In 1985, the Italian scientist Antonella La Vergata remarked that the
‘‘Darwin’s-place-in-history approach’’ dominated writing about Darwin
and the development of the theory of evolution before 1960. Darwin
was the colossus who stood above every other scientist in the nineteenth
century when it came to developing a theory about the origin
of life. La Vergata’s argument was that historians and scientists who
used this approach ignored the important contributions made by Darwin’s
contemporaries as well as other scientists who preceded and followed
him. Even worse, this approach ignored the large number of
people to whom Darwin wrote letters either to discuss the research he
was doing or to obtain the answers to questions he had. Darwin should
be viewed as part of a community even if he was the central figure in
this community.1 While acknowledging La Vergata’s criticism, this book
