Howe, M. (1999) - Genius Explained REVIEW

Review
Reviewed Work(s): Genius Explained by Michael J. A. Howe

Review by: Dean Keith Simonton
Source: Isis , Vol. 93, No. 3 (September 2002), p. 475
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/374078
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BOOK REVIEWS
䡲 General warnings clearer or even prevent the disaster.
This account of fifteen eruptions, well chosen
Alwyn Scarth. Vulcan’s Fury: Man Against the from among the hundreds that might have been
Volcano. 229 pp., illus., figs., index. New Haven, used, tells the story of the interaction of man and
Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001. $19.95 volcano over a period of two thousand years,
(paper). from Vesuvius in A.D. 79 to Pinatubo in 1991.
Whenever possible Scarth used original eyewit-
Alwyn Scarth has done what many of us aspire ness accounts, lending a feeling of immediacy.
to do. He has taken a huge subject, best described He has drawn on sources in English, Latin,
in highly technical terms, and has written grip- French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, and Icelandic
ping, highly readable history about it. Geologists and notes the difficulties that arise when the
constantly attempt to translate their knowledge observers/victims don’t speak an accessible lan-
and concerns to an often indifferent general pub- guage, as occurred in the area around the gas
lic. They are castigated when a natural occur- releases from Lake Nyos in 1986.
rence results in loss of life and property—the Despite differences in location and surround-
public wonders why the scientists didn’t make ings, human reactions to volcanoes remained
A tributary of the Öraefajökull, a glacier in Iceland (from Scarth, Vulcan’s Fury, p. 84).
465

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466 BOOK REVIEWS—ISIS, 93 : 3 (2002)
similar over most of the time reported. Higher fig., app., index. Cambridge, Mass./London:
powers were invoked, to small effect. Little ob- Harvard University Press, 1999. $29.95.
jective information was known about the forces
involved, despite detailed reports from observ- Tourette’s syndrome is one of a handful of neu-
ers, beginning with Pliny the Younger and con- rological conditions that has entered into popular
tinuing through the great naturalists of the eigh- culture: episodes of such television series as L.A.
teenth and nineteenth centuries. However, there Law have been devoted to the plight of individ-
was little if any predictive value in the obser- uals afflicted with the condition. The most sa-
vations, detailed as they were. What must count lient feature of the disorder is generally taken to
as a twentieth-century triumph of science is the be the colorful involuntary verbal ejaculations to
relatively recent ability to predict eruptions, im- which sufferers are subject. It is also assumed
perfect and incomplete as that ability is. The that the condition was first described in 1885 by
eruptions at Mount Saint Helens in 1980 and at the French neurologist Gilles de la Tourette.
Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 demon- Howard Kushner’s book demonstrates that the
strated not only the increased ability of instru- history of Tourette’s is a much more complex and
mentation to indicate impending disaster but also interesting affair. Among his chief conclusions is
the necessity for agencies and the public to co- the claim that there is no direct genealogical link
operate to mitigate it. Scarth makes the point as between the condition Tourette defined and the
well that it is necessary to know not only what syndrome that today bears his name. The integrity
will happen but also a time frame in which it of the affliction to which Tourette drew attention
will happen. was immediately challenged by other neurolo-
Each account is detailed. In the introduction gists who insisted that this concatenation of
there is a simple map showing the worldwide symptoms could be found in a number of disor-
locations of all the volcanoes discussed. At the ders, including hysteria. For most of the twentieth
beginning of each chapter there is a painting or century the symptoms to which Tourette had
a photograph of the subject volcano, as well as drawn attention were subsumed within the larger
a map of the immediate area showing the towns and inchoate category of tics.
affected, nearby rivers, and so forth. There are Kushner details the various fashions in etio-
many other illustrations, including posteruption logical speculation and therapeutic experimen-
photographs of towns, volcanic debris, and sur- tation surrounding ticcing over the decades. Par-
vivors and one picture of a recent tsunami off ticularly engaging is his deadpan account of the
Krakatau that makes one want to jump away absurdities of the at one time very influential
from the page. The only thing missing—and psychoanalytic approach to the subject. A num-
perhaps not to be lamented in a book of this ber of general themes emerge from his discus-
sort—is specific page references to the sources. sion. Perhaps the most striking is just how slen-
Each section has its reference list at the end of der was the evidence for many of the theories in
the book, but in some cases even direct quota- question: small numbers of poorly documented
tions lack page references. However, the refer-
cases formed the sole foundation for many over-
ence lists are wonderfully varied, with every sort
arching theories. Another theme is how the suc-
of report from classical authors on Vesuvius and
cess or otherwise of particular explanations of
Etna through an Icelandic journal and natural-
tic disorders has been influenced by the profes-
ists’ accounts to the latest technical journals of
current national geological bodies. sional and other interests vested in particular ap-
Through it all there is a great feeling for the proaches to these disorders. The correlation be-
people subjected to these paroxysms of nature: tween certain forms of ticcing and rheumatic
choked by ash, trapped in scalding mud, crushed fever was long neglected because it lacked a
in buildings whose roofs collapsed from ash, powerful body of supporters. There is a fasci-
drowned when escaping boats were over- nating account of how in the 1970s patient power
whelmed. There are constant comments about in the United States was crucial to the appropri-
how the larger society dealt with the disasters ation of Tourette’s name to identify a distinct
and cared (or didn’t) for the people involved. organic condition free from the stigma supposed
This story is a true intersection of science and to attach to psychogenic explanations of ticcing.
society from which we all can learn. In France, in contrast, where medical populism
SALLY NEWCOMB was less of a force, there was greater resistance
to organic explanations. This is a particularly
Howard I. Kushner. A Cursing Brain? The His- striking exemplification of one of the book’s
tory of Tourette Syndrome. xvi Ⳮ 303 pp., illus., principal conclusions: that the history of Tou-

