Henry Fairfield Osborn: Race and the Search for the Origins of Man

by Regal,Brian

• ISBN13: 9780754605874
• ISBN10: 0754605876
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The American scientist Henry Fairfield Osborn (18571935) stood at the forefront of the debate over the evolution of man. Study of his theories, however, has been overshadowed by the perception that racism influenced his ideas. Henry Fairfield Osborn argues that his views were motivated by his science, itself grounded in religious doctrine. Osborn rejected ideas of primate ancestry and constructed his own non-Darwinian theory that human evolution was the long adventurous story of individuals and groups exerting personal will-power and inborn characteristics to achieve both biological success and spiritual salvation. This biography charts Osborn's intellectual development, from a Christian childhood, through the influences of Arnold Guyot, James McCosh and T.H. Huxley, to his career at the American Museum of Natural History.

Author Biography

Brian Regal teaches US History and the History of Science at the TCI College of Technology New York, and was participant in the prestigious 2001 Berlin International Summer Academy on human origins sponsored by the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vi
Acknowledgements	p. viii
Notes on Sources	p. ix
Introduction: Deconstructing Henry	p. xi
'The Era of Rash Guesses'	p. 1
'The Helmet of Our Salvation'	p. 26
The Romantic Empiricist	p. 60
The Central Asia Hypothesis	p. 88
A Mongrelized World	p. 102
'Go and Find Them'	p. 136
Terrible Monkeys	p. 166
Conclusion	p. 193
Bibliography	p. 198
Index
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