Darwin's Armada: Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution

Book info: Darwin's Armada: Four Voyages and the Battle for the Theory of Evolution (Paperback, 447 pages) – W. W. Norton & Company, 2010. Language: English.

"Sparkling…an extraordinary true-adventure story, complete with trials, tribulations and moments of exultation." ―Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Award-winning cultural historian Iain McCalman tells the stories of Charles Darwin and his staunchest supporters: Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley, and Alfred Wallace. Beginning with the somber morning of April 26, 1882―the day of Darwin's funeral―Darwin's Armada steps back and recounts the lives and scientific discoveries of each of these explorers, who campaigned passionately in the war of ideas over evolution and advanced the scope of Darwin's work.

16 pages black-and-white illustrations Editorial Reviews Review "McCalman evokes the physical hardships and social intricacies navigated by his heroes…and also the feel of an era when 'adventure and science went hand in hand.'"
― The New Yorker

"[McCalman's] narratives are as much bildungsroman as scientific analysis, showing how the four voyagers were steeled and transformed by the demands of the sea and the wondrous unfamiliarity of life on distant shores."
― The New York Times Book Review About the Author Iain McCalman is an award-winning professor at the , where he lives. He has served as president of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and director of the Humanities Research Centre at ANU. He lives in Sydney.