Never Done by University Susan Strasser

Never Done by University Susan Strasser

When Darwin wrote his Origin of Species, one of his main concerns was with the perceived shortness of the fossil record of life. Until the work of J. William Schopf and his colleagues, much of this history was thought to be unknowable. This book, through a memoire of Schopf's personal recollections, documents astonishing discoveries revealing the first 85% of the history of life. These earliest periods of life on Earth emerge as a tale of individual and internationally collaborative exploration told by a scholar whose 60 years of research contributed to the recognition of the richness and diversity which forms the foundation of today's biodiversity.

Key Features

• Documents, through personal narrative, a paradigm shift is the study of the earliest life
• Summarizes a fossil record largely unknown until relatively recently
• Addresses one of Darwin's most troubling concerns about his theory of natural selection
• Predicts future developments in the study of first life

Susan Strasser is the author of Never Done: A History of American Housework and Satisfaction Guaranteed: The Creation of the American Mass Market, both of which have won awards. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Nation. She is a history professor at the University of Delaware and lives in the Washington, D.C. area.