The snark is not merely entertainment — the portrait is central to the main thesis of Roberts’s engaging and thought-provoking book, one focused on the theatrical politics and often deeply troubling science that shape our definitions of life on Earth.
A fluent and engaging account of the 18th-century origins of Darwinism before Darwin ... Mr. Roberts’s emphasis on Linnaeus’s and Buffon’s very different personalities sometimes obscures their shared views.
Enlightening ... Roberts provides a thorough accounting of the divergent outlooks of his dual subjects and offers illuminating insight into how politics secured Linnaeus’s legacy while consigning Buffon to relative obscurity.
