Darwin's Falling Sparrow: Victorian Evolutionists and the Meaning of Suffering

The "Darwin Story" has been told in many different ways and from a wide range of perspectives. Some focus on the detailed development of evolution theory. Others examine the ways in which evolution was used to justify different ideologies. But no one has told this tale as a story of mothers, fathers, and families wrestling with alternative explanations of suffering in a time of tremendously high child mortality rates. Darwin's Falling Sparrow explores how both Darwin and his readers confronted evolutionary ideas as more than scientists, ministers, or public intellectuals. They were also parents, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, and friends, who, in their attempt to devise a new explanation for the ubiquitous "Fall of Every Sparrow," were inspired to see the world through new, extraordinary lenses that altered the course of history, science, and medicine.

Kristin Johnson is a professional historian of science who specializes in the history of the naturalist tradition (evolution biology, ecology, natural history museums, etc.) and has taught in the Science, Technology and Society Program at the University of Puget Sound (Tacoma, Washington) since 2006.