An Intimate History of Evolution de Alison Bashford

Date de parution : 09.2022
Format : Relié
Nombre de pages : 576
Résumé : 'A masterpiece of biography ... a vivid account of a family at the heart of some of the great cultural shifts of the modern era' John Gray, New Statesman 'The whole of British intellectual life seems accessible through some branch of this sprawling family tree' The Guardian In his early twenties, poor, racked with depression, stranded in the Coral Sea on the seemingly endless survey mission of HMS Rattlesnake , hopelessly in love with the young Englishwoman Henrietta Heathorn, Thomas Henry Huxley was a nobody. And yet together he and Henrietta would return to London and go on to found one of the great intellectual and scientific dynasties of their age. The Huxley family through four generations profoundly shaped how we all see ourselves. In innumerable fields observing both nature and culture, they worked as scientists, novelists, mystics, film-makers, poets and - perhaps above all - as public lecturers, educators and explainers. Their speciality was evolution in all its forms - at the grandest level of species, deep time, the Earth, and at the most personal and intimate. They shaped great organizations - the Natural History Museum, Imperial College, the London Zoo, UNESCO, the World Wildlife Fund - and they...