The Evolution of Man is Ernst Haeckel’s influential exposition of human evolution and embryology, presenting his theories of descent and his famous “biogenetic law” that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. The German biologist surveys the development of the individual and of the species, placing humankind within the broad sweep of evolutionary history.
A vigorous popularizer of Darwinism, Haeckel did much to spread evolutionary ideas, though some of his illustrations and claims were later criticized and corrected. The book remains an important document in the history of evolutionary biology and the public understanding of human origins. Read in its historical context, it illuminates how late-nineteenth-century science conceived of human development and the place of humanity in nature.