Charles Darwin, Geologist
Sandra Herbert
"Pleasure of imagination.... I a geologist have illdefined notion of land covered with ocean, former animals, slow force cracking surface &c truly poetical."—from Charles Darwin's Notebook M, 1838
The early nineteenth century was a golden age for the study of geology. New discoveries in the field were greeted with the same enthusiasm reserved today for advances in the biomedical sciences. In her long-awaited account of Charles Darwin's intellectual development, Sandra Herbert focuses on his geological training, research, and thought, asking both how geology influenced Darwin and how Darwin influenced the science. Elegantly written, extensively illustrated, and informed by the author's prodigious research in Darwin's papers and in the nineteenth-century history of earth sciences, Charles Darwin, Geologist provides a fresh perspective on the life and accomplishments of this exemplary thinker.
As Herbert reveals, Darwin's great ambition as a young scientist—one he only partially realized—was to create a "simple" geology based on movements of the earth's crust. (Only one part of his scheme has survived in close to the form in which he imagined it: a theory explaining the structure and distribution of coral reefs.) Darwin collected geological specimens and took extensive notes on geology during all of his travels. His grand adventure as a geologist took place during the circumnavigation of the earth by H.M.S. Beagle (1831–1836)—the same voyage that informed his magnum opus, On the Origin of Species.
Upon his return to England it was his geological findings that first excited scientific and public opinion. Geologists, including Darwin's former teachers, proved a receptive audience, the British government sponsored publication of his research, and the general public welcomed his discoveries about the earth's crust. Because of ill health, Darwin's years as a geological traveler ended much too soon: his last major geological fieldwork took place in Wales when he was only thirty-three. However, the experience had been transformative: the methods and hypotheses of Victorian-era geology, Herbert suggests, profoundly shaped Darwin's mind and his scientific methods as he worked toward a full-blown understanding of evolution and natural selection.
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About Sandra Herbert
Reviews for Charles Darwin, Geologist
Choice
Herbert covers Darwin's voyages thoroughly and includes an overview of other geological scientists from the era.
Library Journal
Herbert makes a strong case for reading deeper into the ways Darwin understood changes in time and changes in space. Rocks rise and sink; species appear and go extinct. What happens on one part of the globe is connected to another. Gradually, over long periods, small changes can accumulate into great effects. Continents will emerge, as do new animals and plants. For Herbert, what geology gave to Darwin was a gradualist's sense of time and a global perspective. For historians, what Herbert has presented is a broader view of the science of Charles Darwin.
American Scientist
Herbert rightly emphasizes that the geology to which the young Darwin contributed was already a well-established science.... Interspersed with Herbert's valuable analyses of Darwin's geological fieldwork and theorizing are chapters on other topics.... Herbert describes in fascinating detail the practical aspects of Darwin's geology: his hammer and other instruments, his methods for collecting specimens and making notes, and so on.... Perhaps of greatest interest to other Darwin scholars and to biologists, she analyzes with care the ways in which his geology generated the problems to which his eventual theory of the origin of new species was designed to be the solution.... This is a highly important contribution, not just to Darwin studies but also to the sadly neglected field of the history of geology itself.
Nature
In this illuminating portrait, Herbert outlines Darwin's contributions to the field of geology, from his collection and documentation of various geological specimens to his participation in the Geological Society of London. She examines Darwin's written observations about land features around the world and explores how geology influenced his ideas on species and evolution. Herbert, a professor of history, provides an unusual perspective on the intellectual development of this great thinker.
Science News
It is good to have Darwin's achievements as a geologist accorded their proper place in his history, and Sandra Herbert has been almost geological in her cracking of the strata of his early years. I doubt whether this exhumation of Darwin's formative years will ever be bettered.
Times Literary Supplemen