The Species Seekers – Richard Conniff

This book chronicles the natural history movements in the era leading up to Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle, and how the advances in technology of that time created a craze for finding new species, and what that meant for science. Darwin certainly wasn’t the only game in town. You meet a number of other naturalists – either in the field, or those gentlemen that funded or ordered species for their homes. It’s a fascinating mix, and after reading this book, I’m frankly amazed that there are any exotic species left after this era – I’m glad we can record things thoroughly with cameras these days.

It was also interesting to see how much dissent existed in these groups, and the various discoveries that built into Darwin’s theory of evolution are fascinating. I think we’ve forgotten how completely revolutionary (and dangerous, from a religious sense), that idea was when Darwin published – it’s an interesting exercise to see what was happening in the lead up to his publication.