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Book Description

Long overshadowed by his contemporaries Charles Darwin and Thomas H. Huxley, Alfred Russel Wallace was an English naturalist and pioneer evolutionist who researched biological diversity through extensive exploration and travel. Independent of Darwin, Wallace developed a theory of evolution through natural selection, which ultimately spurred Darwin to complete and publish his own Origin of Species. Famous for drawing "Wallace's Line," the boundary line separating the Asian and Australian zoological regions, Wallace's studies of the distribution of plants and animals pioneered an evolutionary approach to global and island biogeography. The Alfred Russel Wallace Reader: A Selection of Writings from the Field is the first book to reintroduce Wallace to a general readership beyond the cadre of scientists and historians familiar with his work.

Customer Reviews (2)

Historic Justice for A.R. Wallace
Jane Camerini has performed a great service to all who are
interested in evolutionary theory. Wallace deserves to be
regarded as the co-founder of the modern theory of evolution.
He also wrote on a wide range of scientific and social topics.
Camerini's introductory remarks to each of the essays in this
collection help put them in their context.

a Wallace reader for the layperson
Jane Camerini's slender anthology of Wallace's writings (and writings about him) is intended to provide an introduction to the great naturalist, primarily through his adventures in the field. Camerini has chosen a format for presenting this information very similar to that provided by another Wallace scholar, Barbara Beddall, whose "Wallace and Bates in the Tropics" was published way back in 1969. Camerini supplements excerpts from four books with her own introductory commentaries and a few additional Wallace essays, hoping that this will give the reader unfamiliar with his accomplishments some feel for them. I think she succeeds in this endeavor. The book is well organized and presented, including a number of interesting photos and figures, and Camerini's editorial commentaries are mostly right on target. Yet I cannot help but feel the brevity of the treatment will leave some readers puzzled. I'm not sure that the decision to include several essays of a more technical nature in a 200 page work was well advised; the gap between the fieldwork studies and Wallace's thought is considerable--not unfathomable, but not straightforward either--and the average reader may need more help than Camerini gives to appreciate the transition. Alternately, it might have been interesting to dwell strictly on the field studies--incorporating a greater diversity of excerpts--and then merely to refer to his future philosophical directions in a page or two of editorial comment at the end. Still, an interesting contribution to Wallace studies, and one which is likely to both complement and not duplicate the several others that will be appearing over the next months. ... Read more

Book Description

In 1858, Alfred Russel Wallace, aged thirty-five, weak with malaria, isolated in the Spice Islands, wrote to Charles Darwin: he had, he said excitedly, worked out a theory of natural selection. Darwin was aghast--his work of decades was about to be scooped. Within two weeks, his outline and Wallace's paper were presented jointly in London. A year later, with Wallace still on the opposite side of the globe, Darwin published On the Origin of Species.

This new biography of Wallace traces the development of one of the most remarkable scientific travelers, naturalists, and thinkers of the nineteenth century. With vigor and sensitivity, Peter Raby reveals his subject as a courageous, unconventional explorer and a man of exceptional humanity. He draws more extensively on Wallace's correspondence than has any previous biographer and offers a revealing yet balanced account of the relationship between Wallace and Darwin.

Wallace lacked Darwin's advantages. A largely self-educated native of Wales, he spent four years in the Amazon in his mid-twenties collecting specimens for museums and wealthy patrons, only to lose his finds in a shipboard fire in the mid-Atlantic. He vowed never to travel again. Yet two years later he was off to the East Indies on a vast eight-year trek; here he discovered countless species and identified the point of divide between Asian and Australian fauna, 'Wallace's Line.'

After his return, he plunged into numerous controversies and published regularly until his death at the age of ninety, in 1913. He penned a classic volume on his travels, founded the discipline of biogeography, promoted natural selection, and produced a distinctive account of mind and consciousness in man. Sensitive and self-effacing, he was an ardent socialist--and spiritualist. Wallace is one of the neglected giants of the history of science and ideas. This stirring biography--the first for many years--puts him back at center stage, where he belongs.

Customer Reviews (8)

Wallace may have seen something further than Darwin
As the great scientist Newton said " I see further for I stand on the shoulders of giants".Wallace may have seen further than Darwin when he suggested that we have souls that make us human.Ofcourse these kinds of things are hard to emperically observe by scientists that is the reason why they are skeptical but not everything has to be observed.It is true that "observation is the key to knowledge" but Einstein said that "imagination is much more important than knowledge".Probably Wallace knew that not everything could be explained by science because not everything could be observed.So even though Darwin was right about his observations of the process of evolution, Wallace saw further when he imagined that most probably we have souls that make us not only the highest form of animal but the only animals that has a soul, a human.Science cannot observe everything....there are things meant to be imagined along with our observations, that is how we could see further.

curiosity made the man
an elegant and fascinating account of a true pioneer of natural history and evolution. One must really be curious and patient to get into this book, as there are innumerable details given on not just this man's life but his actual work. The book proves to be an illuminating academic biography that deserves its place among other excellent biographies in your collection.

