Professor Janet Browne argued that the Darwinian Revolution was not fully Darwinian and was not fully revolutionary. Although Darwin believed that the work he was doing would eventually change the way we thought of science, he did not think it would happen in his lifetime. This demonstrates her point that Darwin was not the only person studying evolution, and it was a combination of his contemporaries like Herbert Spencer, Robert Chambers, and Alfred Russel Wallace, and scientists who came after like David Lack that created the evolution revolution. Browne also argued that it was not fully revolutionary because the time line that we associate with the Darwin revolution is too limited. It was not until the 1940’s and 1950’s, almost 100 years after his death, that people fully began to embrace natural selection and evolution. Browne argued that the Darwinian Revolution may be a misnomer, but it is so because of the hype that has been created after Darwin’s death.
Western culture has a tendency to assign hero personas to public figures. Our understanding of history requires recognizing the successes of one person, and then making that person seem larger than life. Western mythology centers around “the hero” who has a conflict with “the bad guy,” who usually symbolizes a negative trait. The hero then fights “the bad guy” because “the hero” fundamentally believes that their cause will help people. Because we are raised learning stories that follow a similar story structure, we are able to process history and real life events better when they are presented in a familiar context. In Darwin’s case, he is credited with discovering how natural selection and evolution works, defeating the creationist view of the Church. Darwin is romanticized as the person who gave us evolution. However, understanding history this way is limiting because it does not take into account how difficult it is to transform ideology. The evolution revolution involved many people working towards the same goal over a long period of time.
For Darwin, his fame came after his death. He became an icon, accessible to all people, not just scientists through his legacy, largely romanticized because of his family’s efforts to make him iconic. The evolution of the neanderthal image is associated with his name because he has been so romaticized, but in fact, Darwin did not draw it. The last picture taken of Darwin depicts him as an observer. He is old, has a long beard, and is wearing a hat that casts a shadow over his eyes, as he leans against a tree. His gaze is strong, observant, and wise. Many remember him in this way, largely due in part to the picture rather than his actual work. It demonstrates his vision to question creationism. And it is because of this vision he is accredited with quotes he did not write, pictures of evolution that he did not draw, and using his observations of the famous finches to create theories that he did not create.