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Biography
Leonard G. Wilson is emeritus professor in the Department of the History of Medicine at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of 'Charles Lyell, the Years to 1841' and of 'Medical Revolution in Minnesota: A History of the University of Minnesota Medical School'. He has also edited several volumes, including 'Sir Charles Lyell's Scientific Journals on the Species Question'.
Out of Print
By: Leonard G Wilson
472 pages, 39 illus
Leonard Wilson's new volume, 'Lyell in America', is an important addition to the literature about one of the nineteenth century's most significant figures in the history of geology and evolutionary biology. It is especially valuable for making available much unpublished material from Lyell's wife Mary's prolific and beautifully written correspondence from America. Wilson gives us a fuller picture of the Lyells' observations of and reflections upon slavery and other social issues in America than we have previously had, and he provides a good account of Lyell's scientific views on speciation, including his criticisms of both catastrophist and creationist explanations and his unwavering (if ultimately mistaken) skepticism of the progressionist explanation. This rewarding book significantly enriches our knowledge of Charles Lyell.--R. H. Dott, Jr., University of Wisconsin Madison