Edited Books

K. Kampourakis (Ed.) (2024) Darwin Mythology: Debunking Myths, Correcting Falsehoods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Look inside the book at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, and Google Books.

Listen to a discussion about the book on New Books Network.

Here is also an interesting discussion about Darwin and myths (and about my book) with The Dissenter (Ricardo Lopes):

Read also excerpts from book reviews:

• by Michael Fuller in Irish Theological Quarterly: “The contributors to this very readable collection of papers undertake a painstaking exploration and evaluation of various myths that have accrued over the last 150 years or more around Darwin (the man, and his personal beliefs) and around the relationship of his ideas to the culture which formed both him and them. … The power of the myths that have coalesced around Darwin is nicely exemplified by the well-known portrait of him which this book bears on its cover: an elderly, bearded man looking at the camera with a forefinger pressed to his lips, as though appealing for silence. … Whether Darwin is cast as a hero or a villain, it is apparent that there has been – and in some quarters, that there still is – a desire to see him and his theories in black-and-white terms; and much of the myth-debunking taking place here aims at exploding such a monochrome picture. We are indebted to the authors of this book for supplying us with a richer, polychromatic and more rounded picture of the great man – as well as for raising so many important questions concerning the interpretation of his legacy.”
• by Douglas Allchin in The Quarterly Review of Biology: “Darwin aficionados will revel in this collection of 26 essays that provide the latest scholarship on biology’s most celebrated figure, from the most noted historians in the field. Each focuses on a notable misconception (ironically, many initiated earlier by historians themselves). As an ensemble, they help contextualize Darwin in his cultural era and bestow shared credit to other worthy naturalists, all tempering the iconic images of Darwin’s unique “genius” and the “revolutionary” nature of his ideas. They also serve as general lessons about the nature of science. Namely, science is rarely simple, and too often caricatured. …Readers will find compelling “insider” accounts of Darwin’s delay, his relationships to Alfred Russel Wallace and to Gregor Mendel, the voyage of the Beagle, the sources of his insights, his views on teleol-ogy, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and the argument from design, the role of sexual selection, as well as the reception of Darwin in France, America, and Nazi Germany … the volume offers a remarkable overview of current Darwin scholarship.”