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BOOK REVIEWS—ISIS, 93 : 3 (2002) 467
rette’s has as much to do with politics as with of four areas: astronomy, earth science, life sci-
pathology. ences, and “Transcending Boundaries.” This
L. S. JACYNA section delves a little further into the kinds of
questions asked by the scientists and considers
Margaret Hindle Hazen; James Trefil. Good how they conducted their research. The section
Seeing: A Century of Science at the Carnegie on dark matter, for example, describes the re-
Institution of Washington. x Ⳮ 256 pp., illus., search of Vera Rubin on galactic rotation curves
bibl., index. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry beginning in the 1970s, and that on ecology fol-
Press, 2002. $45 (cloth). lows the researches of William Cannon, Forrest
Shreve, and Frederic Clemens in establishing the
I commend the authors for the production of this methods and vocabulary of this emerging field
attractive volume, packed with photographs and during decades of work at the Desert Laboratory
discussion of some of the most famous episodes, of the Department of Botanical Research.
individuals, and instruments of twentieth- Granted, not even these chapters delve as deeply
century American science. This is not a scholarly as historians will want to, but they provide an
work replete with footnotes, but it is based on easy entry point for those not already familiar
archival research and familiarity with an exten- with the intricacies of the Carnegie Institution.
sive secondary literature. So although the schol- A comprehensive history of the Carnegie In-
arship can be trusted and indeed goes beyond the stitution of Washington, in fact, is probably not
literature in some areas, the book’s chief values desirable. In the future historians will provide
lie in its scope and in its accessibility to readers narratives on selected topics, not the broad
other than professional historians of science. sweep of the institution’s researches. This vol-
Good Seeing is divided into two main sec- ume provides a fine bird’s-eye view. Browse
tions, one on building the Carnegie Institution through the photographs of Mayan murals, Bar-
and the other entitled “Building the Edifice of bara McClintock examining corn samples, Merle
Knowledge.” The former discusses Andrew Car- Tuve standing by the Van de Graff generator,
negie, Charles Doolittle Walcott, and the suc- and Edwin Hubble looking through the 100-inch
cession of presidents of the institution who telescope at Mount Wilson. Then go further.
shaped it. These presidents are mostly familiar Readers will find a useful, though partial, list-
to historians: Daniel Coit Gilman, Robert S. ing of relevant secondary literature at the back
Woodward, John C. Merriam, Vannevar Bush, of the volume, along with a good index.
Caryl P. Haskins, Philip H. Abelson, James D. GREGORY A. GOOD
Ebert, Edward E. David, and, currently, Maxine
F. Singer. This first section also surveys the vari- Dale J. Pratt. Signs of Science: Literature,
ous departments established at the institution, in- Science, and Spanish Modernity since 1868.
cluding those that were later disbanded: Depart- (Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures, 22.)
ments of Botanical Research (1903–1928; since x Ⳮ 226 pp., bibl., index. West Lafayette, Ind.:
1928 this has been called the Department of Purdue University Press, 2001.
Plant Biology), Historical Research (1903–
1958), Genetics (1904–1971), Marine Biology The polemic over the role of science in Spanish
(1904–1939), Economics and Sociology (1904– culture and society, past and present, drew in
1916), Terrestrial Magnetism (1904–), the vari- much of the country’s small intellectual and po-
ous observatories (1904–), the Geophysical litical elite roughly from the onset of the debate
Laboratory (1905–), Meridian Astrometry over Darwinism in the 1870s through the for-
(1905–1938), and the Nutrition Laboratory mative period of the Franco regime in the 1940s.
(1907–1946). More transient research programs Dale Pratt has here written an astute commentary
found their homes within this structure, some- on the literary reflections of that polemic and the
times not fitting the rubric of the department all idiosyncratic way in which writers dealt with sci-
that well, as with the placement of Mayan ar- ence as both sign and signifier. When Darwinism
chaeology in Historical Research or any of vari- erupted in the Spanish intellectual world in the
ous geophysical and astronomical projects in wake of the liberal revolution of 1868, it ap-
Terrestrial Magnetism. This is, however, an ac- peared in a virtual vacuum, not only because pre-
commodation that in many ways has worked. revolutionary regimes had been remarkably ef-
The second main section does not attempt to fective in preventing new ideas from entering the
survey all of the research programs undertaken country, but also because scientific culture in
at the Carnegie Institution in the twentieth cen- natural history had been thin. As a result, “there
tury. It targets three research programs in each was no substantial body of geological and bio-

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logical intertexts for the Origin and Descent to were content with science as a sign” (p. 180).
speak to” (p. 47). No Bridgewater Treatises, no The time had come to stop talking about science
natural philosophy, no geological synthesis. So, and start doing it. It is interesting to note that the
inevitably, science entered novels “as a charac- death of Franco put an end to the “polemic of
ter, with personality and weaknesses, rather than Spanish science”; the generation of the Demo-
as a set of intertextual references to an indepen- cratic Transition, of whatever political ideology,
dent body of discourse” (p. 59). The battle over were all pan-Europeanists for whom the terms of
Darwinism turned on ideological, not scientific, the debate no longer made any sense.
issues, and part of Darwinism’s baggage was a THOMAS F. GLICK
particular image of science (that of English pos-
itivism) that was projected into fictional dis- William H. Cropper. Great Physicists: The Life
course. To identify characters as Darwinians and Times of Leading Physicists from Galileo to
very clearly marked their position in Spanish so- Hawking. xii Ⳮ 480 pp., illus., figs., index. Lon-
ciety; the positivist became a stock figure in don: Oxford University Press, 2001. $35 (cloth).
Spanish novels of the late nineteenth century.
Novelists, whatever their ideological persuasion, William Cropper has organized and written
did not deal with evolutionary theory. Rather, Great Physicists to provide “recreational reading
they introduced spokesmen who—through their for scientists and students of science.” The au-
fictional personae—“mediated” the theories, thor achieved his goal. The intended audience
that is, legitimized or damned them by providing will enjoy reading the thirty profiles of past and
a set of symbols that readers of all ideological present physicists. For the featured physicists
stripes could easily identify. Such symbols Cropper includes biographical details, their pro-
spoke not to the natural world but to the value fessional work, and some of their interesting per-
of scientific knowledge itself and its possible sonal characteristics, both plus and minus. Math-
significance in Spanish society. ematics, “the language of physics,” is used, but
The antagonism between science and religion rather sparingly. Readers who eschew mathe-
was a central theme in the Spanish debate over matics can skip over the pages with equations
science, discussed by novelists and scientists and still learn a lot about this important group of
alike. Pratt views this tension by contrasting the physicists.
novels of Armando Palacio Valdés and the short To organize this collection, Cropper made
stories of Santiago Ramón y Cajal, the neuro- hard choices. First and foremost, he decided
histologist and Nobelist. Cajal was a histological which physicists to include. No one can chal-
reductionist: all mental phenomena, including lenge his choices: each featured physicist is
love, were reducible to cellular biology. Spain’s “great.” The author’s selection reveals his judg-
backwardness was the result of brainwashing (by ments about what physics is important. Cropper
the Church, it is understood) leading to abnormal divides physics into nine parts: mechanics, ther-
development of the neurons, the reinvigoration of modynamics, electromagnetism, statistical me-
which was the solution to the nation’s problem. chanics, relativity, quantum mechanics, nuclear
In Cajal’s writing, science was a sign connoting physics, particle physics, and a final part that in-
progress. Palacio Valdés’s character Padre Gil re- cludes astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology.
solves the tension in the opposite direction, aban- He uses this template to select his physicists.
doning science for faith (as many of his fictional Eight of those profiled are identified with ther-
predecessors and contemporaries had). modynamics. Quantum mechanics features six
Participants in the faith-versus-science debate physicists; nuclear physics, four; particle physics
were at a standoff at century’s end, the two re- and astrophysics, three each; mechanics and
ductionist positions unable to move past the electromagnetism, two each; and relativity and
terms of the early debate over Darwin. Pratt leap- statistical mechanics, one each. There are
frogs through the early twentieth century with twenty-eight men and two women physicists
insightful glimpses of Miguel de Unamuno (a represented. Approximately two-thirds of the
transitional figure, uncomfortable both with pos- featured physicists are theorists.
itivism and with the Catholic version of spiritu- Cropper’s template is essentially organized
ality), and José Ortega y Gasset (an Einsteinian around the great theories of physics. This recipe
who offered modern scientific ideas as vehicles determines the ingredients. Thus the inclusion of
for replacing the myths of the past). He ends with Newton, Joule, Maxwell, Boltzmann, Einstein,
Luis Martı́n-Santos, a physician-novelist for Bohr, Curie, Fermi, Feynman, and Hawking—
whom the regressive nature of the Franco regime all great physicists and all worthy of the honor—
revealed the vapidity of “Ortega and others who is foreordained. There are also, however, “great

