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Charles Darwin ( Figure 14.1 ) discussed the evolution of dogs in the first main chapter of On the Origin of Species (1859). He gave the different types of domesticated dogs as an example of ‘artificial selection’, that is, selective breeding to produce desirable traits in animals and plants for human needs. He aimed to persuade readers that, if humans could produce such variety in dogs, as seen in the difference between the Great Dane and the Pug, in just thousands of years, the greater powers of
The Victorian private solider was a despised figure. Yet in the first sixteen months of the Great War two and a half million men from the UK and many more from the empire, flocked to the colours without any form of legal compulsion. This book is the result of reflection on one of the most extraordinary mass movements in history: the surge of volunteers into the British army during the first sixteen months of the Great War. The notion that compulsory service in arms was repugnant to British tradition was mistaken. The nation's general state of mind, system of values and set of attitudes derived largely from the upper middle class, which had emerged and become dominant during the nineteenth century. The book examines the phenomenon of 1914 and the views held by people of that class, since it was under their leadership that the country went to war. It discusses the general theoretical notions of the nature of war of two nineteenth-century thinkers: Karl von Clausewitz and Charles Darwin. By 1914 patriotism and imperialism were interdependent. The early Victorians directed their abundant political energies chiefly towards free trade and parliamentary reform. It was the Germans' own policy which jolted the British into unity, for the Cabinet and the nation were far from unanimously in favour of war until the Germans attacked Belgium. Upper-class intellectual culture was founded on the tradition of 'liberal education' at the greater public schools and at Oxford and Cambridge.
resolve them. Notes 1 We wish to thank World Vision National Office staff who have been invaluable in progressing this concept and acknowledge Dr Jonatan Lassa and Associate Professor Akhilesh Surjan from the Disaster and Emergency Management Programme at Charles Darwin University for their critical support
Reminiscing about his many visits over the years to the home of his dear friend and scientific colleague Charles Darwin, Joseph Hooker, Britain's leading botanist for much of the second half of the nineteenth century, noted that a regular feature of those visits was joining Darwin on his noontime walk: ‘away we trudged through the garden,’ recalled Hooker, ‘where there was always some experiment to visit’ (F. Darwin 1887 : II. 27). Hooker's description – despite the begrudging ‘trudge’ – captures nicely the multiple roles that the garden
– came to terms with the actuality of the site. Charles Darwin’s trip points to the real challenges posed by this terrain – that it could not be easily accommodated within standard European aesthetic frameworks. He asserted that the Blue Mountains were different from typical European mountainous scenery. He also hinted at the ways in which these mountains challenged European preconceptions of the sublime
science during the nineteenth century as that century shaded into the twentieth. Wallace had a reputation as both scientist and social radical (Wallace, 1913 ) who had experienced poverty through an underprivileged childhood (Wallace, 1908 ). In 1899, he was still best known for his role in the articulation of the theory of evolution by natural selection, alongside the more prominent, prestigious and socially privileged Charles Darwin in 1858. Evolution was evinced in the ‘wonderful’ selections and adaptations of
upper intellectual atmosphere, let us glance at two nineteenth-century thinkers, neither likely to be familiar to ordinary Englishmen, unless indirectly and superficially, and far removed from each other in subject-matter. One is Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831), a Prussian general who served against Napoleon, and the other is Charles Darwin (1809-1882), who came of a numerous family at the centre of the high-Victorian ‘intellectual aristocracy’ (seep. 129 below) of liberal Britain. Clausewitz’s book On War , first published
Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, and Charles Darwin, and to places such as Europe and the United States. These 181 182 182 Colonial exchanges comparisons, I suggest, are selective appropriations, colonial hesitations, and performances for particular audiences. On the other hand, attempts to address distinct audiences across different works, or to appeal to multiple audiences in one work, may not succeed. Authors can fail to calibrate their arguments to their intended audience. Different audiences can interpret one or many texts in numerous ways. And a thinker
February 1837 Party politics now permeated everyday life, even the renting of church pews. Indeed, some men, shortly to emerge as local Chartists, began to voice their utter hatred of a corrupt, undemocratic political system. On an even wider world stage, young Charles Darwin had returned in October 1836 from his voyage on the Beagle . He brought exciting new evidence of the earth's history and met Lyell himself. In January he read a
Doctors and scientists 13. Delabere Blaine (1770–1845) and William Youatt (1776–1847) Dog doctors 14. Charles Darwin (1809–1882) Evolution and emotions 15. Gordon Stables (1837–1910) Canine care and dog tales 16. Everett Millais (1856–1897) Basset Hounds and breeding The authors of the most popular books on dog health and disease in Victorian Britain were not veterinarians. Rather, they were doctors – Delabere Blaine, John Henry Walsh and Gordon Stables – and a clergyman