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation by Randall FullerIn 1860 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species and I think it would be fairly safe to assume that he had steeled himself for the ba This book has been described asA compelling portrait of a unique moment in American history when the ideas of Charles Darwin reshaped American notions about nature, religion, science and raceThat is an accurate description but the book is so much .THE BOOK THAT CHANGED AMERICA How Darwin s Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation by Randall FullerIn 1860 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species and I think it would be fairly safe to assume that he had steeled himself for the backlash that the publication would produce from all parts of society I m not quite so sure he was prepared for the support he received or the fact that his book would be used as an argument supporting both si...One of the many programs celebrating the 200th anniversary of H Thoreau birth led me to this book The book is a comprehensive study of the impact of the book in the US, but Thoreau despite dying young TB and only a couple years after the Origin of the Species was published and reached the US, was an early convert and supporter The book was being debated the same time the Union was dissolving and people were debating the status and future of the negro in the US Key characters in the story A One of the many programs celebrating the 200th anniversary of H Thoreau birth led me to this book The book is a comprehensive study of the impact of the book in the US, but Thoreau despite dying young TB and only a couple years after the Origin of the Species was published and reached the US, was an early convert and supporter The book was being debated the same time the Union was dissolving and people were debating the status and future of the negro in the US Key characters in the story ABA Amos Bronson AlcottLMA Louisa May AlcottCLB Charles Loring BraceCD Charles DarwinRWE Ralph Waldo EmersonAG Asa GrayFBS Franklin Benjamin SanbornHDT Henry David ThoreauThe story is for me a wonderful intersection of science, history, abolitionists, racism, philosophy Thoreau, Emerson, Alcott, etc try to reconcile their Transcendentalism w Evolution but it doesn t work HDT understands it s a new world the others don t.Anot...

17 March 2017

Randall Fuller