Other editions of book The Origin of Species

Darwin consolidated a lifetime of work in On the Origin of Species, compiling his discoveries from the voyage of the Beagle, his experiments, research and correspondence. He argues for the transmutation of species over time by the process of natural selection. His work laid the foundation of evolutionary biology, though when it was published it caused tremendous religious and philosophical debates. Darwin's work is still seen by many people to oppose Christian beliefs.

Darwin consolidated a lifetime of work in On the Origin of Species, compiling his discoveries from the voyage of the Beagle, his experiments, research and correspondence. He argues for the transmutation of species over time by the process of natural selection. His work laid the foundation of evolutionary biology, though when it was published it caused tremendous religious and philosophical debates. Darwin's work is still seen by many people to oppose Christian beliefs.

How is this book unique?Font adjustments & biography includedUnabridged (100% Original content)IllustratedAbout On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles DarwinOn the Origin of Species (or more completely, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life), published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation. Various evolutionary ideas had already been proposed to explain new findings in biology. There was growing support for such ideas among dissident anatomists and the general public, but during the first half of the 19th century the English scientific establishment was closely tied to the Church of England, while science was part of natural theology. Ideas about the transmutation of species were controversial as they conflicted with the beliefs that species were unchanging parts of a designed hierarchy and that humans were unique, unrelated to other animals. The political and theological implications were intensely debated, but transmutation was not accepted by the scientific mainstream.

The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin laid the foundation for the science of evolutionary biology that revolutionized our understanding of nature and mankind’s place within it. Published in 1859, the original title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life and was abbreviated for the sixth edition in 1872. The central premise is that the diversity of life results from a branching pattern of evolution from a common source and that populations change over the generations to adapt to changing circumstances through natural selection. Various notions of “transmutation” had been proposed prior to publication and were considered controversial, as they stood in opposition to the long held belief that the diversity of life was the product of an unchanging design and that humans were distinct from all other species. Darwin was an established scientist, and the work, which was written for the general reader, included exhaustive documentation from decades of research and analyzed the theory from philosophical and religious perspectives as well as scientific. As such, it was taken seriously, gained widespread interest, and helped the campaign to secularize science. During the late nineteenth century the notion of evolution became generally accepted, but it wasn’t until the mid twentieth century that the significance of natural selection was fully understood as biologists and statisticians combined Darwin’s work with Mendel’s genetic theories to arrive at the modern evolutionary synthesis. This central notion is now the unifying concept of the life sciences.