This volume arises from a symposium held in Philadelphia in October 2004. Scholars convened to focus on the “synthesis” period in evolutionary studies, when fundamental changes occurred in the discipline. How does recent scholarship change our understanding of the period? How does it alter our sense of connection across the generations? How do activities in evolutionary studies relate with developments elsewhere in biology? The papers presented at the conference both informed an assessment of the state of the history of evolutionary studies and pressed it forward with new and thoughtful scholarship. Collectively, the papers selected for inclusion in the book make a significant, and occasionally provocative, contribution to their field. Descended from Darwin has been a labor of devotion for Drs. Joe Cain and Michael Ruse. They make all the collaborators’ voices cohere in a unified and logical fashion.

As APS Librarian Martin Levitt writes in the book’s preface, “These are times when historians, so accustomed to looking ever back into the past, are tempted to pause in their pursuits, turn around, and stare hard into the future. This volume, in its thoughtful analysis of the history of understanding of some of the most the fundamental questions of biology, may well have the reader pondering not just the past, but things to come.”