Darwin and Natural Selection

We have noted in lecture how Copernicus' "geocentric" conceptualization of the Solar System knocked mankind from the center of creation to the "third rock from the sun." But many people could still elevate mankind to a special place in Creation, indeed at the pinnacle of that Creation. But it would be Charles Darwin who would firmly root mankind as "just" a part of nature, of Creation, and thus once again dislodging Man from any special place or status. The following is a link from the Smithsonian magazine--a nice, but brief synopsis of Darwin's story.
Origin of Species
The second link connects to a longer (but not too long) essay about Darwin and the famous voyage of the "Beagle." Note the extensive bibliography at the end. (If you are interested in a more detailed investigation of Darwin's notions of Evolution, click on the "Home" button for the "Strange Science" website from which the essay is taken.)
Darwin and the HMS Beagle

Study Terms for Chapter 18 and 22

“The World of Yesterday,” Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment & French Revolution
(Chapter 18)

Pre-Industrial to Modern Europe, or “The World of Yesterday”
1.) Small Scale
Rural
Agricultural/Communal/Pre-Market
Industrial Revolution/Urbanization/Transportation
2.) Religious
Christianity/Catholicism
Protestant Reformation
Scientific Revolution & Enlightenment
3.) Traditional
“past-directed”
Scientific Revolution
4.) Hierarchical
Aristocracy
Bourgeoisie
French Revolution/Industrial Revolution
5.) Feudal
Decentralized
Absolutism

The Scientific Revolution
Three “Signposts” of Modern Science
Observation/Experimentation/Empiricism
Use of Mathematics
Attack on Tradition
Nicolaus Copernicus
On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres (1543)
Heliocentric Universe
(Ptolemy/Geocentric Universe)
Catholic Church: Aristotle on philosophy, Ptolemy on astronomy
(The Index of Forbidden Books)
Galileo Galilei
Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems (1632)
Isaac Newton
Universal Theory of Gravity
Principia
The Enlightenment, or The Age of Reason
Four “Pillars” of the Enlightenment
Application of Scientific Method to the Human World
Importance of Reason
Centrality of Freedom (& Education)
Human Progress
John Locke/Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Philosophes/Salons
Ancien Regime
Denis Diderot/Encyclopedia 20 Volumes (1751-1772)
Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet)/Candide (1759)
Mary Wollstonecraft/Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792)
Thomas Jefferson/Declaration of Independence (1776)
Adam Smith Wealth of Nations (1776)
Capitalism/Laissez Faire/Anti-Mercantilism
Deism
Natural (“Unalienable”) Rights
Anti-Monarchy
American Revolution
Declaration—Thomas Jefferson (1776)
Constitution—James Madison (1787)

The “Moderate Phase of the French Revolution”:
Debt, Privilege, and the Rise of the Middle Class
Louis XVI & Marie Antoinette Estates-General
1st, 2nd, & 3rd Estate Versailles
Bourgeoisie National Assembly
“Tennis Court Oath” (Jean-Jacques David) The Bastille
The End of the Ancien Regime Declaration of the Rights of Man & Citizen
“The March of the Fishwives” “The flight to Varennes”

The “Radical Phase of the French Revolution”:
Sans-Culottes
Jacobins Maximilien Robespierre
Jean Paul Marat (David) Georges Danton
Committee of Public Safety Courts of the People
Levee en masse (Citizen Army) Reign of Terror
Republic of Virtue “Rationalization” of French society
Thermidorean Reaction

The “Napoleonic Phase of the French Revolution”:
Napoleon Bonaparte:
Corsica/Coup d’etat The Emperor and the Empire
Nelson and Trafalgar Continental System
Russia (Elba) Waterloo/Duke of Wellington (St. Helena)

Nationalism
Patriotism
Identity
Republicanism
Meritocracy
Napoleonic Code (e.g. primogeniture)


Europe’s Industrialization and Its Consequences
(Chapter 22)
Precursors to Industrialization:
Agricultural Revolution
“Scientific” Farming
New Technologies & New Crops
Enclosure Movement
”Commons”
Open-Field System
Gentry
Population Growth
Diet & the Columbian Exchange
The Industrial Revolution
(Previously the “Putting Out” System or Cottage Industry)
English Phase
Raw Materials (Coal & Cotton)
Transportation (Water & RxR)
Textiles
James Hargreaves/”Spinning Jenny”
Richard Arkwright/”Water Frame”
James Watt and “English Steam”
Eli Whitney/”Cotton Gin” (American slavery)
Railroads
George Stephenson/Liverpool-Manchester Line (1830)
Continental Phase
(Ruhr Valley)

Consequences of Industrialization
Factory Discipline & the Factory System
Urbanization
Child Labor
Gendering Work
(American) Slavery
Bourgeoisie
Pre-Marxian “Utopian” Socialism
Charles Fourier/Phalanstery/Anti-Individualism & Anti-Competition
Robert Owen/New Harmony, Indiana
Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels
“Scientific” Socialism/Communism
Class Struggle
The Proletariat and the Vanguard (or “Temporary Dictatorship”)
Classless society/Worker’s state
Communist Manifesto (1848)
Das Kapital (1867-1873)

Charles Darwin
(Charles Lyell—Geological Time & Thomas Malthus—Population “stress”)
Natural Selection/”Survival of the Fittest”/Origin of Species (1859)

Inustrial Revolution Images and Video Clips

The ideas of Karl Marx and his co-author, co-respondent, and friend Friedrich Engels were some of the most influential of the 20th Century, though their roots were firmly established in the turmoil of the 19th. Click this link for a synopsis of the Manifesto that was published in 1848. Manifesto
Then click on "Analysis" in the upper right for a fuller explication.



Click on to this link on "Lectures on European Intellectual History." Pay particular attention to the broad outlines of the "Utopian" notions of both Fourier and Owens.
Charles Fourier

View this clip and pay particular attention to the social effects of mechanization:


View this clip with the question of why the Industrial Revolution began wherfe and when it did.








Yankee inventor (and history teacher!) Eli Whitney made a few small technological innovations in his "Gin" (short for engine) with very large social, cultural, and political ramifications.




James Watt's developments of the earlier bulky and inefficient steam engine brought English factories down out of the hills (where water power was preeminent) and into the modern industrial city.





Before the rise of the Spinning Jenny and the Water Frame, the production of textiles took place in homes, cabins, and farms. But with the rise of Richard Arkwright's complex, large, expensive, and water-driven Water Frame, industry needed its own space, the "factory."

The clip below examines the roleof water power in the development of industry.





The "Jenny" (an adaptation of the word "Engine") played a significant role in the early years of the Industrial Revolution. A few things to keep in mind: it was manpowered--or more accurately "woman-powered"--and was still small enough to fit in the homes or cabins of "spinners."