Front cover image for The tragic sense of life : Ernst Haeckel and the struggle over evolutionary thought

The tragic sense of life : Ernst Haeckel and the struggle over evolutionary thought

Prior to the First World War, more people learned of evolutionary theory from the voluminous writings of Charles Darwin's foremost champion in Germany, Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), than through any other source, including the writings of Darwin himself. Haeckel's books vastly outsold Darwin's in their own time, and today, his extraordinary scientific illustrations adorn books, posters, and coffee mugs. Haeckel gave currency to the idea of the "missing link" between apes and man, formulated the concept of ecology, and promulgated the "biogenetic law"--The idea that the embryo of an advanced specie

eBook, English, ©2008
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, ©2008