An informative overview
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]

worth reading
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 hiscareful, 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.

good but light biography
My view of this book falls somewhere between those of the first reviewer, and the most recent one. Raby's organization and style of writing is light, bright and entertaining, and he researched his subject well enough to come up with some tidbits that had not been generally known before--such as the name of the lady who spurned Wallace's advances shortly after he returned from the Malay Archipelago. Some of the photographs he includes are real gems, as well. This is a very good, largely error-free and readable biography if one wishes a general survey of Wallace's life, which was a very impressive one. On the other hand, it is largely a failure as an analytical work. Although Raby in effect summarizes various people's opinions as to what exactly it was that Wallace was about, he offers no fresh insights as to the nature of his thought. Some will argue that it is enough to lay a foundation that will help in getting people to start *thinking* about Wallace's ideas again, but there is not even the hint of a suggestion in this study that we need to do more in this sense than marvel at the man's feats of exploration and fieldwork, decent, inventive character, and range of interests--marvelous as they all were.

I submit that there is in fact a good deal more that needs to be done in unravelling Wallace's worldview. Beyond the fact that he came very close to becoming one of the very most famous scientists in history (and indeed by the end of his life he may well actually have been *the* most famous scientist in the world!), his positions on evolutionary cosmology (as well as on natural selection in particular) have not so much proved to be wrong as they have not (yet) been proved to be right. A few apt theoretical and/or conceptual discoveries could quickly change this.

There is hardly another person in history who had such a coherent and comprehensive view of nature and humankind's place in it (that is, not just as an abstraction as many of our other great thinkers--philosophers, theologians, etc.--have had, but as a real and natural environment within which things actually happen, and for particular reasons). I think it would be a pity if we relegated him to "history" and left it at that. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A. R. Wallace as he really was.
This is by far the best of several recent biographies of Wallace. As a biographer myself, it is hard for me to grasp how Dr. Totten, as a physician, ever found the time to do the meticulous research for this book. While it contains a wealth of end notes, the narrative does not make difficult reading. The author does not insert his own biases in his treatment of the portion of the book that deals in Wallace's spiritualiam.

Should it be called the Darwin-Wallace Theory?
The story of Darwin's voyage around the world in the Beagle is well known. He used his observations and the time (you have a lot of time on a sailing ship) to develop the basics of the theory of evolution. After his return to England, he wrote up his findings but did not publish them.

Wallace spent a long time making similar observations, but was haunted by ill fortune. For instance his collection of specimens laboriously collected was being shipped to England when the ship they were on caught fire, and the specimens were lost.

Wallace's thoughts though were running along similar lines with that of Darwin. When he was getting ready to publish people told Darwin that his theories were about to be published by Wallace.Darwin then rushed his theory into print and now the theory is Darwin's theory rather than Wallace's theory.

What isn't very well known is that Darwin and Wallace were able to then work together for many years to further develop the theory. Perhaps a better name would be the Darwin-Wallace theory.

This is a very well written addition to the literature and Dr. Slotten's obvious dedication comes through.

Wallace's breakthrough...followed by Darwin
The place of Wallace in the rise of modern evolutionary theory and its confusions is always a contentious one, and the record shows the persistent, but let us hope, not permament distortion of the facts of the case. The record should show that Wallace produced the first version of what Darwin later got credit for. It's that simple, and any honest profession would move to correct the injustice. But not here, the stakes are too high, and the agenda too ambitious to allow that to happen.

The facts speak for themselves and all biographers tend to 'fumble' the ball here. No fumble at all, it is a fixed necessity of compromise with the Darwin propaganda machine. Let us grant the excesses of some claims that Darwin plagiarized Wallace. Even so the sleight of hand pulled off by Darwin and his gang as to the Ternate paper should be a minimum charge against the paradigm dogmatists here.
This useful and always interesting new biography of Wallace, in a recent slew of such, manages reasonably well to navigate the fudge that occurs here in all cases except those in the wake of Brackman's A Delicate Arrangement which attempted an expose of the great cover story here.
In many ways, this issue of Darwin's rigged priority apart, this is one of the best of the genre and fills in a lot of gaps, especially as to the later Wallace with his ventures into spiritualism. Current scientism finds spiritualism silly superstition. No doubt this is the case, but the false reductionism of Darwinism in action is no less silly and totally fails to grapple with the far greater complexity of man known for millennia. It dawned on Wallace that the methodology emerging couldn't possibly constitute a theory of man's evolution and the way it has totally amputated its subject matter in the regime of brainwashing that has taken over the subject. In a context where to even mention a Buddhist sutra is to be called an irrationalist the true 'evolutionary psychology' of man has become almost a taboo subject. These tactics will come to a bad end sooner or later, and at that point the dissent of Wallace on the evolutionary emergence of man will come into its own again against the false reputation of that iconic imposter, Charles Darwin frantic for his priority at the receipt of the Ternate letter.

