Book censorship in the United States On appeal, her conviction was reversed on the grounds that contraceptive devices could legally be promoted for the cure and prevention of disease. The publication of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" in 1859 "unleashed a controversy that resonates even today. In presenting a revolutionary theory of evolution, the British naturalist challenged the biblical creation story and provoked the ire of detractors who accused him of 'dethroning God'. Despite the surrounding controversy, "On the Origin of Species" remained uncensored in the United States all the way into the 1920s, when high school curricula started to incorporate the theory of
Genetics and the Origin of Species of Species" in 1859." Dobzhansky was plagued by a form of leukemia in his later years, but he remained vigorously active until the day before his death on December 18, 1975. During his lifetime he was the recipient of many honors and awards. For "Genetics and the Origin of Species" Dobzhansky was awarded the Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal from the National Academy of Sciences in 1941. Sixty years after its publication, the National Academy of Sciences commissioned a book entitled "Genetics and the Origin of Species: From Darwin to Molecular Biology 60 Years After Dobzhansky". It was also included in