Fuller to speak at Playhouse Bistro

Randall Fuller
Randall Fuller

Author, English professor and former Fulton resident Randall Fuller is returning to town Saturday to read from his new book, "The Book that Changed America."

"I'm an English professor with a focus in 19th century literature," Fuller said. "I was reading a biography of (Henry David) Thoreau and came across a line saying he'd encountered (Charles Darwin's book) 'On the Origin of Species' on New Year's Day in 1860."

His interest piqued, Fuller dove into research and ultimately wrote a book about how Darwin's work turned America upside-down right before the Civil War.

According to Fuller, America was primed for a shake-up in 1860. Politics were incredibly divided and abolitionists were squaring off with pro-slavery figures in science and religion.

"There was a prominent scientific theory in the U.S. at the time that argued that black people had been created separately from white people by God," Fuller said. "God had, in some way, imagined this hierarchical structure where white people were meant to rule black people. That's a scientific theory custom-made to justify practice of slavery."

Meanwhile, Darwin's book, which arrived that year, proposed the opposite: All animals emerged from a common ancestor. It implied people of all races were equal.

"We think about Darwin as argument about religion versus science, but when it first arrived, on eve of the Civil War, it was much more thought about in terms of race," Fuller said.

Fuller said he uncovered a lot of interesting information on how Darwin's book affected American culture. He said circus great P.T. Barnum - who ran an eclectic museum at the time - realized natural selection had captured peoples' imagination.

"He began to exhibit all kinds of crazy and offensive things to say he'd discovered a link between primates and humans," Fuller said.

Most notorious among the exhibits was a black man dressed up in furs, whom Barnum claimed was the lost link between mankind and the monkeys.

"Barnum said he'd been captured in Africa, but he was really from New Jersey," Fuller added.

During Fuller's talk from 5-7 p.m. Saturday at the Playhouse Bistro, he will discuss these topics in greater depth. He will also talk about the first copy of "On the Origin of Species" to reach the U.S.

Fuller lived in Fulton between ages 5-18, and until recently, his parents lived here as well.

"I always loved reading, from first grade on," Fuller said. "I had a teacher called Larry Lasley, a Fulton High School English teacher. He was very encouraging to me, not just about reading but more importantly about writing."

After graduating from Fulton High School, Fuller attended the University of Missouri and ultimately entered academia. He is currently the Chapman professor of English at the University of Tulsa and has written two other books, along with articles for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.