{"product_id":"biologists-and-the-promise-of-american-life-from-meriwether-lewis-to-alfred-kinsey-9780691092867","title":"Biologists and the Promise of American Life  From Meriwether Lewis to Alfred Kinsey","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePresents the history of biology in America over two hundred years. This book describes the establishment of biology as an academic discipline in the late nineteenth century, and the retreat of life scientists from the problems of American nature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A tantalizing and ambitious study that places American biologists squarely in the middle of national, social political, and economic development ...Pauly has an elegant writing style that makes this book a pleasure to read... A remarkable vision of the place of science in American life that will be enjoyed by historians and scientists alike.\"--Audra J. Wolfe, Science \"Ambitious in its scope ... Pauly's book grafts the stories of local and regional communities of scientists onto a narrative stock of national improvement and progress... [A] valuable contribution to the local and regional history of biology in American culture.\"--Gregg Mitman, American Scientist \"This book is a significant contribution to the worthy task of integrating the history of science and American history.\"--Christine Keiner, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine \"An engaging, intelligent, and challenging study... It is a masterful narrative that raises fascinating and thought-provoking issues.\"--Otniel E. Dror, Journal of the History of Medicine \"Here, at last, is a book that skillfully narrates stories from the biological sciences in ways that demonstrate their connection to other aspects of American culture. An important book.\"--Sally Gergory Kohlestedt, The Journal of American History \"A wonderful book about biologists and their work on the American continent... Biologists and the Promise of American Life is an important and well-crafted contribution to American history.\"--John L. Rudolph, History of Education Quarterly \"Biologists and the Promise of American Life offers a fascinating overview of the development of American biology from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the second World War.\"--Gerald J. Fitzgerald, Environmental History \"Biologists and the Promise of American Life ... is extremely well researched, it is very well written, and it provides many interesting historical insights while, at the same time, it asks many provocative questions. Pauly's new work will become the standard text for overviews of American biology from the early nineteenth century until the Second World War.\"--Keith R. Benson, Bulletin of the History of Medicine \"An engaging history that will be valued by both specialists and general readers... The treatment of people is insightful and sympathetic. In a series of vignettes Pauly captures each person's essential qualities--and eccentricities--and shows how in diverse ways they expressed the many varieties of American experience... While covering vast ground, he engages the reader's attention by keeping the individuals in clear focus.\"--Sharon Kingsland, Isis \"In this thoughtful and gracefully written book, Pauly shows how American biologists in the first half of the twentieth century took on the project of developing the science of biology in the United States as a cultural project... He shows us a world of scientists deeply engaged in a project that they understand as simultaneously moral, social, political, and thoroughly scientific.\"--Naomi Oreskes, Journal of the History of Behavioral Science \"A useful and thought-provoking contribution to the understanding of the role of a natural science--biology--in shaping the culture of the modern world.\"--Maciej Henneberg, Journal of Biosocial Science\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eList of Illustrations xi  Preface and Acknowledgments xiii  INTRODUCTION Toward a Cultural History of American Biology 3  PART I Naturalist and National Development in the Nineteenth Century  CHAPTER ONE Natural History and Manifest Destiny, 1800-1865 15  Lewis to Barton to Pursh: The Lack of Teamwork among American Naturalists 15  Nature in the Early Republic 17  The Education of John Torrey 22  Asa Gray, American Botanical Entrepreneur 25  Gray, Agassiz, and the Impending Crisis 33  Darwin and the Union's Struggle for Existence 39  CHAPTER TWO Culturing Fish, Culturing People: Federal Naturalists in the Gilded Age, 1865-1893 44  The Struggles of Spencer Baird 45  A Golden Age in the Gilded Age 47  A Scientific Community 51  Guiding National Development 56  Evolutionary Culture 60  CHAPTER THREE Conflicting Visions of American Ecological Independence 71  The Beauty and Menace of the Japanese Cherry Trees 71  America's Ecological Open Door 74  The Beginnings of a Federal Response to Pests 76  Ecological Cosmopolitanism in the Bureau of Plant Industry 80  The Return of the Nativists 84  Ecological Independence and Immigration Restriction 89  PART II SPECIALIZATION AND ORGANIZATION  PROLOGUE Whitman's American Biology 94  CHAPTER FOUR Life Science Initiatives in the Late Nineteenth Century 99  The Eclipse of the Federal Naturalists 99  From Agassiz to Burbank: A Cross-Country Tour 103  CHAPTER FIVE Academic Biology: Searching for Order in Life 126  American Naturalists 127  A Scientific Confederacy 131  Medical Reform, Universities, and Urban Life 133  Whitman and Chicago 139  Challenges to University Biology 141  CHAPTER SIX A Place of Their Own: The Significance of Woods Hole 145  Summer Colonies 146  Summering Scientists 148  The Development of Woods Hole 150  Whitman's Desires 152  The Biological Community 153  Woods Hole and American Biology 158  Neglecting American Life 160  PART III THE AGE OF BIOLOGY  PROLOGUE A View from the Heights 166  CHAPTER SEVEN The Development of High School Biology 171  Life in Hell's Kitchen 173  Biology Education and Mental Development 179  Pedagogical Problems 185  Producing Modern Americans 191  CHAPTER EIGHT Big Questions 194  Why the Scopes Trial Mattered 194  The Rough Rider, and Other Spokesmen for Science 196  Academic Biologists Address the Public 198  William Emerson Ritter and the Glory of life 201  CHAPTER NINE Good Breeding in Modern America 214  The Imperfect Amalgamation of Eugenics and Biology 215  Charles B. Davenport and the Difficullty of Eugenic Research 221  Solving the Problems of Sex 227  Alfred Kinsey's America 233  Epilogue 239  Notes 245  Index 303","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51862894182743,"sku":"9780691092867","price":34.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780691092867.jpg?v=1759919021","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/biologists-and-the-promise-of-american-life-from-meriwether-lewis-to-alfred-kinsey-9780691092867","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}