The Huxleys: An Intimate History of Evolution

The Huxleys: An Intimate History of Evolution

A New Yorker and Economist Best Book of the Year Two hundred years of modern science and culture told through one family history.   This momentous biography tells the story of the Huxleys: the Victorian natural historian T. H. Huxley (“Darwin’s Bulldog”) and his grandson, the scientist, conservationist, and zoologist Julian Huxley. Between them, they communicated to the world the great modern story of the theory of evolution by natural selection. In The Huxleys , celebrated historian Alison Bashford writes seamlessly about these omnivorous intellects together, almost as if they were a single man whose long, vital life bookended the colossal shifts in world history from the age of sail to the Space Age, and from colonial wars to world wars to the cold war. The Huxleys’ specialty was evolution in all its forms—at the grandest level of species, deep time, the Earth, and at the most personal and intimate. They illuminated the problems and wonders of the modern world and they fundamentally shaped how we see ourselves, as individuals and as a species. But perhaps their greatest subject was themselves. Bashford’s engaging, brilliantly ambitious book interweaves the Huxleys’ momentous public achievements with their private triumphs and tragedies. The result is the history of a family, but also a history of humanity grappling with its place in nature. This book shows how much we owe—for better or worse—to the unceasing curiosity, self-absorption, and enthusiasm of a small, strange group of men and women. "It was fitting for a man known as 'Darwin’s bulldog' that his descendants inherited many of his traits—not just his talents but also his affinity for certain sweeping questions: Who are we? What is our place in nature? How can we design morality and religion in a world informed by science? In The Huxleys : An Intimate History of Evolution , the historian Bashford moves across the Huxley generations, tracing how Thomas Henry and his gifted brood struggled to answer these questions, in the process shaping outlooks we hold today. . . . Evolution is a messy, nuanced, protean picture of our origins. It offers many stories, yet those which we choose to tell have their own momentum. It can serve as a banner of our common humanity or as a narrative of our staggering differences. It can be wielded to fight racism or weaponized to support oppression. It can inspire new forms of piety or be called on to destroy dogma. The social meanings of evolution, like so much else, are part of a grander inheritance." -- Manvir Singh ― New Yorker, "Best Books of 2022" "The Huxleys wrote about evolution as a romance, an epic of progress and transformation. In their own lives and observations they also saw the cruelty of science and the bleaker aspects of inheritance. . . . Both sides, and both men, are painstakingly illuminated by Bashford. Balancing scholarly rigor with an eye for the absurd, her book reveals the human drama behind scientific fact." ― Economist, "Best Books of 2022" “A daring and joyously intelligent book on Huxley, his family, and their immense legacy. . . . The intellectual vigor, the capacity to formulate startling ideas, the books and lectures, the committees and public campaigns, the sheer weight of deskwork, to say nothing of the disturbed minds and households of the Huxleys could make a cluttered or shapeless narrative. It is an astounding achievement that Bashford has transformed such a super-abundance of material into a richly rewarding and comprehensible book. The Huxleys brings the reader into easy familiarity with great minds at work." -- Richard Davenport-Hines ― Wall Street Journal "Bashford’s book is an intriguing hybrid. A deeply researched biography of Thomas Henry, Julian, and the wider Huxley family, the result of close examination of their writings and correspondence, it also serves as an intellectual history of Britain through the radical shifts in science and society that gave birth to modernity. . . . The whole of British intellectual life seems accessible through some branch of this sprawling family tree." -- Stephen Buranyi ― Guardian "Generates some illuminating parallels. . . . Bashford includes some excellent stories about both men. . . . Both Huxleys would have appreciated the breadth of Bashford’s research and her skill at explaining heavyweight scientific ideas with a light touch" -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst ― Literary Review "A masterpiece of biography. . . . A vivid account of a family at the heart of some of the great cultural shifts of the modern era." -- John Gray ― New Statesman "Many Huxleys across six generations appear in the book, but she focuses on Thomas Henry Huxley, Darwin's contemporary, and his grandson, the scientific communicator Julian Huxley. Bashford uses a comparative approach to examine the men's careers with respect to ten topics, organizing the text into four parts: genealogies, animals, humans, and spirits. For instance, she trace