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physicists” in atomic physics, condensed matter lar account of the history of “the laws of motion
physics, and plasma physics, but they cannot jus- and universal gravitation and the associated con-
tifiably replace Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and cepts of space, time and relativity” (p. ix), from
Pauli under “quantum mechanics,” or Rutherford the ancient Greeks and Babylonians to the pres-
and Meitner under “nuclear physics,” or Dirac ent. The story invokes the great names of the
under “particle physics.” The result is that read- past—Aristotle, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Ein-
ers will see neither the applied side of physics stein—which are used as chapter titles; the nar-
nor the resulting practical devices. Physicists rative then proceeds to modern sensations and
whose work gave rise to the transistor, the laser, conundrums such as black holes and worm
magnetic imaging, atomic clocks, and nanotech- holes, quasars, gravitational radiation, the big
nology do not appear. The remarkable interplay bang, dark matter, string theory, and—coming
between theory and experiment is also given up to the present moment—the accelerating ex-
scant attention. While the Lamb shift is men- pansion of the universe.
tioned, the anomalous moment of the electron is Unfortunately, the execution has compro-
not. These two subtleties, captured experimen- mised the vision. The history proferred is of the
tally by “great physicists,” triggered the blos- type encountered in sidebars in science text-
soming of quantum electrodynamics, the show- books: snippets of often superficial and outdated
case theory of physics. history (with little citation of sources), empha-
There are curious historical and editorial mis- sizing great men, with little attention to context
cues. For example, Einstein’s corpuscular theory and with very little provided in the way of con-
of light had firm empirical support by 1922, with nective tissue to organize the parts into a coher-
Compton’s work, and did not have to wait until ent whole. Beyond this, the explanations of the
1926 (p. 239); Hitler became chancellor of Ger- science are very uneven, sometimes verging on
many in 1933, not 1930 (p. 336); Rabi’s correct the incoherent, and the illustrations and diagrams
first name, Isidor, appears on page 386, but he are often unhelpful.
is “Isodor” on page 387. And though the ten- Nevertheless, there are elements here of inter-
dency to streamline the conceptual development est to the historian of science. As the narrative
of physics is always tempting, considering the approaches the present, in the second half of the
intended audience, it could have been avoided. book, the account becomes, more and more, a
For example, the historical record does not sup- participant history, of interest to historians on
port a causal connection between the Michelson- that basis. The author, “an astrophysicist with
Morley experiment and Einstein’s relativity; the major research interest in the interstellar medium
Balmer formula, presented as one of Bohr’s and active galactic nuclei, . . . was formerly head
“chief sources of inspiration,” was unknown to of the Space Astronomy Group at the Rutherford
Bohr until he had nearly completed his hydrogen- Appleton Laboratory [UK]” (front matter). Gon-
atom model; when Dirac published his first ma- dhalekar is particularly interested in tests of, and
jor article on quantum mechanics (7 November challenges to, Einstein’s general theory of rela-
1925), he did not hear “the voice” of the wave- tivity and its various gravitational and cosmo-
mechanical version of quantum mechanics be- logical consequences, with particular emphasis
cause it was still to come (27 January 1926). on the post–World War II period.
However, it is easy and, in my judgment, un- The chapter entitled “Dicke” focuses espe-
fair to second-guess the author of such a collec- cially on the challenges to general relativity
tion. Cropper made good choices of the physi- mounted by Robert Dicke (1916–1997), a phys-
cists to feature, and he opened their lives and icist and cosmologist at Princeton University in
their work to readers. He did this well. Readers the decades after World War II. The chapter be-
will find Great Physicists not only “recrea- gins with Gondhalekar’s own assessment of the
tional,” but also edifying. nature of science and the status of Einstein’s
JOHN S. RIGDEN general theory—echoing Dicke’s views on these
subjects: “Einstein was motivated by a deep phil-
Prabhakar Gondhalekar. The Grip of Gravity: osophical need, the quest for simplicity and unity
The Quest to Understand the Laws of Motion in nature, to formulate and develop the theory of
and Gravitation. x Ⳮ 368 pp., figs., notes, index. general relativity. He was not guided by a desire
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. to confirm or interpret any particular experimen-
$27.95 (cloth). tal result(s). . . . [But] experiments are funda-
mental to modern physics: progress in physics is
The vision that inspired this book is a valid one: driven by experimental verification. . . . This is
Prabhakar Gondhalekar seeks to present a popu- the only way to distinguish physics from meta-

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physics. . . . Unfortunately general relativity . . . hance the text and, for the most part, are clear
does not have a secure experimental foundation” and well reproduced.
(p. 189). The articles are arranged essentially in chro-
On the basis of this kind of experimenticist nological order, starting with age determinations
stance and an associated critique of the experi- from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries;
mental status of general relativity, Dicke, begin- for example, John G. C. Fuller offers details on
ning in the 1950s, mounted a challenge to Ein- the contribution of John Swan. Fuller describes
steinian relativity. In treating Dicke’s work, the Swan’s biblical age calculations, which predate
broader testing of general relativity, and the James Ussher by a decade or more, and includes
overall interaction of theory and experiment in a brief discussion of Ussher’s work. The volume
cosmology (see also the chapters “Hubble and has no single essay devoted to the chronology of
Eddington” and “Planck”), Gondhalekar pre- Bishop James Ussher. This omission seems odd,
sents material that serves to undermine the per- given that Ussher’s name is closely—though
ception among some historians of science that perhaps incorrectly—linked to the 4004 B.C.
scientific communities tend to be closed, mono- date used in the volume title. Enzio Vaccari pro-
lithic communities of belief, espousing certain vides the Continental perspective with ideas of
“paradigms” or “worldviews” as unquestioned Descartes, Steno, Arduino, and others. There are
foundations of scientific practice: the question- essays about nineteenth- and early twentieth-
ing of foundations in cosmology emerges from century contributions: for example, Hugh Tor-
Gondhalekar’s account more as an ongoing pro- rens describes William Smith’s contribution and
cess, motivated by a variety of concerns, than as Jack Morrell discusses John Philips’s work. If
a process limited only to certain critical periods you thought the mix of science and politics
and motivated only by catastrophic empirical started with the National Science Foundation,
failure. Gondhalekar’s participant perspective on then Brian Shipley’s essay on the interaction of
the recent history of gravitation and cosmology Lord Kelvin and John Perry will change your
is quite instructive in this connection. mind. John Joly offered some interesting alter-
DANIEL SIEGEL natives to Kelvin’s age values, and Patrick N.
Wyse Jackson provides details about Joly’s
S. J. Knell; C. L. E. Lewis (Editors). The Age methods. The volume concludes with essays
of the Earth: From 4004 B.C. to A.D. 2002. (Geo- concerning radiometric dating: for example,
logical Society, London, Special Publication Balz S. Kramber et al. describe the Earth’s oldest
190.) viii Ⳮ 288 pp., illus., figs., index. Bath: rocks, and G. Brent Dalrymple tells us that we
Geological Society Publishing House, 2001. may have the age problem solved.
$117 (cloth). Although I have mentioned only a few of the
nineteen essays, all provide the reader with in-
“What difference does it make if the age of the teresting insights into the imaginative investi-
Earth is 6000 years, or 24 million years, or 3000 gations of the age of the Earth. The value of the
million years?” So asks Stephen G. Brush in an volume lies in its broad coverage, from the
essay in this volume. His article and eighteen 1600s to the end of the twentieth century, and
others that accompany it seek to shed light on the authors’ exploration of ideas about the antiq-
the historical perspective of the question, “How uity of the Earth. Thus, this single volume pro-
old is the Earth?” The various essays demon- vides a wonderful overview of how our Earth
strate that the age we accept for the Earth can seems to have “aged rapidly” between 1650 and
have profound influences on our perception of 2002—or at least our perception of its age has
the world around us; it can even threaten reli- certainly changed in 350 years. I recommend this
gious beliefs. Thus “How old is the Earth?” is book to anyone curious about how we arrived at
not a trivial question. the accepted value for the age of the Earth. But
These essays, plus a preface, evolved from as a person reads these essays, she or he must
“Celebrating the Age of the Earth,” a meeting keep in mind that the people discussed in this
sponsored by the History of Geology Group volume—John Swan, Lord Kelvin, Joly, and the
(Geological Society) and held 28–29 June 2000 rest—all thought they had the correct value. Can
at Burlington House, London. The contributions we say with confidence that today we have the
are not interrelated, except through the general “correct” value?
topic of the Earth’s age, and each can stand WILLIAM R. BRICE
alone, but the volume has an inclusive general
index. Though not overly numerous, the illustra- Roy MacLeod (Editor). Nature and Empire:
tions the authors have chosen advance and en- Science and the Colonial Enterprise. (Osiris,