More Wallace
Ross Slotten's new biography of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) continues where others have left off. There has now been at least one full-length biographical study of Wallace published each year since 2000, plus several anthologies and other works. Clearly, Wallace is starting to "get his due." But there is yet much to do, and this latest biography demonstrates this point well.

Slotten is an amateur investigator, and this work was obviously a labor of love. But he's put a good deal of effort into his study, along the way uncovering new archival sources that shed further light on Wallace's many contacts over his long life. So, the reader will find further new things here, even if he or she has already digested the recent excellent studies by Peter Raby, Michael Shermer, and Martin Fichman. Slotten writes well, provides enough historical context to keep things interesting, and only occasionally is factually inaccurate (for example, in some of the chronology he offers for the period of Wallace's adoption of spiritualism, circa 1865-1866).

On the other hand, his efforts sometimes cross over into ill-advised opinion and elaboration. One thing he plays a bit too much on is Wallace's status as an outsider to the intellectual community of his time: the "poor Wallace" line (in relation to his dealings with Darwin, and everyone else). Actually, though Wallace was in fact an outsider, the real story of his life is how little such matters seemed to affect his thought process: when it came to the world of ideas, he was just about as fearless a thinker as we have had. Slotten does a rather poor job of exposing this side--the really important one--of Wallace, and to this extent does just about nothing to expand our knowledge of his world view past the status quo.

But for someone as unusual as Wallace, one cannot ask for everything at once. We should be happy for a well-written, well-researched, and admirably detailed accounting of a very interesting man's life, and continue to hope that future treatments will reach more and more into just what made Wallace tic, and how we in our time can make use of that information.

The "Indiana Jones" of Evolution
This book was recommended by a friend.It's a great read, and would make a great action movie.I dimly remembered someone simultaneously developing a theory of evolution with Darwin.After reading this book, I don't know why Wallace isn't more famous than Darwin.He was certainly more interesting.He was self-made, from London's lower classes; trecked around the jungles of South America and the Pacific islands; was involved in a shipwreck; was recognized by England's most prestigious scientific societies; got involved in unpopular social causes and ended up going to seances and visiting mediums.This cost him him his hard-won scientific standing in Victorian London, but that didn't seem to phase him; he had moved on intellectually.He is a fascinating and colorful character.The author doesn't try to explain away the contradictions, but lets Wallace emerge as what he is -- a complexs and enigmatic, and ultimately very sympathetic figure.The book is also a fascinating study of Victorian England.It also contains a very lucid discussion of the thought process that led to the theory of evolution, which becomes almost a sub-plot, with its own heros and villains.This author writes in a clear, lucid prose, and lets his opinion occasionally show through, but generally plays it straight.The scholarship is impressive, but you aren't overwhelmed by it.The author keeps a critical distance from the character, so the portrayal feels ultimately balanced.If you are looking for a good biography, this is a book you should relish. ... Read more

Book Description
In Darwin's Shadow is the gripping story of the heretical British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who co-discovered natural selection independently of his more well-known contemporary Charles Darwin. Utilizing a number of never-before-used archival sources that bring to bear new interpretations of this most fascinating scientists, best-selling author Michael Shermer applies his training in both the history of science and psychology to reveal the life, science, and personality of Wallace to unravel the mystery of his scientific, quasi-scientific, and non-scientific ideas. Shermer's unique approach goes beyond narrative story-telling to analyse the science, culture, and ideas that lie beneath the life story, in a path-breaking approach to biography. Shermer presents the two major points of intersection and conflict between Wallace and Darwin, one so radical that Darwin accused his younger colleague of intellectual murder!Wallace has always appealed to lovers of travel and adventure stories, because that is the life he led: In Darwin's Shadow will also appeal to historians of science, readers of popular science, and fans of Shermer's previous books. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Wallace matters, so this book matters
I felt I got a well-rounded view of Wallace as a person from this book. And I felt the treatment was fair, fairer than I expected from an arch-skeptic of and enemy of anything spiritual, Wallace's "weakness." Omitted, though, was adequate coverage of some of Wallace's strongest arguments against natural selection. As I understand it, Wallace said that the talents induced in us by civilization must have been built into our species at inception, but through not being useful prior to civilization should have been lost through disuse, here following Darwin's terminology. A good argument. Just as the author gets here the discussion shifts onto sexual selection and "the problem of incipient stages," as if the author's nerve failed. Otherwise I thought this a good "life."

