Editor's note: For more of ENV's commentary on Paul Johnson's book, see here and here. Darwin: Portrait of a Genius, Paul Johnson's brief biography of Charles Darwin, shows yet again Johnson's penchant for staking out contrarian positions on historical topics. While admiring Darwin as a genius … » Go
As Michael Flannery wrote here last week, Columbia University professor emeritus and former provost Jacques Barzun, one of the preeminent historians of the twentieth century, passed away at age 104. He was one of the most respected scholars in the field of European intellectual and cultural … » Go
Some critics of my scholarship have tried to argue that Hitler did not believe in human evolution at all, despite the overwhelming evidence I present in my book, Hitler's Ethic: The Nazi Pursuit of Evolutionary Progress. Robert Richards even accuses me of playing a "sly trick" by translating the … » Go
Almost 500 Emory faculty and students have expressed their dismay that their commencement speaker on May 14 does not toe the ideological line on evolutionary biology. Yes, gasp, the renowned Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Ben Carson does not believe in evolutionary theory. Not only that, but biology … » Go
Robert J. Richards's essay "Was Hitler a Darwinian?" and part of his essay "The German Reception of Darwin's Theory, 1860-1945" attempt to refute my two book-length treatments dealing with the ideological connections between Darwinism and Nazism (From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, … » Go
Many theistic evolutionists seem to think that science explains nature, while religion has nothing whatsoever to do with nature. The historian of science Frederick Gregory in his book, Nature Lost? Natural Science and the German Theological Traditions of the Nineteenth Century (Harvard University … » Go
When the Philadelphia Inquirer's science writer Faye Flam interviewed me recently for her article "Severing the Link Between Darwin and Nazism," she pressed me to discuss the implications of the Darwinism-Nazism connection that my scholarship has explored (especially in my two books, From Darwin … » Go
Michael Ruse recently criticized my work in From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany, which examines the way that evolutionary ethics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries undermined Judeo-Christian views of ethics, especially the sanctity-of-life … » Go
Pointing out Darwin's anti-slavery sentiments has been a favorite tactic for many years by those wanting to deny Darwin's racism. However, Adrian Desmond and James Moore raised this discussion to an entirely new level by claiming in their 2009 book, Darwin's Sacred Cause, that abolitionism was … » Go
One of the biggest errors in Ruse's recent op-ed piece in Huffington Post is his claim about Darwin's racism. While admitting that Darwin upheld conventional Victorian racial views, Ruse still tries to distance Darwin from any connection to racial extermination. When discussing Darwin's Descent … » Go