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
15.) [iv] Ⳮ 323 pp., illus., figs., bibl., index. Chi- gime, while Sverker Sörlin surveys eighteenth-
cago/London: University of Chicago Press, century Scandinavian scientific traveling. Two
2000. $39 (cloth); $25 (paper). essays provide contrasting views of the Spanish
Empire. Juan Pimentel is a revisionist, empha-
Nature and Empire collects sixteen essays of sizing the importance of science in the early
highly varying quality on Western science in im- modern “Universal Monarchy,” while Alberto
perial, colonial, and postcolonial settings in the Elena and Javier Ordóñez give a more traditional
last three centuries. Most are on the British and view of the nineteenth-century Spanish Empire
Iberian empires and their legacies. The emphasis as technologically and scientifically backward.
throughout is on Western science not as an all- Michael Osborne skillfully interweaves intellec-
triumphant “modernizing” force (George Ba- tual, institutional, and political history to trace
salla’s 1967 article on “the spread of Western the rise and fall of acclimatization and acclima-
science” is a whipping boy for many contribu- tization societies in two nineteenth-century co-
tors), nor as a simple tool of colonial domination, lonial powers, France and Britain, and their col-
but as a phenomenon that took on varying qual- onies in Algeria and Australia. Michael Worboys
ities in different local settings. examines early twentieth-century efforts to treat
Roy MacLeod’s introduction gives an opti- leprosy in the tropical British colonies, particu-
mistic view of the contemporary state of the larly the work of the British Empire Leprosy Re-
field. (The other historiographical essay in the lief Association. He urges historians of colonial
collection, David Wade Chambers and Richard medicine to broaden their interests beyond the
Gillespie’s intellectually shoddy “Locality in the development of tropical medicine as a tool of
History of Science,” is best passed over.) Among imperial control.
studies of colonies and postcolonial states, Su- Christophe Bonneuil’s article on large-scale
zanne Zeller’s learned article on geology and na- agricultural development schemes in Africa in
tion building in nineteenth-century Canada is a the late colonial and early independence period
standout. Silvia Figueirôa and Clarete da Silva’s integrates study of the British, French, and Bel-
essay on two early nineteenth-century Brazilian gian empires. He argues that large-scale devel-
mineralogists and mining experts is a solid look opment schemes imposed an explicitly experi-
at provincial Enlightenment, as is Antonio La- mental regime, defining African people and
fuente’s article on botany in New Spain and New practices as experimental subjects. The final es-
Granada in the late eighteenth century. Maria say, by John Merson, examines the role of in-
Margaret Lopes and Irina Podgorny contribute a tellectual property law in the exploitation of
brief study of the relations of natural history mu- Third World biological resources.
seums in Brazil and Argentina in the second half The volume is a good sampler of current ap-
of the nineteenth century. Kapil Raj’s article on proaches to colonial science. Its usefulness is en-
the British in India from 1760 to 1850 combines hanced by an extensive bibliography, particu-
large intellectual pretensions with a superficial larly strong in works in Iberian languages, and
(albeit nicely illustrated, like many essays in an index.
the collection) historical narrative. Harriet Dea- WILLIAM E. BURNS
con examines race and medical practice in the
nineteenth-century Cape Colony of South Af- Stanley H. Johnston, Jr. Cleveland’s Treasures
rica. She argues that stereotypes of the racist and from the World of Botanical Literature. xvi Ⳮ
colonial nature of Western medicine in South 144 pp., illus., bibl. Wilmington, Ohio: Orange
Africa have obscured the plurality of both West- Frazer Press, 1998. $24.95 (paper).
ern medical traditions and institutions and of the
African communities that sometimes sought and Cleveland’s Treasures from the World of Botan-
sometimes avoided Western medicine. This ar- ical Literature showcases the impressive collec-
gument would benefit from being made at tion of rare herbal, botanical, and horticultural
greater length. Deepak Kumar’s rich and de- volumes from the Cleveland, Ohio, area. This
tailed study of the last half-century of the British volume not only describes and illustrates a fine
Raj traces the interaction of British, Gandhian, assembly of rare works from the Holden Arbo-
and developmental discourses. retum, the Cleveland Medical Library Associa-
Other essays give more metropolitan-based tion, and the Cleveland Botanical Garden but
views of imperial systems. James E. McClellan places these volumes in their own historical
III and Francois Regourd contribute a useful context with a lively, informative, and often in-
overview of the relation of central French sci- sightful narrative of the history of botany. Fine
entific institutions to colonization in the Old Re- photography, attractive organization, and an

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intelligent commentary make this a handsome cient natural history texts. Johnston’s discussion
and appealing book for a scholarly audience as of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century trans-
well as for its target readership of nonspecialists. formations is equally astute and does not rely on
The book itself is organized into units that accounts that portray the topic as progressively
capture four of the dominant themes of botanical more accurate physical diagnosis and increas-
history: the story of the herbal to the sixteenth ingly rational attempts to classify the plant
century; the transition to experimental practices, world. For instance, Johnston’s analysis of the
scientific diagnosis, and the classification of works of Sir John Hill not only considers Hill’s
plants in the seventeenth century; the golden age well-known introduction of Linnaean classifi-
of botanical illustration in the eighteenth cen- cation into England around 1750 but also in-
tury; and, finally, horticultural and landscape cludes an account of his lesser-known rejection
aesthetics, design, and practices. Stanley H. of the Swede’s classificatory criteria in the sub-
Johnston, Jr., exploits individual titles in the sequent British Herbal (London, 1757). John-
holdings to present a consistent and historically ston’s celebration of botanical illustration is
sound narrative. For instance, he describes the adorned with stunning photographs but also en-
well-known and important story of the sixteenth- lightens us with descriptions of the engraving
century German fathers of botany, whose books methods and etching processes that were used.
are of course well represented in the collection. The story of the worldwide expansion of interest
He also reminds us of the less-familiar Niccolo in plants is also enlivened with anecdotes about
Leoniceno, an Italian physician and humanist an array of individuals, their exploits and their
scholar who undermined accepted learned au- misfortunes in the natural history enterprise.
thority in the fifteenth century by demonstrating Johnston does not list the authors he consulted
botanical, scribal, and transcription errors in an- in preparing this volume, referring readers in-
stead to his scholarly The Cleveland Herbal, Bo-
tanical, and Horticultural Collections: A De-
scriptive Bibliography of Pre-1830 Works (Kent
State, 1992). Indeed, all the entries in Cleve-
land’s Treasures are cross-indexed to that ear-
lier, nonillustrated work, making these good
companion volumes. While the omission of foot-
notes and references is surely appropriate for a
work intended for the nonspecialist, the absence
of the traditional scholarly apparatus is cause for
some concern to historians. For instance, it took
some effort to verify a source for Johnston’s re-
port that Matthais L’Obel’s Nova stirpium
adversaria (Antwerp, 1576) contained a rev-
olutionary classification of grasses based on
their leaf character. According to Johnston,
L’Obel thus “grouped plants according to
whether they had monocotyledonous or dicoty-
ledonous leaves” (p. 35), a development most
scholars have assigned to John Ray and Marcello
Malpighi in the seventeenth century. Further, the
extensive list of technical references in the bib-
liography makes it difficult for an interested
reader to identify other related and accessible
books on the topic. Thus, a short list of sugges-
tions for further reading would have been use-
ful—for instance, Wilifrid Blunt and William
Stearns’s The Art of Botanical Illustration (An-
tique Collectors’ Club, 1995), Agnes Arber’s
ever-useful Herbals: Their Origins and Evolu-
tion (rpt.; Cambridge, 1987), and Blanche Hen-
George Spratt’s drawing of Solanum dulcumara rey’s British Botanical and Horticultural Liter-
from his Flora medica (1827). From Johnston, ature before 1800 (Oxford, 1975).
Cleveland’s Treasures, p. 62. Minor criticisms notwithstanding, this volume

