Darwinism and The Atlantic Monthly (1860-1880)

The book examines through a rhetorical analysis of its essays and editorials, the responses of The Atlantic Monthly, a serious, intellectual magazine of America with great literary taste and contribution, to Darwinism as a significant movement in American intellectual history during 1860-1880. The period saw a great debate on Darwinism among contemporary scientists, religious thinkers, and social and ethical philosophers both in America and Britain. The author has quite painstakingly and incisively shown how The Atlantic Monthly south to mould the public opinion on Darwinism in accordance with its own editorial points of view, as implicit in the essays and editorials it published over the years, and how its attitudes to Darwinism shifted with the change in the editorship.