The Shredding of a Caricature Robert J.RichardsThe Tragic Sense of Life: Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought2008University of Chicago PressChicago, IL, USA551 pp. $39

What do Charles Darwin and the dancer Isadora Duncan have in common? Apparently, they shared and deeply admired a mutual friend: the German biologist Ernst Haeckel. A towering figure in the intellectual and scientific circles of the late 19 th and early 20 th century, Haeckel's name has been relegated to the shadows of modern thought. In fact, when the name of Haeckel does not elicit a shrug, it almost always ignites the incantation of " ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny, " often followed by a repudiation of the name and charges of fraud, anti-Darwinism, and—in the worst of cases—racism. So, what brought about this change in the standing of the man that Charles Darwin himself praised as being " one of the few who clearly understands natural selection " (p. 98)? In his lucidly written biography, The Tragic Sense of Life: Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought, the historian Robert J. Richards grapples with this puzzling question. The answer, as it turns out, makes for a truly engrossing and fascinating story about a man, the product of 19 th century Romanticism, part artist, part scientist, who becomes by his own insight and conviction the epicenter of a powerful clash between science and religion. Even 100 years later, the repercussions of Haeckel's actions continue to be felt in today's scientific, popular, religious, and even political discourse. After reading this eloquently argued, vividly written, and richly illustrated biography (over 100 plates, illustrations, and photographs), it is not difficult to agree with Richards that this study makes it " more difficult to dismiss Haeckel's scientific accomplishments as anti-Darwinian and to denigrate his character as meretricious " (p. 13). Unlike other scholarly works on Haeckel, Richards resolutely veers away from the oftentimes reflexive use of the arcane terminology with which some historians prefer to embroider their texts. Discussions about the so-called " contingency thesis " and sentences such as " the niggling semantic objections of a paleopositivist " aimed at addressing these matters are rare (p. 15) and disposed of summarily in the introduction to this striking biography. In fact, a clue that we are up against a unique biographical work is hinted at by its title, which is a direct translation of the title of one of the works by the great Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo, " Del sentimiento trágico de la vida. " Richards cites the following passage …