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also contributes to our own discipline of the his- other deficiencies, such as the omission of the
tory of science. The story it tells is a thoughtful, Vilmorin family. Their selection appears limited
consistent, and historically situated narrative of mainly by the availability of completed research.
early modern natural science. It is well written, Also, the authors’ biographical approach has di-
informative, and intended for an educated and verted them from the history of research and
articulate audience. It is good publicity not only educational institutions, with the exception of an
for the Cleveland collections but also as a vehi- overview of Grignon. We are thus still in need
cle to enhance the readership of histories of sci- of a survey of the institutional history of French
ence more generally. agricultural science. One can also argue with the
SUSAN MCMAHON selection of foreign contributors to the history of
agricultural science appended to the volume.
Jean Boulaine; Jean-Paul Legros. D’Olivier de One of the lost opportunities of this work is
Serres à René Dumont: Portraits d’agronomes. the lack of generalizations drawn from these
317 pp., illus., figs., tables, app., indexes. Paris: sketches and from the authors’ extensive re-
Lavoisier TEC & DOC, 1998. Fr 395 (paper). search, other than their noting the emergence of
agronomes with advanced university or techni-
Of the many approaches to writing the history of cal training. All in all, though, Boulaine and Le-
science, biography has fallen out of favor as gros have presented a useful reference tool for
scholars have turned increasingly toward more those searching for information on French agri-
collectivist (institutions, societies) and contex- cultural science history.
tual approaches. Nonetheless, Jean Boulaine and ANDREW J. BUTRICA
Jean-Paul Legros have given us some much-
needed slices of French agricultural history Susan Crutchfield; Marcy Epstein (Editors).
served up in the form of biographical sketches. Points of Contact: Disability, Art, and Culture.
The biographical approach gives the reader the (Corporealities: Discourses of Disability.) x Ⳮ
(correct, I believe) impression that individuals 297 pp., frontis., illus., app. Ann Arbor: Univer-
have played crucial roles in the development of sity of Michigan Press, 2000. $47.50 (cloth);
French agricultural science. $17.95 (paper).
Boulaine and Legros provide biographical
sketches on twenty-six individuals who contrib- This collection draws together a wide range of
uted to the advancement of French agriculture writings about disability. It includes scholarly
from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. and personal essays, poetry, drama, imaginary
Each sketch resembles a Dictionary of Scientific correspondence, and visual art such as painting.
Biography entry with its attention to both the life The University of Michigan hosted the This/
and the work of the selected agronomes, includ- Ability conference on disability and the arts in
ing bibliography and discussions of relevant so- 1995. Many of the artistic projects from this con-
cial, political, and agricultural contexts. The au- ference were published in two special issues of
thors know their history of agricultural science, the Michigan Quarterly Review (1998, 37, nos. 2
and it shows. and 3). Selections from these two issues, along
The individuals chosen are among the best with an introduction by the editors, make up
known in the field: Olivier de Serres, Duhamel Points of Contact. The collective result of this
du Monceau, and Parmentier from the eighteenth wide variety is a statement that disability culture
century; Mathieu de Dombasle, Bella, Polon- transcends medical diagnosis. The question of
ceau, Nivière, and Gasparin from the beginning disability identity and disability culture has been
of the nineteenth century; Grandeau, Tisserand, a scholarly issue for a few decades and was ex-
Risler, and Ville from the late nineteenth cen- plored in depth for the first time in Erving Goff-
tury; and Lagatu, Demolon, and Dumont from man’s Stigma: Notes on the Management of
the twentieth century. They present only three Spoiled Identity (Prentice Hall, 1963). More re-
sketches—Beaudemont, Sanson, and Mal- cently, the spring 1999 issue of the Disability
lèvre—of those who contributed to animal hus- Studies Quarterly has the theme “Disability
bandry and two—Planchon and Viala—of those Identity.” Carol Gill and Miriam Hertz write, in
involved in the battle against grape phylloxera. the introduction to that issue, that “the process
One can argue over the selections. For ex- of constructing a positive self in defiance of so-
ample, Schloësing and Müntz deserve chapters cial devaluation” is the “affirmative response” to
of their own, but they are mentioned only in the spoiled identity noted by Goffman (p. 87).
passing in the chapters on Tisserand and Lecou- The implications for the history of science lie
teux. Boulaine and Legros admit to these and herein. Disability studies represents a shift away

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from the medical model, in which disabilities are cyber age” (p. 9). Two poems—a very short one
seen as medically diagnosable and ultimately by Eli Clare and another by Reginald Shep-
curable and the person with the disability is iden- herd—precede Dallas Wiebe’s short fictional
tified primarily by his or her diagnosis and prog- memoir of Alzheimer’s disease, “The Thief ”;
nosis. Within disability studies, as Susan Crutch- two more poems, by Mark DeFoe and Brooke
field and Marcy Epstein point out in the Horvath, follow Wiebe’s piece. A mother and
introduction to Points of Contact, disabled peo- daughter, Anne Ruggles Gere and Cynthia Mar-
ple are regarded instead as members of a cultural garet Gere, coauthored “Living with Fetal Al-
minority; as such, their cultural products are part cohol Syndrome/Fetal Alcohol Effect (FAS/
of multiculturalism. The collection, then, is com- FAE).” Georgia Kleege’s “Letters to Helen” is
posed largely of primary material—works writ- an excerpt from her novel-in-progress, centering
ten about disability by people with disabilities— on the life of Helen Keller; Sarah Ruden’s “Star-
that, together, illustrates disability culture. ing at Yellow and Green (Life and Art and
“With artful collection, we offer our readers no PMS)” starts by asking, “Is Pre-Menstrual Syn-
certain body of disability, no standard height or drome a disability?” (p. 169). “Ode to Bob Flan-
privileged nondisabled body part with which to agan,” poetry by Karen Alkalay-Gut, precedes
measure one’s place in the disabled or nondis- Rosemarie Garland Thomson’s scholarly piece
abled world. This text and its images offer some- “The Beauty and the Freak,” which compares
thing more valuable: the plausible composition beauty pageants and freak shows. David T.
of a disability imagination and the invitation to Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder’s reflections on
read the world afresh from the broadest spectrum making their documentary Vital Signs: Crip Cul-
of artistic life” (p. 19). ture Talks Back, which incorporates material
Following the introduction, Tobin Siebers ex- from the This/Ability conference, is followed by
plores the implications of aesthetic difference in three poems, Susan E. Fernbach’s “Wheelchair,”
“My Withered Limb,” weaving together his in- Floyd Skloot’s “Self-Portrait with 1911 NY
dividual experience with the history of polio and Yankees Cap,” and Joan Seliger Sidney’s
its treatment. “The human eye is fascinated by “Laps.” Robyn Sarah’s “Waiting for the Opera-
the powerful lines of the hero” (p. 24). In “Post- tion” documents the author’s perception of the
cards to Sophie Calle,” Joseph Grigely, a scholar relationship between her own temporary illness
and artist, assembles thirty-two “postcards,” ad- and the debilitating terminal illness of Ken
dressed to the artist Sophie Calle, regarding Hertz; the relationship was complicated by shad-
blindness. Three poems follow: William Staf- ows of Hertz’s somewhat fraudulent solicitation
ford’s “Sayings of the Blind,” Burton Raffel’s of money. Michael Downs’s short story “Re-
“The Blindness of a Rose,” and J. Quinn Bris- hearsal” traces a man’s internal and external re-
ben’s “The Cicerone at Antietam,” which be- lationship with his dying wife. F. D. Reeve wrote
gins: “A perfect day for imperfect bodies . . .” “Relatively Disabled” as a reflection on being
(p. 61). The first scholarly essay in this collection the father of the “fallen Superman” (p. 260) and
is Carol Poore’s historical essay, “ ‘But Roose- the husband of a woman who is deaf. The final
velt Could Walk,’ ” which compares the recep- piece of the collection, Bell Gale Chevigny’s
tion of Franklin Roosevelt and Wolfgang Schäu- “Eclipse,” is an account of a workshop on in-
ble as candidates for political positions. The corporating disability in theater.
essay is illustrated with excellent archival pho- Such a collection might be bewildering, and
tographs showing the German press’s portrayal in fact the organizational method behind the or-
of Schäuble’s use of his wheelchair. Poore’s es- der in which the pieces appear is not apparent.
say is followed by “Prosthesis Maker,” a poem The editors’ thoughtful introduction, situating
by Willa Schneberg; next is Victoria Ann the pieces in the context of disability studies,
Lewis’s “The Dramaturgy of Disability,” an es- holds Points of Contact together, if loosely. Be-
say that explores how the new paradigm of dis- cause the collection lends itself so well to class-
ability is portrayed in narratives of the stage. Ste- room use, one might have wished, on one hand,
phen Dixon’s “The Motor Cart” is an excerpt for a more in-depth editorial introduction placed
from his collection of fiction published in 1999; next to each piece. On the other hand, it is un-
Sandra M. Gilbert’s “E-mail to the Dead,” mus- derstandable that the editors let each piece speak
ings on her deceased husband, is explained by for itself.
the editors as “a metaphor of loss, but at the same This is an unconventional sort of scholarly
time it records a very real debility: her loss is text, in that the majority of the pieces are, in
like a phantom made material again via elec- essence, outsider art rather than academic ma-
tronic mail, the prosthetic extension of self in the terial. The pieces themselves also push all sorts