Darwin forever under a cloud....
After reading a review in NY review of books of Shermer's book I snapped out of my previous opinion and decided to revise my previous review here. Distracted by the issues raised in A. Brackman's book, A Delicate Arrangement, 'rebutted' by Shermer, I wavered wrongly in my original view at what appears now as a clever whitewash of Darwin.
Putting Brackman's arguments to one side for the nonce, the plain fact of the matter is that Darwin was, and has been ever since, engineered by Big Science propaganda into the exclusive icon for the discovery of evolution. And is Shermer just the fellow for this displacement job on Wallace. Wallace confuses people because they think that Darwin on the descent of man is established science, when the reality is that an immense con job has always finessed the fact that science has no conclusive theory here, and Wallace honestly pointed it out. Period.
As to the rest of Shermer's arguments in his book, viz. on the 'science' of history, they are without merit and constitute another of the 'bilge and balderdash' necessary to cover up the fact that there is no science of history, also.
The whole Darwin field is addicted to a pack of lies and it seems all parties have lost the ability to distinguish truth from distortion. Reviewing the details of the Ternate affair, we seem to see the ambitious Darwin concerned to rescue his priority, after years of so doubting his theory he couldn't publish it, and getting his priority by rigging the priority list and rushing into print. We have spent over a century beholden to this farce. Time for a little skepticism.

In the shadow no longer
Alfred Russel Wallace seems to rate hardly more than a footnote in the history of the theory of evolution.Like most who have studied this subject, I knew of Wallace's mutual discovery of the theory and evidence in support of it. I knew too of Darwin's generous introduction of the man as a co-discoverer, and even of the theory that that introduction might have been more premeditated and less generous that it appears.In some of my reading I had even learned of Wallace's "defection" to spiritualism.However, where Darwin's life is everywhere paraphrased and his thoughts on the subject of evolution almost subject to canonization, Wallace's life and thoughts seemed just to have "fallen out" of the picture.Michael Shermer's book, In Darwin's Shadow, The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace, provides a more detailed look at Wallace the man and scientist.It also looks at the subject of how history and biography reflects the psychology of their time-in some ways, he does so unintentionally.

In many ways A. R. Wallace, though not a formally educated man, was more of a research scientist than Darwin.He apparently plunged into the pursuit of regional studies with a vengeance for most of his youth, some twelve years abroad, studying natural subjects in their native habitat. Whether it was beetles in the tropics, indigenous people in their native and in their European dominated settings, the communities of animals characteristic of different regions in Southeast Asia, or the geology of various regions, etc, his studies were extensive and detailed.According to Shermer, he logged in over 20,000 miles on various collecting trips, and just on his Malay trip collected almost 125,000 specimens, over a thousand of which were new species (p. 14).

His reputation for openness and exposure to new experiences was amazing, especially for the day, and recognized even by those who did not necessarily agree with his opinions.His written output was prolific and varied, with topics ranging from ancient history, animal behavior, botany, ethics, history of science, linguistics, plurality of worlds, phrenology, spirtualism, taxonomy, womens rights, agricultural economics, literature and poetry, poor laws, and trade regulation (p. 15).Shermer indicates that even into old age Wallace wrote on a variety of subjects and had a life-time average output that ranks high, even when compared to modern writers like Gould, Sagan, and Ernst Mayr.

While I found Shermer's historical matrix model interesting, I felt that I learned more about how history and biography are created in our own time and what it says about us than I did about Wallace or his contemporaries.The matrix model seems to smack of psychobabble and Oprah "awarenesses" and introduces a lot of introspection into the possible effects of birth order, etc. on behavior.It tries to hard to get at the "whys?" of human behavior and motivation for which there is little proof for or against.It was only once the author got into the life and times of the man himself that I could more easily settle into Wallace's world.For one thing, I understood better what the flap about the man's delving into spiritualism was all about.I also learned where Wallace and Darwin differed, even from the beginning, in their own individual approach to evolution, and why Darwinian evolution is the model that gained the greatest respect and serves as the foundation of modern theories.

I think more than anything, the book introduces the reader to the fact that science is a communal thing, a human thing, and is subject to the vicissitudes of other human endeavors: chance, political and social prejudices, personalities and egos, readiness for new ideas, plain old mistakes, etc.I learned again that scientific discoveries occur in tandem, when the world is ready to receive them, that they're sort of "in the air."I learned that more than one person can come up with the same or similar idea, putting their own personal stamp on the concept, thereby forwarding human knowledge just a little bit more.I learned that scientists can be wrong or partly wrong about their topic and can be wrong or partly wrong about topics outside their expertise, and most importantly, that reputation should not be given total credence without proper thought.Because a person is famous does not mean that their opinions are any more valid than anyone else's.

An enlightening biography of an interesting man.While I think that Darwin's is the more carefully thought out and supported theory of evolution, I think that Wallace was the more interesting and happier person.I suspect it would have been more fun to have known him than to have known Darwin.

