Overview

In the second volume of the Discovering Life’s Story series by best-selling author Joy Hakim, the theory of evolution takes hold—transforming ideas about survival, extinction, and life itself. Can species change? Or go extinct? In the eighteenth century, most people answer no to both questions. But in the century that follows, that certainty gets challenged as some people in Europe question the common belief that all creatures are the same as they’ve been since life’s creation. The Evolution of an Idea, the second volume of Discovering Life’s Story, opens with the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, who attempts to create an organizing system for the myriad forms of life on earth. It continues into the late 1800s, when two Englishmen—Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace—each develop their own version of a startling new theory of how life-forms change over time. This evolutionary idea will alter the understanding of our place in the great web of life on earth. In this remarkable volume, author Joy Hakim continues charting the path of human discovery and shows how groundbreaking thinkers began to unlock the biological secrets of our own existence.

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9781536222944

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Reviews

The second in a series about life sciences, this volume provides a comprehensive history of how the theory of evolution took root, grew, and flourished. . . . While the scientific ideas presented are big, the straightforward prose simplifies the concepts so that the work reads almost like a novel, and the author’s use of the present tense lends immediacy. The pleasing layout, with many photos, drawings, etchings, paintings, and textboxes, animates the text even further. . . . A compelling and important history of a seminal idea. —Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

Joy Hakim is the best-selling author of A History of US, a ten-volume history of the United States that has sold more than three million copies, as well as the much-lauded Story of Science series that includes Einstein Adds a New Dimension. Joy Hakim is also the author of the first book in the Discovering Life’s Story series, Biology’s Beginnings. She has worked as a teacher, newspaper writer, and editor and lives in Maryland.

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