ABOUT THIS BOOK

In the early twentieth century, varied audiences took biology out of the hands of specialists and transformed it into mass culture, transforming our understanding of heredity in the process.

In the early twentieth century communities made creative use of the new theories of heredity in circulation at the time, including the now largely forgotten mutation theory of Hugo de Vries. Science fiction writers, socialists, feminists, and utopians are among those who seized on the amazing possibilities of rapid and potentially controllable evolution. De Vries’s highly respected scientific theory only briefly captured the attention of the scientific community, but its many fans appropriated it for their own wildly imaginative ends. Writers from H.G. Wells and Edith Wharton to Charlotte Perkins Gilman, J.B.S. Haldane, and Aldous Huxley created a new kind of imaginary future, which Jim Endersby calls the biotopia. It took the ambiguous possibilities of biology—utopian and dystopian—and reimagined them in ways that still influence the public’s understanding of the life sciences. The Arrival of the Fittest recovers the fascinating, long-forgotten origins of ideas that have informed works of fiction from Brave New World to the X-Men movies, all while reflecting on the lessons—positive and negative—that this period might offer us.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Jim Endersby is professor of the history of science at the University of Sussex. He is the author of Orchid: A Cultural History, Imperial Nature: Joseph Hooker and the Practices of Victorian Science, and A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology.

REVIEWS

“Endersby’s book offers a fascinating insight into the interplay between science and popular culture and shows that the latter is by no means just a simplified processing of scientific findings. Biotopian themes, coming from both sides, crossed the permeable boundary between elite science and popular cultural manifestations—a phenomenon that is as topical today as it was a hundred years ago.”

— Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“The Arrival of the Fittest offers a valuable survey of some long-neglected sources for our understanding of the interactions between science and the reading public, to say nothing of how we interpret areas ranging from scientific agriculture to evolution theory.”

— Social History of Medicine

“An evocative, engaging, and . . . persuasive history of popular biology’s imaginations of progress, of the world to come, of utopia. [Endersby] successfully intervenes into established narratives of the popular understanding of evolution and, in identifying biotopianism as a strain of scientific utopian thought distinct from other environmental utopianisms, will no doubt plant the seed for new conversations and new strains of research to grow where The Arrival of the Fittest so tantalizingly leaves off.”

— British Society for Literature and Science

“Thick with helpful, sometimes surprising anecdotes about largely well-known figures and some of their best-known works. Endersby has done the same thorough job of excavating these materials that he always does in his books.”

— Intellectual History Review

“The Arrival of the Fittest is a substantial achievement. . . . This is interdisciplinary research of the highest order: it transforms our understanding of the period into more complex and subtle forms whilst also setting a high bar for those to follow.”

— SFRA Review

“Arrival of the Fittest has itself arrived at a moment when the durability and reliability of science is being contested in ways that recall the early 20th century. It is a timely reminder that the power of science can never be separated from the influence of its interpreters.”

— Journal of the History of Biology

“An extraordinary re-evaluation of the biological sciences during the early twentieth century.”

— Strange Horizons

“Endersby’s study of a lesser-known theory and its prevalence in mass media is a reminder that the theories that influence people and are used to make meaning within a culture are not necessarily those lauded by experts. To truly understand the historical significance of science, it is important for scholars to study theories that are rejected by professionals but have gone on to spark something new, exciting, and innovative. This examination of the creative use of scientific theories—even those that have been disproved—is undoubtedly a fruitful trail for historians to follow and, as Endersby concludes, also has a lot to tell us about the way we use science today.”

— Isis

“The Arrival of the Fittest offers a novel account of the way in which the sciences of genetics and evolution at the turn of the century fueled a body of literature and stirred the imagination. The book is clever, bold, and makes for lively reading.”

— Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis, author of “Unifying Biology: The Evolutionary Synthesis and Evolutionary Biology”

“A superb book that recovers the moment in the history of Darwinism around 1900 when ‘mutation theory’ emerged to explain sudden biological change. This promised a future of bio-engineering new plants, animals, humans and superhumans. Endersby deftly illustrates how the idea of the ‘mutant’ was a product of the interaction of scientific papers, the popular press, the hero-worship of the inventor, and the emergence of the genre of science fiction. From Darwin to Haldane, and from Wells to the X-Men, this is an interdisciplinary project that impresses with its range, readability and its potential to transform our understanding of a crucial phase in evolutionary theory.”

— Roger Luckhurst, author of “Gothic: An Illustrated History”

“Arrival of the Fittest tells the story of the version of ‘Darwinism’ that wouldn’t die: an account of evolution focused not on selection, but on the appearance of novelty amongst plants and animals. Situated at the intersection of history of science and science communication, this book reveals a cast of scientists and writers who wrestled with the possibilities of mutation, some little-known today but all influential in the early twentieth century. With clarity and wit, Endersby reveals how their utopian hopes for biology resonate in the present.”

— Charlotte Sleigh, author of “The Paper Zoo: 500 Years of Animals in Art”

“Arrival of the Fittest has itself arrived at a moment when the durability and reliability of science is being contested in ways that recall the early 20th century.”

— Joanna Radin, Journal of the History of Biology

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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