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The descent of man and selection in relation to sex / Charles Darwin ; [edited] with an introduction by James Moore and Adrian Desmond.
LIBRA - Special QH365 .D4 2004
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- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882.
- Series:
- Penguin classics
- Standardized Title:
- Descent of man
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Evolution.
- Natural selection.
- Heredity.
- Human beings--Origin.
- Human beings.
- Sexual selection in animals.
- Sexual dimorphism (Animals).
- Sex differences.
- Penn Provenance:
- Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)
- Physical Description:
- lxvi, 791 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- London, New York :. Penguin, 2004.
- Summary:
- In The Origin of Species, (1859), Charles Darwin refused to discuss human evolution, believing the subject too 'surrounded with prejudices'. He had been reworking his notes since the 1830s, but only with trepidation did he finally publish The Descent of Man in 1871. The book notoriously put apes in our family tree and made the races one family, diversified by 'sexual selection' -- Darwin's provocative theory that female choice among competing males leads to diverging racial characteristics. Named by Sigmund Freud as 'one of the ten most significant books' ever written, Darwin's Descent of Man continues to shape the way we think about what it is that makes us uniquely human. In their introduction, James Moore and Adrian Desmond, acclaimed biographers of Charles Darwin, call for a radical re-assessment of the book, arguing that its core ideas on race were fired by Darwin's hatred of slavery. The text is the second and definitive edition and this volume also contains suggestions for further reading, a chronology and biographical sketches of prominent individuals mentioned.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (page [lviv]-lxiv) and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.
- ISBN:
- 0140436316
- OCLC:
- 59321280
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