The reaction to Darwin's "Origin of Species" varied in many countries according to the roles played by national scientific institutions and traditions and the attitudes of religious and political groups. The contributors to this volume, including M. J. S. Hodge, David Hull, and Roberto Moreno, gathered in 1972 at an international conference on the comparative reception of Darwinism. Their essays look at early pro- and anti-Darwinism arguments, and three additional comparative essays and appendices add a larger perspective. For this paperback edition, Thomas F. Glick has added a new preface...

These essays describe the diffusion of hydraulic institutions and techniques from the Islamic world into medieval Spain and, then, on to the Canaries and to America. Professor Glick's concern is both with technical aspects of water use, such as mills and flow measurement, and with the social basis of the technology; and it is this latter aspect that he would see as the key to success; Given the critical importance of water for agriculture, and also often competing urban and industrial uses, means to ensure equitable distribution and the management of disputes were essential. The mechanisms...

From Al-Andalus to the Americas (13th-17th Centuries). Destruction and Construcion of Societies offers a multi-perspective view of the filiation of different colonial and settler colonial experiences, from the Medieval Iberian Peninsula to the early Modern Americas. All the articles in the volume refer the reader to colonial orders that extended over time, that substantially reduced indigenous populations, that imposed new productive strategies and created new social hierarchies. The ideological background and how conquests were organised; the treatment given to the conquered lands and...