Darwin in Galapagos: Footsteps to a New World Book

Last book review for Galapagos reading for me. This book focused on Darwin himself and his theories of evolution and geological change more than the other two I read did. The book is written by two scientists who study the Galapagos and also run a nature tour company.

This book felt more academic than the others I read. It was dry in places, honestly, and I did end up skimming parts of it. However, the scholarly rigor is undoubtedly high, and I thought it did a great job of discussing how Darwin came to his thoughts about how evolution works. The concept didn't really crystallize for him until he was back in England, and lack of detail in how he marked his specimens meant that he lost some of the evidence that he wanted to use. He hadn't noted the islands that various finch specimens came from, not thinking that it mattered, until he realized how the finches had adapted to their environments.

The authors go into detail in how Darwin ended up on the Beagle as a scientist companion for the captain- the captain, a phrenologist, almost didn't take him because he thought that Darwin's nose marked him as indolent! Next, the book retraces the voyage and goes into detail on what Darwin saw on each island, and who he talked to. Some of the islanders had already noted that the giant tortoises looked different on each island, a fact that Darwin didn't realize was important until the voyage was over. The book also discussed Darwin's geological interests, an area of study that I hadn't realized he specialized in (he wrote a whole series of books based on the geology he studied during the voyage).

This book made me more interested in Darwin as a person and as a scientist. I hadn't realized that he had kept his theories to himself for years, worried about being laughed out of the scientific community, until an Indonesian naturalist contacted him about similar ideas. The authors seem to have some affection for Darwin, and I started feeling that way too as I read about him. He really did change the world!