Infinite Tropics: An Alfred Russel Wallace AnthologyVerso, 17. dets 2003 - 430 pages "Alfred Russel Wallace was thirty-five and stricken with malaria in the Moluccan Islands when, in a feverish 'flash of light,' he stumbled on the theory of natural selection. It was his letter to Charles Darwin about the discovery that panicked Darwin into rushing out On the Origin of Species. Wallace was a towering figure of nineteenth-century science. Not only the co-discoverer of natural selection, he was also the founder of island biogeography, a significant contributor to the fields of evolution, glaciology and anthropology, and a great writer, author of Travels in the Amazon and The Malay Archipelago. But his international scientific reputation served also as a springboard for wide-ranging forays beyond science. A passionate socialist, he wrote on pacifism, on the environmental and social effects of imperialism, on city planning, on land nationalization, on votes for women, on public health, on spiritualism, on the possibility of intelligent extra-terrestrial life, and much else besides.Culled from his books, articles and letters, this collection comprises Wallace's best and most important writing, much of which has been out of print for over a century. Ranging from the scientific to the social, from the political to the spiritual, the selection captures the essence of a great thinker, brilliant, opinionated, often quirky, sometimes wrong, but always profoundly humane. Andrew Berry's anthology rescues Wallace's legacy, showing Wallace, through extracts from personal letters, his political writings, and scientific papers, to be far more than the co-discoverer of natural selection." -- Publisher. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 49
Page xii
... interest in evolution , but having no inkling that Darwin had devised effectively the identical theory long before in 1838 , when Wallace was still a teenager . Darwin had then refined his ideas and collected data in privacy for twenty ...
... interest in evolution , but having no inkling that Darwin had devised effectively the identical theory long before in 1838 , when Wallace was still a teenager . Darwin had then refined his ideas and collected data in privacy for twenty ...
Page xv
... interests . My purpose is not academic or archival , but rather to introduce contemporary readers to an important and unjustly neglected thinker . This means that the treatment of any single topic is inevitably somewhat superficial ...
... interests . My purpose is not academic or archival , but rather to introduce contemporary readers to an important and unjustly neglected thinker . This means that the treatment of any single topic is inevitably somewhat superficial ...
Page 1
... interests ranged across disciplinary boundaries , and , in addition to being a biologist , he may legiti- mately be regarded as an anthropologist and geologist . Unlike the majority of his Victorian scientific colleagues , Wallace grew ...
... interests ranged across disciplinary boundaries , and , in addition to being a biologist , he may legiti- mately be regarded as an anthropologist and geologist . Unlike the majority of his Victorian scientific colleagues , Wallace grew ...
Page 5
... interest in natural history . It was here , too , that during my solitary rambles I first began to feel the influence of nature and to wish to know more of the various flowers , shrubs , and trees I daily met with , but of which for the ...
... interest in natural history . It was here , too , that during my solitary rambles I first began to feel the influence of nature and to wish to know more of the various flowers , shrubs , and trees I daily met with , but of which for the ...
Page 7
... interest in metaphysics that culminated , later in life , in Wallace's embrace of spiritualism . He also met his future travelling companion . How I was introduced to Henry Walter Bates29 [ in 1844 ] I do not exactly remember , but I ...
... interest in metaphysics that culminated , later in life , in Wallace's embrace of spiritualism . He also met his future travelling companion . How I was introduced to Henry Walter Bates29 [ in 1844 ] I do not exactly remember , but I ...
Contents
Evolution | 27 |
The Ternate Paper | 46 |
Darwin and Natural Selection | 58 |
Evolution by Natural Selection | 65 |
Agreeing with Darwin | 68 |
Disagreeing with Darwin | 71 |
Genetics | 75 |
Name Selection | 80 |
Conversion | 215 |
Spiritualism and Science | 227 |
A World Viewed Through the Lens of Spiritualism | 242 |
Travel | 253 |
Expectations | 257 |
City Life | 262 |
Life in the Field | 265 |
An industrious and persevering traveller | 273 |
Beyond Natural Selection | 81 |
Darwinism | 99 |
Biogeography | 102 |
The Amazon | 103 |
Wallaces Line | 106 |
Synthesis | 111 |
Natural History and Conservation | 119 |
The Amazon | 121 |
Southeast Asia | 126 |
Conservation | 140 |
Geography Geology and Glaciology | 148 |
Geology | 150 |
Glaciology | 158 |
Humans | 161 |
Uncivilised people | 163 |
Human Evolution | 169 |
Human Improvement | 204 |
Spiritualism and Metaphysics | 213 |
Hazardous Voyages | 282 |
American Travels | 295 |
Social Issues | 299 |
Evolution of a Socialist | 301 |
The Land Problem | 311 |
Public Health | 325 |
Institutional Reform | 332 |
Public Education | 341 |
Capitalism and Empire | 347 |
Globalization | 358 |
War and Imperialism | 360 |
Wallace and Darwin | 369 |
Notes | 375 |
Bibliography | 403 |
A Selection of Publications on or about Wallace | 408 |
Index | 411 |
Other editions - View all
Infinite Tropics: An Alfred Russel Wallace Anthology Alfred Russel Wallace No preview available - 2003 |
Infinite Tropics: An Alfred Russel Wallace Anthology Alfred Russel Wallace No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
abundant Alfred Russel Wallace Amazon American animals argument Aru Islands Bates beauty believe birds body Borneo butterflies cause character Charles Darwin climate collecting colour continued Darwin distinct Durian earth evidence evolution existence extinct facts faculties favourable female forest genera geological George Silk give groups Herbert Spencer human Ibid important increase individuals inhabitants insects intellectual interest islands labour land less Letter living London Lyell Malay Archipelago modifications moral Museum Natural History natural selection naturalist never occurred organic Origin of Species Pangenesis Papilio Papilionidae perhaps period phenomena phrenology physical plants possess produce races regions remarkable Reprinted in SSS resemble Rio Negro Sarawak savage scientific seems social Society South-east Asia Spiritualism SSS II excerpt Ternate theory tion travels trees tropical vaccination variation variety vegetation Wallace's Wallace's Line wealth whole