HIST 3550 The Age of Darwin, 1800-Present

What is life, and where did it come from? This course explores Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which has been called one of the most influential ideas of all time for virtually every aspect of human thought, from its birth in Victorian England to global debates in the present. Beginning by situating the revolutionary impact of Victorian British naturalist Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution in its age, the course then explores the theory’s reception in Britain, Europe, and Asia. Emphasis is on the social and historical context of ideas as well as controversies and religious disputes, the relationship between ideas and the public especially through popular media, and the various uses of evolutionary ideas in wider arguments about humanity and society. We conclude with a consideration of how historical debates on evolution resonate with debates in the present.