Interesting biography
A nice story of the scientist who came to a similar conclusion about natural history as his elder and more famous colleague, Darwin.I enjoyed reading about Wallace's background (quite different than Darwin's), his world travels, and the ways in which his theories differed from Darwin's.The author uses multivariate analysis on personality traits to attempt to explain some of these differences; I'm not fully convinced of the validity of that (for every statistical rule there are exceptions, and as Mark Twain colorfully observed, "there are lies ..."), but it's an interesting possibility.

The new phrenologists?
I bought this book rather in spite of than because of the other Amazon reviews, and lugged it with me on a flight out to the West Coast.The book lasted from Boston to Atlanta, and when it was over I closed it with a sigh of relief.While Shermer is certainly at times an engaging writer here he indulges in a rather peculiar form of quantitative psycho-history mixed in with the equally peculiar allocation of behavioural traits to birth order. There MAY be something in this somewhere, but at the same time it smacks of the 19th century Victorian fetish about cranial measurments that Shermer's evident hero-mentor Stephen Gould took to task in THE MISMEASURE OF MAN.That Shermer is so obsessed with his methodologies (he devotes a substantial portion of the book to 'how he did it") is a shame because it lessens and weakens his focus on his putative topic, the fascinating Alfred Wallace. Instead of really delving intoWallace's background and early experiences we get a few pages of quick gloss intertwined with what frankly struck me as mumbo-jumbo about what it means to be a Younger Child. This may be all very new Age & Hip right now, but I strongly doubt it will prove to have much in the way of scholarly legs. Then there is the tedious re-hashing of Gould's speculations which other reviewers have already re-hashed.Yup, they are old, they are trite, and can we please now move on?Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the discussion of Wallace's involvement with various "Spiritualist" frauds during the second half of his career. Here the writing really picks up & one has the sense that "aha, now we are going to get somewhere". Alas, the excitement soon fades & the book itself fades out to a gentle glow at the end.i really don't know how to categorize this text.It is far too incomplete for someone unfamiliar with Wallace's life & work to get a real sense of the man and it offers such an odd view on Wallace's relationships with friends, family, colleagues & rivals that one is left wondering just what was intended.A footnote to a more general study? Maybe, but i agree with the reviewer who calls for the need of a REAL biography that puts Wallace AND his science in proper context. ... Read more

Book Description
Iquitos 1910 is based on the underground gay classic--Roger Casement?s description in his own of his voyage of investigation in the Putumayo region of the Amazon, withrelated passages on Alfred Russel Wallace who explored the same region in the mid 19th century.Memo Strozzi, aspiring writer and amateur entomologist, travels in the Amazon in search of Casement and Wallace, reaching Iquitos and later Tabatinga in Colombia where he is captured and gang raped by FARC guerrillas.Later, escaping, he makes his way up the Putumayo where he visits the old rubber stations.Iquitos 1910 also contains the Memo?s secret diaries, much like Casement?s in tone.This is a book of personal exploration, natural history, travel, eroticism and literary fun.

Book Description

Customer Reviews (1)

best treatment yet
Although it is premature to think that the continuing attention to Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) merits the notion a "Wallace Industry" is underway (as is the case with Darwin), this new study certainly stokes the fire. It is, simply, the best monographic analysis of Wallace's life and work yet produced. Fichman uses a contextualist approach to create a treatment which is roughly chronological/biographical in organization, yet deviates as necessary (and often) to explore the nature of, and influences on, Wallace's thought--which ranged all the way from evolutionary biology, astronomy, and other hard sciences to spiritualism, social criticism, and land reform.

Wallace is "elusive" because his world view was both all-encompassing, and rather complex. A chronic problem with Wallace investigations has been an unwillingness by most scholars to read enough of his vast output to get a complete idea of what he was about. As a result, the common view has been that he in part gave up on natural selection around 1866 to adopt spiritualist (and later socialist) beliefs: the so-called "change of mind" hypothesis. As Fichman reveals, a newer point of view is emerging: that Wallace's stance had always been more or less teleological, that he probably always did consider man to be a "special case," and that both natural selection and spiritualism--equally and necessarily--fit into this stance as he explored its logical ramifications.

I am still not easy with Fichman's view that Wallace was a theist: his spiritualism was based on the perspective that the "world of spirit" constituted a *natural* reality, obeying laws of organization like the rest of nature--and this was the case, regardless of whether he actually turns out to be right or not. Still, Fichman uses the "*no* change of mind" hypothesis to explore a lot of interesting things in Wallace's work, including its connections to the ideas of Charles Peirce and William James, and his wholehearted commitment to the means of social progress. The ramifications for today's world, moreover, are extraordinary: it really *is* possible to maintain an internally consistent philosophy leading both to good science, and to a healthy, far-seeing--and spiritual--humanitarianism.

This book is heartily recommended to anyone who is seriously committed to the goal of understanding our place in the cosmos. ... Read more

Book Description
Just Before the Origin presents the theory of evolution through natural selection as it was developed by Russel Wallace and published in several essays written from 1848 through 1858, before Darwin’s Origin of the Species in 1889. And yet, Russel Wallace is almost unknown.