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
of boundaries of identity and expression. For ex- the argument, these reviews can be taken as the
ample, in Anne Ruggles Gere and Cynthia Mar- scientific component.
garet Gere’s “Living with Fetal Alcohol Syn- The volume is very well written, is nicely or-
drome/Fetal Alcohol Effect (FAS/FAE),” the ganized, and is full of fascinating observations
daughter’s paintings, as well as her words, are ranging from historical specifics to scientific
integral to the piece, and she identifies herself generalizations. It is certainly recommended for
not only as having the condition FAS/FAE but any historian or scientist who is curious about
also as a Wolf Clan woman from the Athabascan how genius originates. Nonetheless, readers with
people. The younger Gere writes what could such interests are also advised not to confine
summarize this collection: “There are many their reading to this book alone. As the dust
names that describe who I am, and each has its jacket blurb admits, Howe’s views are contro-
own place” (p. 134). versial. It is easy to see how. The author likes to
MARTHA ROSE engage in inclusive either-or dichotomies. Spe-
cifically, either genius is a “mysterious and mys-
Michael J. A. Howe. Genius Explained. ix Ⳮ tical gift” or it is the “product of a combination
231 pp., app., refs., index. Cambridge: Cam- of environment, personality and sheer hard
bridge University Press, 2001. $13.95 (paper). work” (p. i). Hence, someone who believes that
there might exist some genetic underpinning is
If the term “genius” has any meaning whatso- condemned as advocating an antiscientific posi-
ever, then certainly a scientist like Albert Ein- tion. The author does not seriously consider the
stein must count as an exemplar. But how did possibility that the “personality and sheer hard
Einstein acquire that stature? The English poet work” might be partly founded on genetic in-
John Dryden expressed one classic answer to this heritance. Yet recent psychological research
question: “Genius must be born, and never can makes a strong prima facie case on behalf of this
be taught.” The first attempt to provide this the- and other connections. In the first place, work in
sis with scientific support is to be found in Fran- the psychology of science has compiled an im-
cis Galton’s 1869 Hereditary Genius. The notion pressive inventory of cognitive, motivational,
that genius is born persists to the present day. It and personality traits that are positively corre-
is implicit or explicit in various “talent searches” lated with scientific creativity. Moreover, behav-
and special programs for the “gifted.” ioral geneticists have shown that most of these
Michael Howe’s book is dedicated to over- predictive traits feature substantial heritability
throwing this idea. He strongly believes that ge- coefficients. Accordingly, those individuals who
nius never can be born, but always must be inherit the right mix of traits may enjoy at least
taught. In particular, he puts tremendous stress some advantage regarding either the rate of ex-
on the importance of extensive training and prac- pertise acquisition or the application of that ex-
tice. Genius does not emerge de novo but, rather, pertise to creative performance. There is abso-
is most arduously acquired. Howe makes this ar- lutely nothing mysterious or mystical about this
gument in two contrasting ways. On the one inference.
hand, he scrutinizes the biographies of eminent Therefore, if I had been the publisher of this
geniuses in order to discern the developmental book, I would have insisted on the title “Genius
pathways that lead to exceptional creativity. Incompletely Explained.” For it to be completely
Most of these biographical analyses concern ma- explained, the author must grapple with the
jor figures in the history of science and technol- nature-nurture debate, not simply assume a one-
ogy. Thus, Chapter 1 is devoted to Charles Dar- sided adversarial stance.
win, Chapter 3 to George Stephenson, and DEAN KEITH SIMONTON
Chapter 4 to Michael Faraday, with Einstein re-
ceiving considerable attention in Chapter 6. On Jean Stengers; Anne Van Neck. Masturbation:
the other hand, Howe reviews the empirical re- The History of a Great Terror. Translated by
search in developmental and cognitive psy- Kathryn A. Hoffmann. ix Ⳮ 239 pp., illus.,
bibl., index. New York: Palgrave, 2001. $24.95.
chology that sheds light on this fundamental
question. These investigations include studies of Masturbation: The History of a Great Terror is
the early experiences of exceptional talents, the a translation from the French of a work begun in
information-processing capacities of adult ge- the early 1980s, before the death of coauthor
niuses, and the relation between deliberate prac- Anne Van Neck in 1982. Jean Stengers and Van
tice and world-class expertise. If the case studies Neck describe and attempt to explain the medical
can be considered the historical component of fashion of the eighteenth through the early twen-

:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff on Thu, 01 Jan 1976 12:34:56 UTC
tieth centuries for condemning masturbation as convincing medical professionals that mastur-
a threat to health. Although the work is adver- bation was harmful. The significance of expel-
tised as international in scope, its focus is the ling body fluids in Galenism is mentioned
role of the French author Samuel Auguste David (pp. 30–31) but not explained. There is no dis-
Tissot (1728–1797) and his work L’onanisme: cussion of the role of pronatalism in the antimas-
Dissertation sur les maladies produites par la turbation movement (not even in the section on
masturbation (1st ed., ca. 1715). His successors the Catholic Church) and little of feminism in the
among the masturbation “witch hunters” of gradual shift to sex-positive views of masturba-
Western European authors included Achille- tion in the twentieth century (pp. 145–147). Most
Guillaume Le Bègue de Presle, Jean Jacques important for historians of science, there is not a
Ménuret de Chambaud, François Marie Arouet single reference in Masturbation to the main ob-
de Voltaire, C. G. Salzmann, Immanuel Kant, stacle, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
Christophe-Guillaume Hufeland, Raphaël Bien- to the rational scientific study of human auto-
venu Sabatier, and others ranging in reputation eroticism. As E. H. Hare rightly points out in his
from the sublime to the ridiculous. A few Amer- January 1962 article in the Journal of Mental Sci-
ican and British authors are mentioned in this ence (p. 17), doctors constructed the myth of
context, but it is clear from Masturbation’s harmful masturbation in part on the fallacy of the
footnotes that the vast literature in English on biased sample. They saw only sick masturbators
nineteenth-century medical views of masturba- and not the vast majority of perfectly healthy
tion has not been systematically surveyed. ones, and they concluded—we now would say er-
The text is lively and entertaining, at times roneously—that masturbation impairs health. In
taking on the quality of an evangelical tract as my view, Stengers and Van Neck do not succeed
the authors inveigh against the needless suffer- in explaining why this kind of superstitious rea-
ing of those exposed to censure and dire prog- soning persisted in the European medical com-
noses for what is now perceived as a medically munity for nearly two centuries.
innocuous and virtually universal practice; im- RACHEL MAINES
prisoned in chastity belts of variously demonic
aspects, restraints that tied their hands to the bed, Donald MacKenzie; Judy Wajcman (Editors).
or locked gloves of chain mail; or, in exception- The Social Shaping of Technology. xviii Ⳮ 462
ally stubborn cases, subjected to infibulation or pp., illus., bibl., index. 1985. Buckingham, U.K./
clitoridectomy. Certainly these approaches to Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1999.
treatment, like much of premodern medicine, are $27.95 (paper).
an easy target for condemnatory hindsight, but
neither the devices nor the perceived or invented This second edition of The Social Shaping of
“symptoms” for which they were indicated are Technology has been significantly updated, en-
new to historiography. Vern Bullough has writ- larged, revised, and improved. Twelve of the
ten about antimasturbatory devices in Sin, Sick- original twenty-two essays remain, and eighteen
ness, and Sanity (New American Library, 1977) more have been added—at least thirteen of them
and other works, and there is a popular catalogue from 1994 or after. There is more biotechnology
of American devices edited by Hoag Levins, and computer technology, less classical produc-
American Sex Machines (Adams, 1996), in tion technology, and ethnicity has been added to
which the kind of chastity belts in Stengers and gender as an analytic dimension. The introduc-
Van Neck’s illustrations are well represented. tory material has been completely reworked,
Two new elements that these authors bring to even to treating the retained material in entirely
bear on the masturbation issue in modern history new prose. As a whole, the volume is much more
are the parallel but separately implemented sanc- balanced, complex, and nuanced than its prede-
tions of the Catholic Church (pp. 166–172), cessor.
which apparently still regards masturbation as a The book has the same four sections, each pre-
sin, and those of the Boy Scouts, which also ceded by an introductory essay: general issues,
maintained its opposition well into the twentieth production (paid workplace), reproduction (re-
century, catching up to the paradigm shift in productive and domestic technology), and de-
medical thought only very recently. struction (military technology). The editors ac-
The book is principally marred by significant knowledge the limitations of their work: that it
omissions and lack of context. Stengers and Van leaves out many other technologies, is relatively
Neck do not succeed in explaining why Tissot lacking in historical perspective, and ignores
and his English predecessor, the anonymous au- technology other than Euro-American. On the
thor of Onania (1724), were so successful in other hand, their four foci provide a measure of

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
thematic cohesion, and the essays supply an twenty-two essays. Both editions are well worth
abundance of material to be digested. having.
The main purpose of the 1985 first edition was DONALD DEB. BEAVER
to critique technological determinism, proposing
the social shaping of technology in its place. In 䡲 Antiquity
convincingly stressing the significance of social
factors in influencing the development of tech- Kamal Sabri Kolta; Doris Schwarzmann-
nology, that volume risked creating an antithet- Schafhauser. Die Hielkunde im alten Ägypten:
ical theory of social determinism. To the reflec- Magie und Ratio in der Kranksheitsvorstellung
tive reader, the essays seemed to demonstrate und therapeutischen Praxis. (Sudhoffs Archiv,
that society and technology were complementary Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 42.) 224
and mutually influencing agents, intertwined yet Ⳮ [84] pp., bibl., index. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner
still identifiable entities. Verlag, 2000. DM 88.
Since then, science and technology studies has
increasingly come to what some have called the For English speakers, a new survey of ancient
“mayonnaise” model of the relations of science, Egyptian medicine inevitably faces comparison
technology, and society: that individual compo- with John F. Nunn’s Ancient Egyptian Medicine
nents, once mixed, become forever inseparable, (Oklahoma, 1996). That book succinctly sum-
losing their unique identity by becoming part of marizes the subject in modern scientific terms;
one another. While still undermining “strong” its handsome and well-organized format and its
technological determinism, the new introductory wealth of data ensure that readers will return to
essays and articles illustrate this more complex it long after their introduction to the topic.
recent understanding, at the same time moving Kamal Sabri Kolta and Doris Schwarzmann-
away from a complementary social determinist Schafhauser’s work covers much the same
position. Both society and technology are much ground and, like Nunn’s, in clear, direct lan-
more mutually constitutive than formerly ac- guage. Yet their approach is almost entirely dif-
knowledged. Stress on the “social” shaping of ferent. The two authors, the first an Egyptian
technology still dominates, in part because tech- who specializes in Egyptology and classical and
nological determinism still dominates in the Coptic languages and the second a German
press and the world outside STS. medical doctor with a Ph.D. in history, collab-
The book is rich in illustrative examples and orated to contextualize the numerous medical
case histories. Particularly interesting among the papyri and published pathophysiological data.
new selections are those by Paul Cerruzzi on the This multidisciplinary approach does not serve
emergence of the personal computer, Eda Kran- to undermine the scientific value of the work.
akis on different styles in bridge building, Brian Disease states, provided they can be diagnosed
Arthur on predictive uncertainties and path de- with certainty from either mummified remains or
pendence, Richard Dyer on the tuning to white textual reports, remain the same in Kolta and
skin as the norm in photography and film Schwarzmann-Schafhauser’s perspective. That
(makeup, lighting, film stock), and Janet Abbate is, a disease described by the ancients with the
on the origins, development, and different mean- indubitable signs and symptoms of, say, TB, was
ings of packet switching and its particular iden- TB; a mummy presenting with evidence of TB
tity when incorporated in ARPANET. had TB. However, the authors do not focus on
Called by some the best introductory text to trying to label every ancient Egyptian case report
the social studies of technology, The Social with modern terminology if the descriptions or
Shaping of Technology is certainly a testament the mummies do not provide certainty.
to the value of a well-chosen anthology for a Instead of imposing modern concepts and
“field” so broadly inclusive of a variety of dis- categories of disease (infectious, heart, rheu-
ciplines, approaches, and methodologies. Who matic, etc.), they start their analysis with the idea
should read it? Those interested in the public un- that magic and religion played an integral and
derstanding of science and technology, those complementary role beside reason and empiri-
who teach science and technology studies, their cism in disease conception, detection, and ther-
students, and, of course, interested laypersons. Is apy; magic and reason were intertwined even in
it worth getting if one already has the first edi- the dynastic period, which traditionally has been
tion? Yes, because the eighteen new essays, viewed as an enlightened era of empiricism. Sig-
together with the reworking of each section’s nificantly, at no time was the magical component
introduction, approximate a completely new absent from the practice of medicine. While this
reader, comparable to the original edition’s approach seems perfectly reasonable, prior to

