| Description |
1 online resource (xvi, 313 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
Toward a cultural history of American biology -- pt. I. Naturalists and national development in the nineteenth century. 1. Natural history and manifest destiny, 1800-1865 : Lewis to Barton to Pursh: the lack of teamwork among American naturalists ; Nature in the early republic ; The education of John Torrey ; Asa Gray, American botanical entrepreneur ; Gray, Agassiz, and the impending crisis ; Darwin and the Union's struggle for existence -- 2. Culturing fish, culturing people: federal naturalists in the Gilded Age, 1865-1893 : The struggles of Spencer Baird ; A golden age in the Gilded Age ; A scientific community ; Guiding national development ; Evolutionary culture -- 3. Conflicting visions of American ecological independence : The beauty and menace of the Japanese cherry trees ; America's ecological open door ; The beginnings of a federal response to pests ; Ecological cosmopolitanism in the Bureau of Plant Industry ; The return of the nativists ; Ecological independence and immigration restriction |
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pt. II. Specialization and organization. Whitman's American biology -- 4. Life science initiatives in the late nineteenth century : The eclipse of the federal naturalists ; From Agassiz to Burbank: a cross-country tour -- 5. Academic biology: searching for order in life : American naturalists ; A scientific confederacy ; Medical reform, universities, and urban life ; Whitman and Chicago ; Challenges to university biology -- 6. A place of their own: the significance of Woods Hole : Summer colonies ; Summering scientists ; The development of Woods Hole ; Whitman's desires ; The biological community ; Woods Hole and American biology ; Neglecting American life |
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pt. III. The age of biology. A view from the heights -- 7. The development of high school biology : Life in Hell's Kitchen ; Biology education and mental development ; Pedagogical problems ; Producing modern Americans -- 8. Big questions : Why the Scopes trial mattered ; The Rough Rider, and other spokesmen for science ; Academic biologists address the public ; William Emerson Ritter and the glory of life -- 9. Good breeding in modern America : The imperfect amalgamation of eugenics and biology ; Charles B. Davenport and the difficulty of eugenic research ; Solving the problems of sex ; Alfred Kinsey's America |
| Summary |
"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 nineteenth-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 nineteenth century, and the retreat of life scientists from the problems of American nature |
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The early twentieth 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 efforts of eugenicists to alter the "breeding" of Americans, and the influence of sexual biology on Americans' most private lives."--Jacket |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-301) |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Biology -- United States -- History
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Biology -- history
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Civilization -- history
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NATURE -- Reference.
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SCIENCE -- Life Sciences -- Biology.
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SCIENCE -- Life Sciences -- General.
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SCIENCE -- History.
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Biology
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Civilization
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Biologie
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Biologie.
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Onderwijs.
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| SUBJECT |
United States -- Civilization.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85139934
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| Subject |
United States
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USA
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| Genre/Form |
History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780691186337 |
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0691186332 |
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