Looking for the first time at the cut-price anatomy schools rather than genteel Oxbridge, Desmond winkles out pre-Darwinian evolutionary ideas in reform-minded and politically charged early nineteenth-century London. In the process, he reveals the underside of London intellectual and social life in the generation before Darwin as it has never been seen before."e;The Politics of Evolution is intellectual dynamite, and certainly one of the most important books in the history of science published during the past decade."e;-Jim Secord, Times Literary Supplement"e;One of those rare books that not only stakes out new territory but demands a radical overhaul of conventional wisdom."e;-John Hedley Brooke, Times Higher Education Supplement