NON FICTION:

Darwin Deleted: Imagining A World Without Darwin by Peter J Bowler is published in hardback by University of Chicago Press, priced £21 (ebook £7.72). Available now.

What if Charles Darwin drowned during the voyage of the Beagle? Would his theory of evolution and the controversial book On The Origin Of Species have seen the light of day? And what would the world be like today without Darwin?

Historian Peter J Bowler attempts to find out in Darwin Deleted. Bowler, a professor emeritus of the history of science at Queen's University in Belfast, explores the undercurrents of evolutionary thought in the 19th century.

The concept of evolution, Bowler believes, was already in existence before Darwin's On The Origin Of Species was published in 1859.

It was Darwin's idea that evolution was determined by natural selection and the unpopular notion that humans shared ancestry with apes which shook the foundations of faith and sparked one of the greatest intellectual revolutions.

Although critics believe that Darwinism paved the path to eugenics, wars, and the Nazi atrocities, Bowler shows that the factors responsible for atrocities such as racism or imperialism existed long before Darwin.

And even if Darwin were to be deleted from history, there would be other ideologies that would perpetuate the need for violence and persecution.

Another fascinating thesis from a historian who's written extensively about Darwinism and evolutionary thinking.

7/10

(Review by Nilima Marshall)