Evolution: A Theory in Crisis

When Evolution: A Theory in Crisis first appeared in the mid-1980s, it rattled a scientific orthodoxy that had seemed unrattlable. Michael Denton reviewed the fossil record, comparative anatomy, molecular biology, and the origin of life, only to expose the hollowness of Darwin’s promise of gradual transformation. Instead, Denton revealed a living world divided into sharply distinct biological forms. Life, he argued, consists of enduring Types. The missing links needed to connect these Types were missing in the 1980s, and they are missing still. David Berlinski calls Denton’s classic “one of the great clarifying books in the history of thought.” Now, in this expanded 40th anniversary edition, Denton offers a new preface, essay, commentary, and appendices, in which he shows clearly that neither advances in neo-Darwinism, nor in the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, nor in the Third Way of Evolution have over the intervening years resolved the crisis he identified in the 1980s. This new edition is essential reading for anyone serious about understanding where we come from.