Infinite Tropics : An Alfred Russel Wallace Anthology

by Berry, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9781859846520
• ISBN10: 1859846521
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-17
• Publisher: Verso

Summary

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 thinkerbrilliant, opinionated, often quirky, sometimes wrong, but always profoundly humane. 12 b/w photographs.

Author Biography

Andrew Berry is a research associate at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Preface	xi
Stephen Jay Gould
Editor's Note	xv
A Biographical Sketch	1	(26)
``A very dull, ignorant, and uneducated person''	2	(7)
Journeys	9	(7)
Intellectual Life: ``Satisfaction, Retrospection and Work''	16	(3)
Domestic Life: ``Gardening and rural walks''	19	(8)
ANTHOLOGY	27	(358)
Science	29	(138)
Evolution	31	(77)
Beginnings	31	(1)
The ``Sarawak Law''	32	(18)
The ``Ternate Paper''	50	(12)
``Thunderbolt from a cloudless sky'': Darwin and Natural Selection	62	(7)
Evolution by Natural Selection	69	(5)
Agreeing with Darwin	74	(3)
Disagreeing with Darwin	77	(1)
Female Choice	77	(4)
Genetics	81	(5)
Name Selection	86	(1)
Beyond Natural Selection	87	(18)
Darwinism	105	(3)
Biogeography	108	(17)
The Amazon	109	(3)
South-east Asia: ``Wallace's Line''	112	(5)
Synthesis	117	(8)
Natural History and Conservation	125	(29)
The Amazon	127	(5)
South-east Asia	132	(14)
Conservation	146	(8)
Geography, Geology, and Glaciology	154	(13)
Geology	156	(8)
Glaciology	164	(3)
Humans	167	(54)
``Uncivilised people''	169	(6)
``A being apart'': Human Evolution	175	(37)
Human Improvement	212	(9)
Spiritualism and Metaphysics	221	(40)
``Strange Doings'': Conversion	223	(12)
``To excite to inquiry'': Spiritualism and Science	235	(15)
A World Viewed Through the Lens of Spiritualism	250	(11)
Travel	261	(46)
Expectations	265	(5)
City Life	270	(3)
Life in the Field	273	(8)
``An industrious and persevering traveller''	281	(9)
``Tedious and unfortunate'': Hazardous Voyages	290	(13)
``A want of harmony between man and nature'': American Travels	303	(4)
Social Issues	307	(72)
Evolution of a Socialist	309	(10)
``Robbery of the poor by the rich'': The Land Problem	319	(14)
Public Health	333	(9)
Institutional Reform	342	(9)
Public Education	351	(6)
Capitalism and Empire	357	(22)
Economics	357	(11)
Globalization	368	(2)
War and Imperialism	370	(9)
Coda: Wallace and Darwin	379	(6)
Notes	385	(28)
Bibliography	413	(8)
Wallace's Major Publications	413	(5)
A Selection of Publications on or about Wallace	418	(3)
Index	421