Reviews for The Essex Antiquarian: An Illustrated ... Magazine Devoted to the Biography, Genealogy, Hist...

The average rating for The Essex Antiquarian: An Illustrated ... Magazine Devoted to the Biography, Genealogy, Hist... based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-11-20 00:00:00 Rabin Sharma A good book. Some parts difficult to read but overall goog.

Review # 2 was written on 2018-10-31 00:00:00 Ruthann Richardson I’m divided about this book. I heard it as an audiobook somewhere in the Outback & so couldn’t judge the thickness. It’s a slim book & as such I would not have taken it off the shelf. This probably sounds snobbish, but it isn’t meant to be, and I shall explain. I read Darwin’s Origin of Species not long after its 1st edition – it was some years ago, let’s just say. Actually, if this little book is correct, I probably read the 6th Edition (Darwin constantly re-wrote chunks of this till he died) sometime in the early 1990s. I have also read some of Wallace’s works, Hooker’s introductory essays on southern hemisphere biogeography, and something by Huxley (my paper book diary isn’t at hand); and I have a book of his essays stashed in the library awaiting to be read. I would like to think I know a bit about these earlier writers etc. What I was thinking I was getting was another essay on interpreting the impact on the world on Darwin’s work etc. You do get that, but not as a critical analysis based on new insights & thought. What you **do** get is a lovely overall review of Darwin, his times, those people he worked with & the consequent affects in both the wider community, but also for evolutionary biologists. What I liked about the book was the easy digestible bits about Darwin: his personal & professional life, and the effect he had on science. Then there are his close friends – Hooker, Huxley & Lyell. We do sidestep the very thorny bit about Wallace’s treatment after publication of Origin of Species. Wallace is given his due, and his later studies are commented on – but this is about Darwin, after all. I really liked the last portion that dealt with his influence into eugenics, business and sociobiology (survival of the fittest mantra); and I liked the commentary regarding the New Science movement of Julian Huxley, Ernst Mayer & George Gaylord Simpson. It brought back those days in Honours & MSc days when I read all this & much more – based primarily from the initial readings made as an undergrad. What I didn’t like was the lack of depth. For me, it gave me no new insights nor in depth analysis. I ended up knowing only one new piece of info (listed above regarding editions) and was a big disappointment for me. The matter of Darwin's health issues - which is always fun to speculate, is also given a whitewash job; not something I would expect from an eminent biographer. (Actually, I think the Desmond & Moore biography [from the early 90s] to be the acme of them all.) It took me a little time to realise that this book should be treated as either a general intro for those that don’t know the field and want to learn, or as a crib to some undergrad doing a general evolution course at uni. This is fine, but not what I, the grumpy well read botanist, wanted. It has made me, however, hunt out those books and articles that I do need to read that are missing from my previous readings. That isn’t a bad thing.