An Unofficial 'The Rest Is History' Reading List

The Descent of Man

Author: Charles Darwin

Referenced in 3 episodes

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Episodes Referencing This Book

August 11, 2024

Context:

Mentioned as Darwin's 1871 book that advanced the theory that humans, like all animals, are a product of evolution - the theory he had been too nervous to include in Origin of Species

March 07, 2024

Context:

Tom quotes from this book at the opening, explaining it's the book in which Darwin 'famously points out that man too is an ape'

December 02, 2021

Context:

Tom Holland references Darwin going on to talk about human evolution in 'the sense of man' (likely meaning The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex), noting that in The Origin of Species Darwin 'famously does not talk about human evolution' but then goes on in this later work to address it. Mentioned briefly in the context of how the Neanderthal discovery fed into debates about human evolution and scientific racism.