Of Moths and Men: An Evolutionary Tale: The Untold Story of Science and the Peppered Moth

In the 1950s, a British physician and amateur lepidopterist named H. B. D. Kettlewell went into the English woods to catch "evolution in action" among the now-famous Peppered Moths. His work became "Darwin's missing evidence," an evolutionary experiment as influential as any in the last century. Compellingly told, Of Moths and Men reveals Kettlewell to be a deluded scientist, a man tyrannized by his mentor, the powerful E. B. Ford, an imperious, eccentric Oxford don, a Darwinian zealot determined to crush all enemies in his path. In a revelatory, controversial work that will be debated for years to come, Judith Hooper uncovers the intellectual rivalries, petty jealousies, and faulty science behind one of the most famous experiments and myths in the history of evolutionary biology. Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Author: Judith Hooper
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 01/01/2004
Pages: 377
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.11lbs
Size: 8.30h x 6.10w x 1.07d
ISBN: 9780393325256

Review Citation(s):
New York Times 02/08/2004 pg. 28
Kliatt 05/01/2004 pg. 41

About the Author
Hooper, Judith: - Judith Hooper has written for The Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times Book Review, and many other publications; she is the author of The Three-Pound Universe. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.