In this absorbing study, Desmond has recuperated the life and times of a neglected, but important, socialist evolutionist. Even though W. D. Saull worked behind the scenes most of the time, bankrolling radical causes, it is now clear what a central figure he is for understanding the history of atheism, socialism, and evolutionism, as well as the complicated process by which geology became incorporated into radicalism, before the Vestiges or the Origin of Species arrived on the scene.
Bernard Lightman
Professor of Humanities at York University, Canada
Adrian Desmond was educated at University College London and Harvard University, where he was Stephen Jay Gould's first history of science PhD student. He has two MSc's, one in history of science, another in vertebrate palaeontology, and a PhD for his work on radical Victorian evolutionists. For twenty years he was an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London. He is the multi-award-winning author of nine books, which include: The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs, Archetypes and Ancestors: Palaeontology in Victorian London 1850-1875, The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine, and Reform in Radical London, Darwin, Huxley: The Devil’s Disciple, Huxley: Evolution’s High Priest, Darwin’s Sacred Cause (with James Moore)