The Evolution of Charles Darwin: The Epic Voyage of the Beagle That Forever Changed Our View of Life on Earth

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Diana studied Modern History at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford. Her book tracing the development of atomic science from Marie Curie to Hiroshima, Before the Fallout, won the Los Angeles Times Prize for Science and Technology and her last book, Eight Days at Yalta, about the 1945 Yalta Conference, was honoured in 2021 by the United States Society of Presidential Descendants. Robert FitzRoy, on whom Darwin’s hopes depended, was, at twenty-six, four years his senior and from an aristocratic family. Through his father, General Lord Charles FitzRoy, he was descended from the first Duke of Grafton, one of King Charles II’s illegitimate sons by his flamboyant, grasping mistress Barbara Villiers. FitzRoy’s mother, Lady Frances Stewart, his father’s second wife, was the eldest daughter of the Marquis of Londonderry. She had died when FitzRoy was only five, leaving him motherless even younger than Darwin. Soon afterward Lord Charles, who was a Tory member of Parliament for Bury St. Edmunds, moved his family to Wakefield Lodge, a Palladian hunting lodge near the village of Pottersbury in Northamptonshire. There Robert grew up with a half brother eight years his senior, a brother five years older, and a sister, Fanny, two years older. A harrowing expedition to Antarctica, recounted by Departures senior features editor Sancton, who has reported from every continent on the planet. One pitch-dark night Darwin recorded a strange sight: “The sea from its extreme luminousness presented a wonderful … appearance; every part of the water, which by day is seen as foam, glowed with a pale light. The vessel drove before her bows two billows of liquid phosphorus, and in her wake was a milky train.—As far as the eye reached, the crest of every wave was bright, and from the reflected light the sky just above the horizon was not so utterly dark as the rest of the Heavens …” The sight reminded him of Milton’s descriptions “of the regions of Chaos and Anarchy” from his favorite book, Paradise Lost.

The next day, Darwin rode over to visit his Wedgwood relations—his uncle Jos and bevy of cousins—at Maer Hall, the late seventeenth-century house at the heart of their one-thousand-acre estate thirty miles away in Staffordshire. Given the closeness of the Darwin and Wedgwood families, Maer was his second home, especially in the shooting season— Bliss Castle he called it. ² As Charles Darwin knew, his father regarded his brother-in-law Jos as one of the most sensible men in the world. Indeed, Dr. Darwin had given his son a letter to him: Charles will tell you of the offer he has had made to him of going for a voyage of discovery for 2 years.—I strongly object … but I will not detail my reasons that he may have your unbiased opinion … and if you think differently from me I shall wish him to follow your advice. When twenty-two-year-old aspiring geologist Charles Darwin boarded HMS Beagle in 1831 with his microscopes and specimen bottles ― invited by ship’s captain Robert FitzRoy who wanted a travel companion at least as much as a ship’s naturalist ― he hardly thought he was embarking on what would become perhaps the most important and epoch-changing voyage in scientific history. Nonetheless, over the course of the five-year journey around the globe in often hard and hazardous conditions, Darwin would make observations and gather samples that would form the basis of his revolutionary theories about the origin of species and natural selection. Darwin is the scientific giant of the 19th century, and his influence (for good and ill) is still strong. So I'm looking forward to Preston's take! In both cases Dampier was prefiguring Darwin’s thinking. Curious about what Darwin knew of Dampier’s work, I began reading Darwin’s writings to find them peppered with references to Dampier. I also discovered Dampier’s books were on the cramped shelves of the Beagle’s library. The voyage of the Beagle was about discovery in every sense, at every level, from self-discovery through detailed broadening of knowledge to the widest scientific revelation. This book belongs to all who sailed, but especially to Darwin, without whom the voyage would have been a footnote, albeit quite an important one, in the history of marine charting and meteorology. As he himself wrote, it was by far the most important event in my life and … determined my whole career.

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It would be interesting to read a review of how Darwinian evolution theory, well, evolved: one written by a working scientist in the field. Historians aren't really equipped to catch scientific nuance. Recommendations welcome! A colorful chronicle of high-stakes negotiations and a study in human frailties, missteps, and ideological blunders."-- Washington Post During their first meetings, FitzRoy informed Darwin that the Beagle’s departure was delayed until October 10, but that was still only a month away. Darwin stayed in London and set about his preparations enthusiastically, writing to his sister Susan to instruct their servant Nancy to make him some extra shirts, all to be marked DARWIN. He also requested a long list of other items, from his carpet slippers and walking shoes to his Spanish books to help him converse with people in South America; his new microscope, which needed to have cotton stuffed inside to protect it; his geological compass; and a small book about taxidermy, presumably a relic of his studies with John Edmonstone, which he thought was in his bedroom. He asked her to seek their father’s advice on whether he should take arsenic, the remedy Dr. Darwin prescribed for the eczema that had troubled him since soon after his mother died and that had now erupted on his hands, a possible sign of nervous excitement or apprehension about the voyage. A highly readable, highly detailed account of the historic meetings and often difficult and contentious negotiations between Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and their staffs, and a vivid description of the once ornate Tsarist palaces and their much deteriorated wartime condition that served as the setting for meetings, dinners, and private talks."-- New York Journal of Books Charles Darwin and Robert FitzRoy met for the first time in Beaufort’s offices in the Admiralty on September 5, 1831. Darwin found the handsome, fine-featured, aquiline-nosed captain courtesy itself. No one could have been more open and kind, he wrote the same day to his sister Susan. Though FitzRoy did not immediately say the vacancy had been filled, he was at first politely discouraging, pointing out every likely difficulty, danger, and discomfort of the coming voyage and warning Darwin that should he need more time to complete his South American survey he would not return across the Pacific to determine longitudes as currently planned.

