rasmus Darwin – Charles’s grandfather – was well-known among his eighteenth-

century contemporaries, highly respected by many but reviled by others. Energetic and sociable, this

corpulent tee-totaller wrote best-selling poems on plants, technology and evolution. He also ran a

successful medical practice, was a Fellow of the Royal Society and promoted industrialization by

sponsoring science, innovation and entrepreneurship in the Midlands. In her research, Patricia Fara has

explored fresh ways of thinking about this champion of Enlightenment thought. More than fifty years

before his famous grandson, Erasmus Darwin dared to publish controversial ideas about evolution that

put his medical text on the Vatican’s banned list. Politically radical, he campaigned for the abolition of

slavery, supported the French Revolution, promoted education for women, and challenged Christian

orthodoxy.