'From the antique idea of a Chain of Being to the continually branching Tree of Life, Bowler brings a lifetime of learning to the intellectual history of progress. Few could show us with such precision and clarity how progress came to be 'unchained', and what this history might mean for our own visions of the future.' Alison Bashford, University of New South Wales

'Evolutionary speculation has always been bound up with social ideas and hopes of progress. Peter Bowler argues that Charles Darwin altered the debate fundamentally, showing that evolution is no predetermined upward rise, but increasingly a function of human creativity. This wonderfully provocative book is as entertaining to read as its underlying erudition impresses. Highly recommended.' Michael Ruse, Professor Emeritus, University of Guelph

'In this timely and wide-ranging survey, a leading historian of evolutionary theory explores the doctrine of progress and the fate during the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries of pictures of an attainable utopia. Peter Bowler's study of writings in public science and science fiction provides fascinating reading for anyone interested in how models of what is to come changed in history and may change again.' Simon Schaffer, University of Cambridge