Darwinism’s Generations iuses an examination of the reception of Darwinian arguments about evolution after 1859 to argue for the fundamental importance of generational patterning in Victorian Britain. Rather than the rapid acceptance of Darwin’s key propositions, it demonstrates that while the younger generations, those born after 1830, came fairly rapidly to general acceptance, those born in the 15 years before 1830 moved only slowly to acceptance, and those born before 1813 largely sustained their initial hostility until their death.
Reviewers’ Comments
‘Fresh and fascinating …astonishingly detailed …I have not read any other such study that ranges so widely in Britain, is so authoritative, and so clearly expressed …an exciting new way to think about the century’, Janet Browne in Metascience (2025), here.
‘ambitious and commanding … a powerful case for considering generational patterns and age (as categories of historical analysis) in our interpretations of the past. … richly textured … a remarkable achievement: a handsomely produced and immaculately presented book of exceptional scholarship’, Petros Spanou (University of Oxford) in the British Association for Victorian Studies Newsletter 25.2 (Summer 2025), here.
‘Historians of ideas will … find Hewitt’s approach refreshing, not least in its unabashed defence of older approaches that have been too hastily discarded by younger scholars … supported by a wealth of fascinating details … the amount of unpublished material Hewitt has analysed is frankly astonishing…’ Jim Endersby (University of Sussex), ‘Picturing Evolution’, in The British Journal for the History of Science (2025), 58, 335–337.
Martin Hewitt 