Biologists & the Promise of American Life – From Meriwether Lewis to Alfred Kinsey - Hardcover

Pauly, Philip J

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0691049777 ISBN 13: 9780691049779

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2000

Synopsis

Explorers, evolutionists, eugenicists, sexologists and high school biology teachers - all have contributed to the prominence of the biological sciences in American life. In this book, Philip Pauly weaves their stories together into a history of biology in America since the 19th century. Beginning with the return of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1806, botanists and zoologists identified science with national culture, linking their work to continental imperialism and the creation of an industrial republic. Pauly examines this 19th-century movement in local scientific communities with national reach: the partnership of Asa Gray and Louis Agassiz at Harvard University, the excitement of work at the Smithsonian Institution and the Geological Survey and disputes at the Agriculture Department over the continent's future. He then describes the establishment of biology as an academic discipline in the late 19th century, and the retreat of life scientists from the problems of American nature. The early 20th century, however, witnessed a new burst of public-oriented activity among biologists. Here Pauly chronicles such topics as the introduction of biology into high school curricula, the

About this title

About the Author

Philip J. Pauly is Professor of History at Rutgers University. He is the author of Controlling Life: Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology.

From the Back Cover

"There is no book that covers quite the same territory and places this cluster of internal disciplinary issues in a larger institutional and cultural/political context. Philip Pauly is well informed about current scholarship and has a good eye for the telling quotation or incident."--Charles E. Rosenberg, University of Pennsylvania

"This is a stunning book both for the courage, ambition, and vision of its topic and for the solid style of its achievement."--Mary P. Winsor, University of Toronto

"Philip Pauly is a first-rate American historian, one of the most imaginative writers today. He is not just a historian of science, but rather a historian of the ways that science plays out in American culture and society.Biologists and the Promise of American Life is an excellent and important book that will reach a wide audience--it will be useful for scholars and classrooms alike, and entice historians of science to expand their perspective. And it's fun to read, with a good mix of stories, personalities, practices, resources, and references."--Jane Maienschein, Arizona State University

From the Inside Flap

"There is no book that covers quite the same territory and places this cluster of internal disciplinary issues in a larger institutional and cultural/political context. Philip Pauly is well informed about current scholarship and has a good eye for the telling quotation or incident."--Charles E. Rosenberg, University of Pennsylvania

"This is a stunning book both for the courage, ambition, and vision of its topic and for the solid style of its achievement."--Mary P. Winsor, University of Toronto

"Philip Pauly is a first-rate American historian, one of the most imaginative writers today. He is not just a historian of science, but rather a historian of the ways that science plays out in American culture and society. Biologists and the Promise of American Life is an excellent and important book that will reach a wide audience--it will be useful for scholars and classrooms alike, and entice historians of science to expand their perspective. And its fun to read, with a good mix of stories, personalities, practices, resources, and references."--Jane Maienschein, Arizona State University

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691049777
• ISBN 13: 9780691049779
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 330