Description
Book SynopsisMargaret Derry examines the evolution of modern animal breeding from the invention of improved breeding methodologies in eighteenth-century England to the application of molecular genetics in the 1980s and 1990s.
Trade Review'This is a richly informative book that draws on Derry's academic training and long experience as practical breeder.' -- Ann Norton Greene Agricultural History vol 90:01:2016 'The book offers a gold mine of information for historians of breeding and of the agricultural sciences more generally, and several of its overreaching themes are potentially of interest to a wider range of historians.' -- Jonathan Harwood Isis Journal September 2016 'This is a historian with deep and personal fascination for the world of animal breeding... There is much information in this book. It can be used as a reference for the key movements, ideas and people in the history of animal breeding.' -- Jennifer Adlem The British Journal for the History of Science vol 49:01:2016 'Masterminding Nature is an ambitious and a valuable contribution to the literature.' -- Rebecca J.H. Woods Endeavour vol 30:10:2016 'Masterminding Nature is an informative account of the various innovations that have marked the livestock industry.' -- Anna Thompson Hajdik Business History Review vol 90:01:2016
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Artificial Selection Theory and Livestock Breeding, 1750-1900 2. Early Developments in Genetics 3. Practical Breeding via Theoretical Population Genetics 4. New Directions: Artificial Insemination Technology and Quantitative Genetics 5. Molecular Genetics, Genomics, and Livestock Breeding 6. Biology, Industry Needs, and Morality in Livestock Breeding Conclusions Notes Glossary Bibliography
