Descent of Man (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading): and Selection in Relation to Sex

By Charles Darwin and Hamilton Cravens

Charles Darwin's Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871) was the single most important European or American nineteenth-century statement that man is an integral part of the animal kingdom. As a work of science, Descent of Man mattered more, and was more coherent, rigorous, and in tune with scientific opinion than that of any of its predecessors in evolutionary theory.

Darwin's "Man book" was a bigger immediate success than any of his other books, including the epochal Origin of Species (1859), and it was soon translated into numerous languages. Darwin wrote with engaging literary style, charming modesty, brilliant argument, and a discursive method of proof, making the book an exhilarating romp through the Earth's known natural history and our own history as well as contemporary scientists knew it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Sep 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781411429666

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin (1809–19 April 1882) is considered the most important English naturalist of all time. He established the theories of natural selection and evolution. His theory of evolution was published as On the Origin of Species in 1859, and by the 1870s is was widely accepted as fact.