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To a certain extent it suffers from the Hamlet problem--it's full of clichés! Or what are now clichés, but which Darwin was the first to pen. Natural selection, variation, the struggle for existence, survival of the fittest: it's all in here.
Darwin's friend and "bulldog" T.H. Huxley said upon reading the Origin, "How extremely stupid of me not to have thought of that." Alfred Russel Wallace had thought of the same theory of evolution Darwin did, but it was Darwin who gathered the mass of supporting evidence--on domestic animals and plants, on variability, on sexual selection, on dispersal--that swept most scientists before it. It's hardly necessary to mention that the book is still controversial: Darwin's remark in his conclusion that "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history" is surely the pinnacle of British understatement. --Mary Ellen Curtin
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Darwin’s reasoned, documented arguments carefully advance his theory of natural selection and his assertion that species were not created all at once by a divine hand but started with a few simple forms that mutated and adapted over time. Whether commenting on his own poor health, discussing his experiments to test instinct in bees, or relating a conversation about a South American burrowing rodent, Darwin’s monumental achievement is surprisingly personal and delightfully readable. Its profound ideas remain controversial even today, making it the most influential book in the natural sciences ever written—an important work not just to its time but to the history of humankind.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Way more readable than you think ...,
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This review is from: The Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (Mass Market Paperback)
People tend to look at me crazy when I tell them that I've read ORIGIN OF SPECIES. And really, I think we can all see where they are coming from. Nevertheless, being curious, I thought it might be interesting read the book that started all the fuss.I was surprised to find how readable it really was. Think about this: what we are taught in high school biology is way more than Darwin knew when he wrote this book. Accordingly, the science described in this book is quite easy to understand for anyone who has previously taken a biology class. Probably the most interesting thing about this book were the few times that Darwin threw in a little philosophical/theological side comment. I'll leave these juicy tidbits for you to find, but look for them as they add a little "kick" to an otherwise fairly "scientific" book. Though a bit lengthy, this accountant enjoyed ORIGIN OF SPECIES. As a sidenote: I find the funniest thing about those "Jesus fish" eating the "Darwin fish" car decals is that the base idea is that the stronger fish wins- a.k.a. surival of the fittest. The ensuing contradiction of unwittingly using one of Darwin's base tenets to attack Darwinian evolution is priceless.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential for Understanding Life,
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This review is from: The Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (Mass Market Paperback)
This is it -- the "Old Testament" of modern biology! Most people who accept evolution as the dominant paradigm should read this book, so that they know why. It is tough to get through, but incredibly rewarding. People who know Darwin's basic ideas don't really know how he arrived at them. So why not find out? Every page demonstrate's Darwin's brilliance, humility and insight. It is a must for the science buff's bookshelf! AOK!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book to start the research of the origin of life,,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (Mass Market Paperback)
If you like to research about origin of mankind or origin of life this is a must to have book. I bought this book to start studies about Teology & Antropology and I got amused with the clarity of purpose of Mr. Darwin. I think that it might had been very difficult to publish this book in a society very conservative in terms of religion and social life. Moreover, he also was a religious man and, to launch this book, he might had had a consciousness crisis or problems because he knew that this would shake all the ocidental way of life of that time.
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