John Langdon Brooks acts as a scientific detective as he reveals Wallace’s theories and compares the insights of both men in this fascinating study. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Interesting background, but an axe to grind
This is an interesting companion to reading Wallace in the original, and Brooks does a reasonably good job of portraying his subject, although more recent books e.g. Tim Severin's SPICE ISLANDS VOYAGE is perhaps more entertaining if more pop. More troubling is his almost personal vendetta against Charles Darwin, in which he sets out to "prove" that Darwin "stole" the idea of evolution by Natural Selection from Wallace -something that Wallace himself NEVER suggested or implied.After an exhaustive search through shipping company records & an examination of the postal service (one must admire Brooks' zeal if not his motive)he is essentially back where he started: personally convinced but with a lot of speculation & one-sided interpretations of material. The sad part of this ... is that a) it takes away from Wallace's enormous contributions in a wide range of areas -he is responsible for most of the foundations of modern Biogeography for instance- b) it implies a craven motive for Wallace's supposed silence-in-the-face-of-persecution (Does Brooks REALLY think that someone so feisty & outspoken as Wallace, who took on everything from land reform to vaccination, would simply cave in to "The Establishment" over a matter of priority? c) ignores the real scope of Darwin's scholarship & d) smacks of sensationalism. This is silly.Wallace was a marvellous man and a wonderful scientist.Enjoy the first parts of this book & consign Brooks' idle speculations to where they belong: ...

Darwin's and our debt to Wallace
The theory of evolution by natural selection is often thought of as being THE grand theory of biology. Where do revolutionary intellectual advances come from and how does the human community absorb them? Such questions are raised by the history of science and books like Just Before The Origin.

Is science the triumphant march of objective truth being revealed by noble seekers of the truth or is science polluted by human ambition just like any other human endeavor? Was Darwin the saintly seeker of the truth we learned about in school or a mere mortal? If he was a mere mortal, how did he achieve the great revolution in evolutionary thought?

Extraordinary ideas must be rooted in extraordinary human experiences. We are taught that Darwin was the prepared mind in the right place at the right time, that his voyage around the world opened his eyes to patterns in the geographical variations in the diversity of life. If so, why did so many years pass between his voyage and the publication of his ideas on evolution? Might it be important that in science, as in all of life, it is not just what you know but who your friends are?

The conventional rationalization for Darwin's delay in publishing on natural selection is multi-fold. First, it seems likely that Darwin feared the very nature of his discovery. He could well imagine the outrage that would be stimulated by any theory that finally toppled the Judeo-Christian view of man as having been created by God in His image. Second, because of that fear, Darwin felt compelled to marshal a large amount of supporting data, enough to ensure that announcement of his theory would be decisive and able to withstand all resistance.

There is third component to the conventional story that seems to explain what finally ended Darwin's dithering over the theory. Alfred Wallace was ready to publish his own version of the theory based on his own extensive observations as a naturalist.

John Langdon's analysis of Wallace's work suggests a variation on the standard theme. What if Darwin's main reason for delay in publication was personal dissatisfaction with his theory, not dissatisfaction with the amount or quality of supporting evidence? What if it was Wallace's more extensive data set that provided the basis for the key idea that finally overcame Darwin's own lack of faith in the theory of natural selection, finally allowing Darwin the courage to publish? And what if Darwin never admitted this critical role of Wallace's work?

Since the dawn of Western Science, research proposals and manuscripts have been submitted to respected scientific peers in order that well considered decisions can be made about the support of research and the publication of new ideas. Most agree that it is wrong for a senior scientist to read the ideas of a young scientist, appropriate those ideas and exploit them, while at the same time rejecting the requests of the young scientist for support or publication of completed work. And yet, scientists are only human. What if you have worked on a problem for 20 years, for many years feeling on the verge of a breakthrough, then one sad day you realize that some young upstart has reached the finish line before you? This is the most delicate question raised by Langdon's book. What did Darwin do when confronted with this situation?

In our society, science is a source of fame, wealth, and power. Those who wield this power defend the existing system. If a few eggs get broken, a few Wallaces get handed the dirty end of the stick, well, that's life. Its a dog eat dog world out there, and only the fittest can be expected to survive. Such is the standard view. But life is change. What is the origin of change? Even a mighty dinosaur might be replaced by a small mouse. Listen for a squeaking sound coming Just Before The Origin.

Very Good
This book is thorough and very interesting. I recommend it.

Important correction to the Book Description.
Important correction:

The first edition of Charles Darwin's <> was published in 1859, not 1889.

