History of Evolutionary Thought, 1860–1925

The reaction to the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was as varied as the sources from which it emanated. Responses ranged from those of naturalists, physical scientists, and religious leaders and theologians to social scientists, political activists, historians, and even artists from George Eliot and Fyodor Dostoyevsky to Richard Wagner. Darwin’s work was as controversial as he feared it would be, so he left defending it in the scientific world, to his “bulldog” Thomas Henry Huxley. The initial reaction, dating between the years 1860 and 1882 (Darwin’s death), included numerous scientific critiques, some of which were highly favorable, even if not agreeing with Darwin in all details. Others, however, attacked virtually every aspect of Darwin’s theory from his concept of heredity to his insistence on gradualism and including his vagueness about how speciation would actually come about. In addition, the immediate reaction by theologians was often quite virulent, and it has remained to plague evolutionary theory down to the present. The sociological spin-off into what has loosely been called “social Darwinism” and other evolutionary views of history was also immediate and highly influential. Few historians or social scientists were able to ignore the impact of Darwin’s ideas on their field, however much some may have wanted to resist it. The general period in the history of Darwinism from 1860 to 1925, then, is one marked by numerous controversies, even as many, at least in the scientific realm, began to reach some sort of resolution by the time of the so-called evolutionary synthesis of the later 1920s and 1930s. This article will focus on the period leading up to, but not including, the synthesis and beyond.