Introduction: Darwinism, Creationism, and Intelligent Design 1. Darwinism and the Dogma of Separate Creations: The Responses of American Naturalists to Evolution 2. Creating Creationism: Meaning and Used since the Age of Agassiz 3. Darwinism in the American South: From the Early 1860s to the Late 1920s 4. The Scopes Trial: History and Legend 5. "Sciences of Satanic Origin": Adventist Attitudes toward Evolutionary Biology and Geology 6. Creation, Evolution, and Holy Ghost Religion: Holiness and Evolutionary Biology and Geology Appendix: Naturalists in the National Academy of Sciences, 1863-1900 Notes Acknowledgments Index
Numbers's carefully researched study helps us understand the origin of the wide-ranging attitudes towards creation and evolution found among conservative Christians today. Darwinism Comes to America is a worthy successor to The Creationists. -- Eugenie C. Scott, National Center for Science Education In Darwin Comes to America, Ronald Numbers enriches our understanding of the origin debate by exploring the beliefs of a broader range of American scientists and religious sects than heretofore chronicled. Importantly, he extends the story into the late 1990s by including the repackaged anti-evolutionism of those championing "intellegent design." -- Edward J. Larson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and Religion In this fascinating book, Numbers transforms our understanding of the reception of Darwinism in America when he shifts his attention from a few major figures to a wider sampling of America scientists. He also chronicle the fortune of the Creationist opposition to Darwinism from its inception in the late nineteenth century to the Scopes trial in 1925 and the call for equal time today. this book would be ideal for an undergraduate course on science and society. -- David L. Hull, Northwestern University Ronald Numbers has provided an exceptionally informative overview of a fascinating episode in the history of ideas. He dissects Charles Darwin's impact on American thought with admirable scholary sophistication, and in the process he succeeds in resolving a host of issues that have been fervently debated by previous generations of intellectual historians. -- Frank J. Sulloway, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, author of Born to Rebel and Freud: Biologist of the Mind (Harvard)
Ronald L. Numbers is Hilldale Professor Emeritus of the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
[Darwinism Comes to America] offers major new insights for
our understanding of how America responded to Darwin. -- Peter J.
Bowler * Science *
Numbers's carefully researched study helps us understand the origin
of the wide-ranging attitudes towards creation and evolution found
among conservative Christians today. Darwinism Comes to
America is a worthy successor to The Creationists. --
Eugenie C. Scott, National Center for Science Education
In Darwin Comes to America, Ronald Numbers enriches our
understanding of the origin debate by exploring the beliefs of a
broader range of American scientists and religious sects than
heretofore chronicled. Importantly, he extends the story into the
late 1990s by including the repackaged anti-evolutionism of those
championing "intellegent design." -- Edward J. Larson, Pulitzer
Prize-winning author of Summer for the Gods: The Scopes
Trial and America's Continuing Debate over Science and
Religion
This is an interesting, important, and concise book by a top-notch
historian of science. It deals primarily with the late-19th- and
early-20th-century reception of Darwinism in the United States as
experienced by scientists, scientific organizations, and religious
organizations...[Numbers's] underlying thesis is that the reception
of Darwinism was neither as revolutionary as evolutionists say, nor
as insignificant as the creationists say. Numbers argues that, in
fact, there was much internal debate within both sides over the
scientific meaning of "evolution" and the biblical interpretation
of "creation," and therefore these was actually a constellation of
views within both camps...This relatively slim volume really covers
a lot of uncharted territory in six short chapters; it includes
chapters on the Scopes trial and the evolutionary debate within the
Seventh Day Adventist, Holiness, and Pentecostal churches.
Accessible to general readers and all academic levels, this is a
priority acquisition for well-established history of science and
religious history collections. -- R. F. White * Choice *
In this short, but pithy, book, historian Ronald L. Numbers
documents the reception of Darwinism in America, both within
scientific circles and among the general public...Numbers does a
superb job of detailing Adventist, Holiness, and Pentecostal
responses to Darwinism. He shows how and why, at the time of the
Scopes trial, few "biblical literalists" interpreted the Bible as
claiming a recent creation in six 24-hour days, but by the late
20th century young-Earth creationism had become the dominant form
of organized antievolutionism in America...Throughout the book,
Numbers confronts what he calls myths or misperceptions that have
infiltrated the popular consciousness of the history of Darwinism.
-- Laurie R. Godfrey * Science Books & Films *
In this fascinating book, Numbers transforms our understanding of
the reception of Darwinism in America when he shifts his attention
from a few major figures to a wider sampling of America scientists.
He also chronicle the fortune of the Creationist opposition to
Darwinism from its inception in the late nineteenth century to the
Scopes trial in 1925 and the call for equal time today. this book
would be ideal for an undergraduate course on science and society.
-- David L. Hull, Northwestern University
Ronald Numbers has provided an exceptionally informative overview
of a fascinating episode in the history of ideas. He dissects
Charles Darwin's impact on American thought with admirable scholary
sophistication, and in the process he succeeds in resolving a host
of issues that have been fervently debated by previous generations
of intellectual historians. -- Frank J. Sulloway, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, author of Born to Rebel and
Freud: Biologist of the Mind (Harvard)
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