Darwin's Intellectual Development

By the time of his death Charles Darwin was one of the most celebrated--and one of the most notorious--scientists in the world. Still controversial, Darwin has become an icon of modern science at the same time as his theories have become the basis of modern biology. In this series exploring Darwin's legacy, Janet Browne looks at Darwin's education and intellectual growth with special reference to the Beagle voyage and beyond. Over the years, however, our opinions about key moments in the development of Darwin's ideas have subtly shifted. She will consider the ways in which historians and biographers since Darwin's death have written about the development of his theories, and set these views in the context of changing ideas about biography in the twentieth century.