The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from a common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.

He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species.

In 1871, he examined human evolution and sexual selection in The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex.  It is Darwin's second monumental book on evolutionary theory, following On the Origin of Species. In The Descent of Man, Darwin applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection. The book discusses many related issues, including evolutionary psychology, evolutionary ethics, differences between human races, differences between sexes, and the relevance of the evolutionary theory to society.