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Ross Brooks - Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life, Inbunden

Inbunden, Engelska, 2026

Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life

A History of Sex and Science

Av Ross Brooks

301 kr

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Beskrivning
A revelatory history of sex, gender, and science from Linnaeus to DarwinWhat did Darwin and Linnaeus really think about sex? In print, their descriptions of animal courtship painted a comfortingly traditional picture: males were belligerent show-offs, females were choosy and skittish, and the two came together in unions curiously akin to human marriage. But in truth, the forefathers of evolutionary science were acutely aware that this was not the whole story. The reality was far more messy and ambiguous.In this iconoclastic history, Ross Brooks shows how queerness was at the heart of evolutionists’ thinking about the natural world. From hermaphroditic slugs and sex-changing birds to male pigeon lactation, pregnant male seahorses, and bisexual pigs, Darwin and his fellow naturalists were privately in awe of nature’s sexual diversity. These encounters fundamentally shaped their understanding of plants, animals, and humans, even if they were never fully acknowledged in their published writings.Brooks radically exposes us to the hidden queerness of Georgian and Victorian science—and shows how nature has always been more sexually diverse than we’ve been told.
Produktinformation
  • Utgivningsdatum: 2026-09-08
  • Mått: 234 x 37 x 156 mm
  • Vikt: 645 g
  • Format: Inbunden
  • Språk: Engelska
  • Antal sidor: 400
  • Förlag: Yale University Press
  • ISBN: 9780300287202
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Ross Brooks (he/him) is an independent historian of science and a foundational thinker in queer history and the history of sexology. He regularly speaks on the queer history of science at events across the UK, and he features in the pioneering documentary Queer Planet.

Recensioner i media

“Evolution from an intersex ancestor? What a wondrous Darwinian idea! In this electrifying book, Ross Books helps us see the canon of natural history as queer from the very beginning. Sharp, clever, and as replete with evolutionary diversity as a history of biology could possibly be.”—Alison Bashford, author of An Intimate History of Evolution“Darwin and the Queer Origins of Life is an invigorating read pulsing with queer life. As politically essential as it is compelling, it's a rich counterhistory of biology which shows us how scientists always knew queerness was natural and nature was queer.”—Kit Heyam, author of Before We Were Trans“Ross Brooks’ smart new book is as fun to read as it is useful for rebutting all the bad takes on sexuality and gender that clog contemporary discourse. He has a delightfully ‘queer eye for the hermaphrodite guys’ of life’s evolutionary history, and more than a few arch words for Darwin and other biologists who’ve straightjacketed an abundance of animate forms into an unnatural binary.”—Susan Stryker, author of Changing Gender “Everything you need to know about sex and evolution, but were too indoctrinated by the cisheteropatriarchy to know to ask.”—Subhadra Das, author of Uncivilised“From Linnaeus to Darwin, Brooks brilliantly shows us how biology always has, and will always be, delightfully queer. A much-needed account of the queer history of natural history.”—Josh Luke Davis, author of A Little Gay Natural History “Few know of Darwin’s fascination with the queer biology of sex. This compelling, insightful, and original narrative illustrates Darwin’s (and others’) contributions and hesitancies in the enabling and restricting of queer evolutionary analyses.”—Agustín Fuentes, author of Sex is a Spectrum

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