Charles Darwin is well known as the father of evolution, but not many people know about much about his background or who he was as a person. In The Dark Side of Charles Darwin, author Jerry Bergman introduces you to who Darwin really was. The book is divided into four parts: "Darwin and Christianity," "Darwin and Mental Health," "Darwin and His Theory," and "Darwin, Racism, and Sexism." Each of the 14 chapters begins with a chapter synopsis, sometimes somewhat inconsistently written in the past tense. Following this is an introduction, the meat of the chapter divided into labeled sections, a conclusion, and finally endnotes. The book is well documented; there are anywhere from 29 to 99 notes per chapter. Author Jerry Bergman is well qualified to write this book, with his 16 degrees and his 30 years of college-level teaching.

Part 1, "Darwin and Christianity," tells how Darwin purposed to shatter the creationist worldview, how adopting Darwin's theories negates a belief in God, how Darwin's agnosticism was primarily adopted from other family members, and how Darwinism leads to meaningless human existence.

Part 2, "Darwin and Mental Health," documents his unbalanced mental health, the likely cause of these mental health issues due to personal religious conflict, and Darwin's sadistic love of killing animals.

Part 3, "Darwin and His Theory," shows that Darwin borrowed or plagiarized much of his theory, that he was an inept scholar and scientist, and that he made numerous mistakes in his theory of pangenesis (the origin of new genetic information).

Part 4, "Darwin, Racism, and Sexism," discusses his racist views and how they were a forerunner to Nazism, shows that Darwin's writings supported the view that women were inferior human beings, and discounts his theory of natural selection.

The Dark Side of Charles Darwin ends a bit abruptly. I wish there had been a concluding chapter to wrap it all up neatly. I also think an index would be a helpful addition.

Creationists will want to read this book, and it is written at the adult level. Motivated high schoolers could also read and benefit from this book. The primary source material included makes it an interesting, authentic read. This is the sort of book you will want to share with evolutionists who are open to reading it.

Product review by Kathy Gelzer, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, July 2011