Part one this BBC portrait of Charles Darwin focuses on his early life and influences tracing his maturation as a naturalist from his birth in Shrewsbury, England to the publication of his key work the Origin of Species. To provide a contextual base for Darwin’s revolutionary ideas, the program examines his key influences including Thomas Malthus and Robert Edmund Grant as well as his life changing experience as the ship naturalist on the HMS Beagle. Featuring Darwin Biographers Janet Browne, James Moore, and Adrian Desmond as well as noted scholar Robert M. Young, the program will provide students with the personal and historic background key to understanding the work and life of Darwin.

Part two of this BBC portrait of Charles Darwin focuses on the legacy of his theories on evolution and the implications of his writings. Using Natural Selection as a starting point, the program explores the often contentious implications of Darwin’s work including: Eugenics, Group Selection, Sociobiology, Evolutionary Psychology and Coevolution. While Darwin’s theories are central to these ideas, they each provide a basis of discourse on the far-reaching implications of what evolutionary thought can teach us about human nature. Featuring scholars Richard Dawkins (Oxford University), Adrian Desmond (University College, London), Robert Trivers (Rutgers Univerity), Edward O. Wilson (Harvard University), Stuart Kauffman (Santa Fe Institute), and others, the program provides an academic primer for discussions on the implications of Darwin’s still controversial work.

If you are interested in Darwin: The Life and the Legacy, you may also be interested in:
What Darwin Didn’t Know
What Time Is It?

$289.00 (with PPR)

$149 (without PPR)

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Video Librarian Review March/April 2010
Rating: 3 out of 4 Stars - Recommended!
This two-part 1998 BBC series offers a judicious treatment of famed naturalist Charles Darwin’s life and influence, beginning with a fine biographical sketch, combining narration, archival material, location footage, dramatic recreations, and commentary from scholars to construct a balanced but admiring portrait of the man and his world-shaking theory of evolution through natural selection. What really distinguishes this offering, however, is the second part, which follows the evolution of the theory itself, not only in terms of negative employment in public policy through social Darwinism and eugenics, but also looking at contemporary refinements such as “punctuated equilibrium” (advanced by Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge) and the concept of co-evolution. Also considered are the theory’s applications in such fields as sociobiology, which argues for genetically based explanations of social behavior; and evolutionary psychology, which suggests that the mind has evolved along with the body—an idea that has been taken up in fields ranging from economics to political science. These extensions of Darwinian principles, it’s argued, have implications for the analysis not only of human interrelationships but also of the connections of humanity to other species and to the natural environment as a whole. Contributions to the conversation from figures such as Richard Dawkins and Eldredge himself make for a fascinating, thought-provoking treatment of how Darwin’s theory is altering the very idea of human nature. Released in connection with the 150th anniversary of the publication of The Origin of Species, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)