Since you are clearly a fan of history, I hope you'll take a minute to read the essay "Sweetness and Light" in this collection of essays by Stephen Jay Gould. Spoiler alert, he points out that the above quote would have been understood to be a common phrase in the time of Newton, and that's why he himself didn't quote it. My colleague has a poster on her door with this phrase and the Newton attribution, and my skin crawls a little bit every time I walk past. Here is an image of the stained glass in Chartes Cathedral, which dates from the 12th c. In it, you can see the scholars of the time standing (literally) on the shoulders of giants in order that they perceive the world more wholly.
I will definitely check out that book. To be honest, if there is a gap in my knowledge of the evolutionary literature it would probably be with Stephen J. Gould. I've only read The Mismeasure of Man, which I did enjoy, but it wasn't necessarily a book specifically about evolution.
I've read a lot of Gould. Its well known that he and Dawkins didn't get along scientifically or personally, but they both have a lot to offer. One theme that Gould always comes back to is that evolution lacks direction or progress. I would recommend Full House very highly (but that's because I'm a huge basball fan, and baseball is used as a metaphor for life throughout the book). Mismeasure of Man is more a history book than a biology book, but I think its a great lesson in how sociology can influence scientific results, that "truth" often has as much to do with belief as with data.