"In this work, science historian Edward J. Larson takes us on a guided tour of Darwin's "dangerous idea," from its theoretical antecedents in the early nineteenth century to the brilliant breakthroughs of Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, to Watson and Crick's stunning discovery of the DNA double helix, and to today's triumphant neo-Darwinian synthesis and rising sociobiology." "Along the way, Larson places the scientific upheaval of evolution in cultural perspective: the social and philosophical earthquake that was the French Revolution; the development, in England, of a laissez-faire capitalism in tune with a Darwinian ethos of "survival of the fittest"; the emergence of Social Darwinism and the dark science of eugenics against a backdrop of industrial revolution; the American Christian backlash against evolutionism that culminated in the famous Scopes trial; and on to today's world, were religious fundamentalists litigate for the right to teach "creation science" alongside evolution in U.S. public schools, even as the theory itself continues to evolve in new and surprising directions."--BOOK JACKET.