Loveliest of Men: Darwin and the Tragedy of the Origin of Species by Thomas Jackson presents the case that Darwin’s observations of nature in South America as a young man conflict with his later-life theory of Natural Selection in The Origin of Species. It is an interesting book, because it examines events that occurred in Darwin’s life and how he felt about different issues. Throughout the book, I learned new things about Darwin’s world travels, as well as his family. (I thought it was interesting that Drawin’s paternal grandfather, Erasmus, was also an evolutionist.) The book’s strength is its detailed and thorough writing, which includes carefully footnoted sources. The book also features a lot of quoted material from other books about Darwin, giving readers a nice smorgasbord of information.

You can find Loveliest of Men here.