STHS 100 | Apes, Angels, and Darwin

Benjamin Disraeli described the question placed before society by Charles Darwin's work as follows: "Is man an ape or an angel?" This course examines the development of evolutionary thinking during the nineteenth century and the resulting debates over the "Descent of Man." It explores the relationship between Darwin's theory of evolution and the social, political and religious history of Britain and the British Empire in the nineteenth century. The course serves as an introduction to analyzing the interactions between science and society, with particular attention to how Darwin's theory intersected with debates over God, Science, Empire, Ethics, Race, Gender, Economics, and Politics.