The Young Charles Darwin

An investigation of Charles Darwin as a young naturalist and how he arrived at his revolutionary ideas   What sort of person was the young naturalist who developed an evolutionary idea so logical, so dangerous, that it has dominated biological science for a century and a half? How did the quiet and shy Charles Darwin produce his theory of natural selection when many before him had started down the same path but failed? This book is the first to inquire into the range of influences and ideas, the mentors and rivals, and the formal and informal education that shaped Charles Darwin and prepared him for his remarkable career of scientific achievement.   Keith Thomson concentrates on Darwin’s early life as a schoolboy, a medical student at Edinburgh, a theology student at Cambridge, and a naturalist aboard the Beagle on its famous five-year voyage. Closely analyzing Darwin’s Autobiography and scientific notebooks, the author draws a fully human portrait of Darwin for the first time: a vastly erudite and powerfully ambitious individual, self-absorbed but lacking self-confidence, hampered as much as helped by family, and sustained by a passion for philosophy and logic. Thomson’s account of the birth and maturing of Darwin’s brilliant theory is fascinating for the way it reveals both his genius as a scientist and the human foibles and weaknesses with which he mightily struggled.

About the Author :
Keith Stewart Thomson (1938–2025) was a distinguished evolutionary biologist, historian, and writer. He was emeritus professor of natural history at the University of Oxford and had served as director of the Oxford Museum of Natural History, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and the Peabody Museum at Yale University, where he was also a professor and dean. He wrote many books and essays on history, history of science, evolution, and paleontology, including The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays; Before Darwin: Reconciling God and Nature; The Legacy of the Mastodon: The Golden Age of Fossils in America; and Jefferson’s Shadow: The Story of His Science.

Review :
“A readable and very detailed account of Darwin’s early years and the influences that shaped him.”—Jim Endersby, Sunday Telegraph "Thomson, who manages to be stylish, scholarly and entertaining all at the same time, investigates Darwin's early years and how he arrived at his revolutionary ideas."—Scientific American “A subtle and scrupulous account of what Darwin learned as a young man . . . and how this differed from what he was prepared, as an old sage, to admit to having been taught.”—Andrew Brown, New Statesman “It has always irked me that Darwin is known by the iconic image of him as a bearded ancient being, when his world-changing ideas came to him as a virile young man. Happily, this book redresses the balance.”—Rowan Hooper, New Scientist “What we have here is not just a specific study of how Darwin came to write what he did but a general study into the working of a mind.”—Contemporary Review “[In] this well-written and interesting book, Thomson works out and demonstrates in detail the education of Charles Darwin. He removes that apparent discrepancy between the ‘ordinary boy’ and the man buried in Westminster Abbey nearby that other English genius, Isaac Newton.”—Léo F Laporte, Reports of the National Center for Science Education “More accessible than previous weighty volumes on the great scientist. . . . Thomson qualifies the conventional image of Darwin as an altruistic scientist and family man.”—Jonathan Sale, Cambridge Alumni Magazine “Thomson ably charts the concept of ‘transformism’ . . . to ultimate formulation.”—Jonathan Keates, The Spectator “I have never seen a Darwin biography with such a richly detailed account of the scientific and educational milieu in which the young naturalist was nurtured and that formed the basis for his ideas and achievements. And the whole is written in the flowing, accessible, entertaining, nontechnical style that has graced Thomson’s other books.”—Richard Milner, author of Darwin’s Universe: Evolution from A to Z “Keith Thomson’s fresh and lively account will surely bring Darwin back into focus as an exceptional scholar, traveler, family man, and author. Highly recommended.”—Janet Browne, author of Charles Darwin: Voyaging and Charles Darwin: The Power of Place “The image of Darwin as the doddering old sage of Down, taking his daily constitutional walks about the backyard sand path thinking deep thoughts about the philosophical implications of evolution, has become so iconic that we forget what he was like in his youth and prime. Keith Thomson has brilliantly resurrected the young Charles Darwin, revealing the inchoate mind of a genius in the early stages of countless starts and stops, hunches and hypotheses. This compelling narrative reminds us of how creativity and insight really begin.”—Michael Shermer, publisher, Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist, Scientific American, author of Why Darwin Matters