Charles Darwin was born in 1809, and he died in 1882.

detective work history of science
Brooks' object in this book was twofold.First, he wanted to provide a thorough review of the early influences on Wallace that led him to the theory of natural selection.Second, he wished to investigate the possibility that Charles Darwin may have stolen some of Wallace's ideas to complete his "On the Origin of Species."Brooks has been criticized some in the first regard for not thoroughly investigating external influences on Wallace, but I personally feel this hurts the book relatively little.I am more concerned about the second emphasis.While Brooks does a very good job of marshalling all available evidence to make his point, he is not really successful (that is to say, convincing) in doing so; moreover, my personal slant on this is that Wallace had so much that was interesting to say in his own right that the matter of the Darwin-Wallace affair is more of a distraction than anything else.Nevertheless, the book is well worth reading, either by professionals within the field of history of science or evolutionary biology, or by the educated layperson interested in natural history and how science manages to proceed, sometimes in spite of itself. ... Read more

Book Description
An informative travel book by the co-discoverer, with Darwin, of the principle of natural selection. ILLUS. with maps.

THIS TITLE IS CITED AND RECOMMENDED BY:Books for College Libraries; Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. ... Read more

Book Description
Alfred Russel Wallace, the father of biogeography, discovered the flora and fauna of the South East Asian islands and the extraordinary way in which they are geographically distinct. In a lively historical narrative, Penny van Oosterzee tells the story of his achievement. His legacy is the Wallace Line, a faunal barrier separating the Asian from the Australian: monkeys from kangaroos, weaver birds from cockatoos, and pheasants from parrots. This invisible boundary and the difference between the species it divides catalyzed Wallace's theory of evolution and prodded Darwin to articulate his own theory.

In Where Worlds Collide, van Oosterzee follows Wallace's journeys through the islands of South East Asia. She draws on Wallace's natural history travelogue, The Malay Archipelago, a book he wrote after spending the years from 1854 to 1862 in Malaysia, Indonesia, and New Guinea. Explaining his theory and how it has been interpreted by biologists, van Oosterzee also re-creates Wallace's sense of excitement with his discoveries. She devotes a chapter to the diversity of butterfly wing patterns, for example, because Wallace was so enamored of them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Amateurish Overview with Horrendous Factual Errors
This is yet another book that was written to cash in on the name Wallace.
It is a basic, general overview of the fauna, flora and environment of the Indo-Malayan archipelago, relying heavily on quotes from Wallace's classic "The Malay Archipelago".
If you have never read anything better, you may find it interesting.

However, if you already know a little bit about this region, not to mention if you have been there yourself, several outrageous factual errors will hit the eye.
These are most obvious in the Epilogue, where the author enthusiastically describes her very limited "field-experience" in this region, and tries to add her own 2 cents' to the material gathered from books by others.
Reading that chapter, it also becomes obvious that her only first-hand experience in this region was taking a short cruise trip around the Moluccas. She barely stops even at those islands where her ship passed, yet is quick to make far-reaching conclusions.

On page 219:
"On the nearby Kai islands... my heart sank as I saw that coarse grass now dominates the hills that Wallace desribed as inexpressibly beautiful... No-one will know what biological treasures existed there."
Well, had she bothered to take a short boat trip from Tual, the capital of the Kai Islands, to the larger island of Kai Besar, she would have found forest and fauna largely intact. But if one only visits the major town on a smaller isle...

On page 218:
"Seram is perhaps the only place in South-East Asia where you can walk continuously through undisturbed lowland forest..."
For all the qualities of the relatively small island of Seram, there are far greater expanses of rainforest on the great islands of Sumatra, Borneo, etc.

On page 220, she claims:
"In Sarawak, where Wallace'collected his Orang-utans, no Orang-Utans exist any more."
Oh dear.
The orangutan is probably the single best-documented species in the entire region, and an estimated thousand of them are still found in Sarawak's Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary and Batang Ai National Park (which I have visited myself). Being so far off the mark with such a well-known species will leave you wondering how correct the rest of her 'information' is...

Reading all this nonsense, I started looking for references to the qualifications of the author in the book.
I found no reference to any...

A clarion call for the biogeography of the Oriental Realm
According to S. J. Gould Wallace came second and Darwin came first.For those of us who have studied Wallace, the above (though qualified) observation represents a misaprehension.Darwin was the pioneer of the modern theory of evolution and Wallace was an equivalent pioneer of biogeography.

This book is a treat.It is that rare amalgamation ofbiography, the geologic history of the Malay archipelago and an account of the geology and biodiversity of the Malay archipelago with maximal interest to any biologist or anyone who has the slightest interest in the wildlife of Austro-Asia.

It goes into exquisite detail into the formation of endemic species on island communities and bemoans the lack of botanical exposure in most studies.It also has one or two spectacular maps of ancient SE Asia.More maps and diagrams would have aided the discussion about localities which are usually very obscure to most readers.

This book deserves to be talked about and will certainly benefit the wildlife and our appreciation of Wallace and that region in all facets.Thank you Penny.

