Description: J. David Archibald explores how Darwin first came to the conclusion that species had evolved in different regions throughout the world. Carefully retracing Darwin's gathering of evidence and the evolution of his thinking, Origins of Darwin's Evolution achieves a new understanding of how Darwin crafted his transformative theory.
Brief description: J. David Archibald is professor emeritus of biology at San Diego State University and curator of mammals in the SDSU Vertebrate Collections. His books include Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era: What the Fossils Say (1996) and Aristotle's Ladder, Darwin's Tree: The Evolution of Visual Metaphors for Biological Order (2014), both from Columbia University Press.
Review Quotes: [In Archibald's book, ] Darwin's argumentative structure is illuminated, his process in developing the theory is detailed, and the otherwise difficult to interpret roles and relationships of his South American finds become beautifully clear.--Charles H. Pence, Louisiana State University "The Quarterly Review of Biology"