it seems probable that he was trying to yoke the fractious horses of his dream, to straddle transcendental idealism and scientific empiricism

Book Review 

 

Rating * *

 

Title: The Book that Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation

 

Author: Randall Fuller

 

Published: this  nonfiction book was published in 2017; I listened to the unabridged audiobook (Penguin Audio; read by Stefan Rudnicki; 10 hours) (note: the 2 stars are the equivalent of a 4-star narration review. Rudnicki can make something out of nothing.)

 

What is the story? 

    Throughout 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. --from the publisher's website 

What type of language does it use—technical, complex, standard, or colloquial? primarily standard language with some science and some other technical vocabulary

 

Does the level of language make it easy or difficult for the reader to follow? this book is approaching esoterica. More on this below.

 

Did you like this book? nope

 

If you could change something, what would it be? uhm... I suppose I should just say, if given the choice I would choose not to read it. It was not for me. 

 

What were your favourite parts? I kind of liked the maybe 1/10 of the book that actually involved Charles Darwin or his On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859)

 

Who stands out, among the characters? Bronson Alcott, the father of Louisa May (famed author), who was a particularly weird, sanctimonious, annoying blowhard.

 

What is your recommendation? it's not a book about science. It's biography, religion, antislavery, a bit of sociology, and a hard sell of East coast name-dropping. If you like that sort of thing, then you're welcome to it. 

 

5 adjectives you would use to describe this text: inexplicable, boring, prosey, circuitous, unexpected (in a bad way)

 

[book review template 5 adapted from here; the title quotation is from the book, and ought to give a clue as to the language]