The tragic sense of life: Ernst Haeckel and the struggle over evolutionary thought

Formation of a romantic biologist

Research in Italy and conversation to Darwinism

Triumph and tragedy at Jena

Evolutionary morphology in the Darwinian mode

Travel to England and the Canary Islands: experimental justification of evolution

The popular presentation of evolution

The rage of the critics

The religious response to evolutionism: ants, embryos, and Jesuits

Love in a time of war

Conclusion: the tragic sense of Ernst Haeckel.