Mesmerizing
Written in laymans terms, "Where Worlds Collide", is easy reading for all the scientific theories that are narratively explained in cronological order. Fascinating and informative, with a easy flow of eventsthat made this book very hard to put down. ... Read more

Amazon.com
In the mid-1850s, a young English naturalist named Alfred Russel Wallace journeyed to the Malay Archipelago, where he would spend eight years in what he later called "the central and controlling incident" of his life. Collecting data on the plant and animal life of the then-remote islands, Wallace slowly formulated ideas of the origins and divergence of species. In 1858, he sent a manuscript containing some of those ideas to Charles Darwin, who incorporated Wallace's work in his theory of natural selection--and who, some critics have charged, appropriated many of Wallace's discoveries as his own.

In this richly illustrated book, historian Gavan Daws and biologist Marty Fujita follow Wallace's trail through the islands of Indonesia, visiting the Moluccas, Bali, Irian Jaya, and other extraordinary treasuries of biological diversity--for, as they point out, although Indonesia comprises only 1.3 percent of the world's surface, it harbors nearly a quarter of the world's species. Their naturalistic travelogue includes a careful discussion of Wallace's ideas and of how he came to hold them through the course of his remarkable body of fieldwork. In doing so, they emphasize the importance of Wallace's contributions to demographics, the theory of island biodiversity, and other tenets of modern biological thought. The result is an unusually instructive, and unusually handsome, book of scientific adventure. --Gregory McNamee Book Description
The Indonesian archipelago is a land of timeless natural beauty that in the twenty-first century faces unprecedented environmental degradation. It was also the biological laboratory of Alfred Russel Wallace, who, working independently of Charles Darwin, discovered the theory of evolution by natural selection.
Wallace, who traveled for eight years in the archipelago, was one of the greatest field naturalists and nature writers of his century. No one was more skilled in observing and describing living things. A prodigious collector, he was the first to bring living birds of paradise to the West. And he was a great thinker, a theorist as formidable as any on earth. This magnificent account of a true explorer sweeps from the time of Wallace's nineteenth-century discoveries in biogeography to the looming biodiversity crisis of the twenty-first century--from the exploration of natural wonders to the exploitation of natural resources. The result is a history that powerfully portrays the intricate connections of human life and natural life.
This unique story, published by the University of California Press in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy, is resplendently presented with maps, archival materials, and more than 200 color photographs.
A portion of the proceeds from this book will go toward conservation efforts in Indonesia ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Magnificent book!
The books goes through all the major parts of Indonesia and shows plenty of well-selected pictures of amazing flora and fauna of the archipelago. Pictures are 70% of the book, but it also provides a good scientific description of how the archipelago formed (10% of the book), explaining how so unique species developed and survived untouched. Around 10% of the book is devoted to the explorers, like Wallace, who first discovered the uniquness of the islands and tried scientifically describe what they found - some early maps of the region and pictures of explorers are presented. Last 10% expresses the concerns about the impact of the modern Indonesia on the nature of the region. Book is published by UC Berkeley/LA, which can only be a further recommendation.

pleasing eye candy and substance
Archipelago is an excellent book on several levels. First, as a photo essay of the biota of the Indonesian islands it must be beyond compare.The photos are simply awesome, leaf through it and see for yourself.Second, it tells the story of one of the worlds least known but greatest scientists, Alfred Wallace.Wallace was just as responsible for developing the theory of evolution through natural selection as Charles Darwin.If you are interested in the history of science or a biology student at any level you should be aware of Wallace's work.This is as good a book to learn about it as any.One slight complaint, in reading this book I felt that the authors felt that Wallace received a raw deal from Darwin and the rest of the scientific community.I don't know if it's true or if the truth will ever be known.I know that Wallace didn't feel that way so why include it here?Third, this book is so much a trip through time.Each chapter on Wallace in the islands is mixed with modern essays on life in the islands and what is happening to the environment there.As an environmentalist "call to arms" it is great, because it is backed by better science through a broader range of disciplines than any I have seen.

I'm not a big fan of the "Coffee Table Book" but this is an exception.While it might be tempting to only look at the pictures, the text is in such a interesting format that reading it turns out to be such a breeze that you will be done before you notice.

a very special and threatened place
this is a great book.It covers in detail the jouneys of that great explorer/naturalist/thinker Alfred E. Wallace through Indonesia and addresses the current state of affairs and threats to its natural treasures.

Tropical splendor and historical significance.
This beautiful coffee table book goes far beyond presenting the tropical and exotic beauty of this complex archipelago.True, outstanding photos highlight the natural splendor, rich culture and exotic architecture.But the authors also explore its historical significance, beginning with Wallace's 19th century discoveries in biogeography, continuing through the current, looming ecological crisis wrought by exploitation of the islands' natural resources.For those who have traveled to Indonesia, or have ever wished to, this book is a must. ... Read more