University Press of Florida
Darwin's Man in Brazil: The Evolving Science of Fritz Müller
Key Metrics
- David a West
- University Press of Florida
- Hardcover
- 9780813062600
- 9.21 X 6.14 X 0.94 inches
- 1.56 pounds
- History > Latin America - General
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Impeccable research on practically every available facet of M�ller's life. Relevant for both historians of science and scientists alike.--Adriana Novoa, coauthor of From Man to Ape: Darwinism in Argentina, 1870-1920
Fritz M�ller (1821-1897), though not as well known as his colleague Charles Darwin, belongs in the cohort of great nineteenth-century naturalists. In Darwin's Man in Brazil, David A. West recovers M�ller's legacy. He describes the close intellectual kinship between M�ller and Darwin, detailing a lively correspondence spanning seventeen years, in which the two men often discussed new research topics and exchanged ideas. Darwin frequently praised M�ller's powers of observation and interpretation, counting him among those scientists whose opinions he valued most.
A free thinker who refused to sign the Christian oaths required of teachers in Prussia, M�ller emigrated to Brazil in 1852 to become a pioneer farmer researching tropical biology. In the 1860s he reorganized his biological research in order to test Darwin's theory of evolution. Conducting field studies to answer questions generated from a Darwinian perspective, M�ller was unique among naturalists testing Darwin's theory of natural selection because he investigated an enormous diversity of plants and animals rather than a relatively narrow range of taxa.
Despite the importance and scope of his work, however, M�ller is known for relatively few of his discoveries. West remedies this oversight, chronicling the life and work of this remarkable and overlooked man of science.
Author Bio
David A. West (1933–2015) was associate professor emeritus of biological sciences at Virginia Tech and the author of Fritz Müller: A Naturalist in Brazil.
West came to Virginia Tech in 1962 where he taught biology and genetics until his retirement in 1998.
West was born and spent his childhood in Beirut, where his father and grandfather both taught at the American University of Beirut, according to his obituary posted on the McCoy Funeral Home website.
West married Lindsay Lattimore Butte in New York City in 1958. He attended Cornell University to study ornithology, graduating with a doctoral degree in 1959, according to his obituary.
In retirement, West pursued interests in music, reading, travel, and the local mountains with wilderness designation for additional areas in the Jefferson National Forest including Brush Mountain, his obituary said.
Source: Virginia Tech
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