He embraced new experiences, sampling his first banana in the Cape Verde Islands and drinking tortoise urine in the Galapagos. He coped well in harsh climates such as the extreme cold of remote Tierra del Fuego. Such resilience seemed interestingly at odds with the semi-invalid he became not long after his return to England. Like many of his contemporaries, Darwin was cheerfully and unashamedly chauvinistic, nationalistic, and sexist, as the diary he kept aboard the Beagle as well as his subsequent writings reveal. However, though far from radical, his political views were liberal for the time and deep-seated. He opposed slavery, and during the voyage his abhorrence was reinforced by seeing slave-owning societies firsthand. While he believed that different peoples—such as the indigenous Aboriginal peoples of Australia and the Fuegians subsisting near-naked in twig wigwams in chill Tierra del Fuego—might be at differing stages of civilization, he never wavered from the belief that all humankind belongs to a single species. Charles Darwin’s first diagram of an evolutionary tree from his First Notebook on Transmutation of Species, 1837: Wikimedia (public domain)A brisk and accessible account of how Charles Darwin developed his theory of natural selection . . . A rewarding look at the development of an earth-shattering idea."-- Publishers Weekly Preston is sympathetic to Darwin's long delay in publishing his theory, until Wallace was nipping at his heels. Compare her treatment of this topic to Paul Johnson's, still my gold standard for a short Darwin bio: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Unforgettable . . . The definitive account of the Lusitania."-- Philadelphia Inquirer, on Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy From the Los Angeles Times Book Prize-winning historian, the colorful, dramatic story of Charles Darwin's journey on HMS Beagle that inspired the evolutionary theories in his path-breaking books On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man

Ms. Preston's conference narrative abjures authorial hindsight judgments, placing the spotlight instead on the characters' natural blind spots and biases. She also devotes a full third of the book to the summit's historical context and personalities, the latter of which are nicely developed."-- Wall Street JournalLively and nuanced . . . Shrewd on the main personalities . . . Preston goes beyond the horse-trading of three old men, with vivid scene-setting of the tsarist palaces where the conference took place."-- Times (UK) Preston’s] books are always entertaining . . . This book fits that mould; it’s an adventure story . . . The author has chosen the perfect topic. It’s nearly impossible to write a dull book about Darwin . . . The real attraction of this book lies in the way it turns the development of evolutionary theory into a personal story.”— Gerald DeGroot, Times (UK) One reviewer described this as an irresistible scientific biography and adventure story with a happy ending. Agreed. The argument is made that of all scientists across known time, from Aristotle to Galileo, Newton to Einstein, that Darwin could arguably be the most significant. This book chronicles the voyage of the Beagle and what it lead to. Unforgettable . . . The definitive account of the Lusitania.” — Philadelphia Inquirer, on Lusitania: An Epic Tragedy While much has been written about Darwin’s revolutionary scientific achievements on this journey, historian Preston sheds light on the voyage itself, its captain and crew, and the Native populations they encountered.”— Booklist (starred review)

While much has been written about Darwin's revolutionary scientific achievements on this journey, historian Preston sheds light on the voyage itself, its captain and crew, and the Native populations they encountered."-- Booklist (starred review) The Evolution of Charles Darwin: The Epic Voyage of the Beagle That Forever Changed Our View of Life on Earthby Diana Prestonis published on 17 November, 2022. Looking down from the summit of the Campana he saw “Chili [sic] and its boundaries the Andes and the Pacific … as in a Map.” The Andes themselves—“more like a wall” than a range of separate mountains—differed from his expectations and were an awesome sight: “Who can avoid admiring the wonderful force which has upheaved these mountains, and even more so the countless ages which it must have required to have broken through, removed and levelled whole masses of them?” The idea that not only the Andes but the surrounding plains had been gradually uplifted from the sea was already in his mind. Off to a great start. I'd forgotten Darwin was so young when he embarked on the Beagle's epic voyage in 1832. All of 23! A college-kid, today. He certainly made the most of his trip! In Patagonia he witnessed the war of extermination waged by the authorities against the indigenous peoples of the pampas. In Brazil, the widespread ownership and ill-treatment of slaves appalled him as a committed abolitionist.Lively and nuanced . . . Shrewd on the main personalities . . . Preston goes beyond the horse-trading of three old men, with vivid scene-setting of the tsarist palaces where the conference took place.”— Times (UK) From the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winning historian, the colorful, dramatic story of Charles Darwin’s journey on HMS Beagle that inspired the evolutionary theories in his path-breaking books On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man How a young man, fussed over by adoring sisters in a wealthy middle-class Shrewsbury home, coped during the voyage intrigued me. In his diary Darwin admits frankly that before the Beagle sailed he fretted over whether he could live in the ship’s cramped crowded conditions – the Beagle was a mere ninety feet long. Yet the diary also reveals how curiosity and excitement overcame his misgivings.