Publisher's Synopsis
On the first day of publication in 1859, The Origin of Species was sold out. It is the most important book of the nineteenth century and one of the most readable and accessible of the scientific imagination's big revolutionary masterpieces. Despite the fact that it is rarely read, most people understand what it says-or at least believe they do. The Origin of Species was the first thorough and convincing explanation of how species evolve through natural selection. After its publication, the book began to change people's perspectives toward society and religion, and it was quickly used to justify the philosophies of communists, socialists, capitalists, and even the National Socialists of Germany.