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
Kolta and Schwarzmann-Schafhauser, surpris- maeus launches into an extended narrative. From
ingly, it was not applied wholesale to the inter- the cast of characters and the content of this initial
pretation of the corpus of extant medical papyri. drama, however, Kalkavage draws some rather
Their careful philological readings, guided by daring inferences about the political character of
the physician’s art, have resulted in a cogent and the Timaeus, while seeming to downplay the im-
cohesive framework for interpreting these some- portance of the whole tradition of natural philos-
times frustratingly obscure medical works. ophy for Plato’s cosmology. Thus he tends to ig-
The ancient Egyptian swnw (pronounced like nore some of the oldest interpretations of the
sew-new), or physician, used the Nile as an anal- Timaeus, which originated within the Academy
ogy for understanding the processes of the hu- and were reported by ancient commentators like
man body. Just as there were obstructions dam- Proclus, whose influential commentary on the di-
ming the flow of the river’s waters and just as alogue Kalkavage never mentions, not even in his
canals could be opened to relieve the overflow bibliography. In addition, he fails to situate the
during the flood season, so the human systems “likely story” of Timaeus within the historical
of mtw (“vessels”) had a variety of stoppages, context of the Parmenidean challenge to Ionian
leakages, and flows. “Mtw” thus cannot be de- natural philosophy, which is taken up in turn by
fined simply as blood vessels, since the term ap- Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the Atomists, and later
plies equally to nerves, tendons, and muscles. Pythagoreans like Philolaus and Archytas. With-
Furthermore, the mtw transported air throughout out such a context, it is difficult to understand why
the body, and they admitted, distributed, and Plato draws so liberally on all these thinkers in
eliminated other matter (including urine, feces, constructing his own cosmology, which is criti-
mucus, etc.). This simple conceptual analogy cized by Aristotle from the same historical per-
provided the swnw with a practical method for spective.
determining appropriate therapeutic options. Generally, Kalkavage’s translation is clear,
In addition, the authors integrate into this con- accurate, and quite readable. But one might take
ceptual framework other key elements of the an- issue with the persistent translation of Plato’s
cient Egyptian theory of disease transmission, Greek term “phronesis” as “prudence,” given
including in particular the role of the gods (in that he does not make a clear Aristotelian dis-
sending disease as punishment; in acting as an tinction between theoretical and practical wis-
outside force, which we might consider an in- dom (as Kalkavage acknowledges in his glos-
fectious agent; or in assisting in recovery). The sary, on p. 142). For instance, it is rather peculiar
swnw did not have a modern pharmacopoeia for to translate “andrôn phronimôn” at Timaeus 30A
treating sick patients; as a result, magical and as “prudent men,” given that what they are said
religious forces were often critical in patient re- to know is the first principle of cosmology. In
covery, although a number of drug therapies many of its Platonic usages, “phronesis” and
were based on naturally proven, or empirical, cognate verbal forms would be better translated
formulas. as “wisdom” or “intelligence” and their cognates
Like Nunn, the authors review the papyri and in English (see 24C, 29A, 39C, 40A, 44B, 48C).
a series of specialties (eye, head, tooth, belly, Therefore, it would appear that Kalkavage’s
trauma/wounds), and they append a series of translation decision here is motivated by his own
eighty-two black-and-white photographs and il- speculation about the political character of the
lustrations. They include an innovative analysis Timaeus.
(pp. 136–137; figs. 68–72) of tomb paintings to At the end of his book Kalkavage adds some
suggest that massage was perhaps a regular form helpful appendixes, giving details of the ancient
of therapy. sciences of harmonics, astronomy, and geometry
MARY KNIGHT that are referred to in the Timaeus. But he is
clearly mistaken (see p. 154 and p. 61 n 22)
Plato. Plato’s Timaeus. Translated by Peter when he describes 9 as a cubic number with side
Kalkavage. (Focus Philosophical Library.) x Ⳮ 3. Of course, this is an elementary error; but it
161 pp., illus., figs., apps., bibl. Newburyport, makes one wonder whether he has the requisite
Mass.: Focus Publishing, 2001. $8.95 (paper). knowledge of ancient Greek mathematics to do
justice to Plato’s complex use of these sciences
As his introductory essay reveals, Peter Kalka- in his dialogues. To his credit, however, Kalka-
vage’s translation of the Timaeus is influenced by vage does provide a useful glossary of terms,
Straussian ways of reading Platonic dialogues. along with well-informed footnotes throughout
For instance, he pays great attention to the initial his translation. In general, therefore, this is a use-
framing dialogue that Plato inserts before Ti- ful edition of the Timaeus for students who want

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to become acquainted with Plato’s most influ- resource for people who cannot read Sanskrit, as
ential dialogue, but it will be less useful for the contents are detailed in such a way that any-
scholars who are interested in the history and one can feel somewhat familiar with a text after
philosophy of science. reading the entry. But for me the most interesting
JOHN J. CLEARY part of this kind of scholarship—tracing the use
of a poison or the treatments for digestive ail-
G. Jan Meulenbeld. A History of Indian Medi- ments or hiccups through the years—is elusive
cal Literature. (Groningen Oriental Studies, 15.) without an index. For studying one or two par-
Volume 1A: Text: xvii Ⳮ 699 pp., frontis., app.; ticular texts, this work will be invaluable, but we
Volume 1B: Annotation: vi Ⳮ 774 pp.; Volume must await an index to be able to do any cross-
2A: Text: viii Ⳮ 839 Ⳮ 142 pp.; Volume 2B: text comparison. The extensive referencing, al-
Annotation: viii Ⳮ 1,018 pp. Groningen: Egbert though perhaps a boon to some, makes reading
Forsten, 1999, 2000. €600, $527. very cumbersome.
Given the price (€600 or $527, which is not a
In the introduction to his huge scholarly under- bad cost-per-page price), not too many scholars
taking, G. Jan Meulenbeld invites reviewers “to will have this history on their shelves, but In-
identify weaknesses and blind spots.” Even that dologists and historians of medicine might cer-
task would be massive, as one would have to tainly like to have a copy in a nearby research
know the Indian medical literature better than he, library. We can only applaud scholars who take
and there cannot be many who do. As the author on projects of this scale and hope that Meulen-
points out, this field of study has grown enor- beld will supply users with an index in the near
mously. A survey of the literature, published in future.
German by Jules Jolly in 1901, was nineteen HELAINE SELIN
pages long; this magnum opus is over three thou-
sand pages. 䡲 Middle Ages and Renaissance
The four volumes of A History of Indian Medi-
cal Literature (officially, two volumes, each in Charlotte Furth. A Flourishing Yin: Gender in
two parts) combine both chapter-by-chapter China’s Medical History, 960–1665. xiv Ⳮ 355
details on all the texts that Meulenbeld was able pp., illus., figs., tables, app., bibl., index. Berke-
to find and extensive commentary on the texts ley/Los Angeles: University of California Press,
and their authors, drawn mainly from Dutch li- 1999. $45, £35 (cloth); $17.95, £12.95 (paper).
braries. This literature includes two thousand
years of Sanskrit medical texts, some encyclo- A Flourishing Yin offers a new examination of
pedias containing material related to medicine, the nature and history of fuke, or “women’s med-
and some Tantric (Hindu, Buddhist, and Jaina) icine,” in late imperial Chinese medical litera-
works and Purān. as—ancient collections of ture. Charlotte Furth uses medical texts, popular
tales—with medical chapters. Two entire vol- medical literature, and medical case histories to
umes are devoted to references. Volume 1 covers create a history of changing theory and diverse
four basic classical texts and their commentaries: practice that included the theories of elite doc-
Carakasam. hitā, Suśruta-Sam. hitā, As. t.āṅgahr. - tors, domestic skills, mundane crafts, amateur
dayasam. hitā, and As. t.āṅgasam. graha. Volume 2 literati learning, and religious ritual (p. 3). Chap-
covers the postclassical literature, arranged ter 1 introduces the androgynous “Yellow Em-
chronologically from C.E. 600 to the twentieth peror’s body” (p. 19) as an interpretive model to
century. The annotations are perhaps even more describe the process-oriented body of classical
extraordinary than the summaries themselves, as Chinese medicine. She ascribes to it a set of
they deal with scholarly literature in several dis- male-gendered social and medical understand-
ciplines: the history of medicine, Indian social ings. Visceral functions were based on a non-
and medical history, and recent Āyurvedic ma- hierarchical model of yin-yang complementarity
terial. (p. 28), but the sexual functions of blood (xue)
There is no doubt, then, of the magnitude of and essence ( jing) were “nested in a hierarchy
this enterprise, the result of twenty years of re- of yin and yang pairs where yin is encompassed
search and industry and difficulties with publish- by yang” (p. 48). The channels that governed
ers. But who will use it? And how will they use circulation of qi in the body were associated with
it? Meulenbeld refers to “readers” in his intro- male sexual function and longevity, and female
duction, but I do not think this is a book for sexuality, specifically the womb, was “reduced
readers. It is basically a listing of everything that to an irrelevancy” (p. 44). Although the Yellow
appears in every text. This makes it a wonderful Emperor’s body was more truly androgynous

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than its Galenic unisex equivalent, the homoge- body in Chinese medical history. This punctili-
nized medicine of the Huang Di neijing lost the ous balance makes A Flourishing Yin far more
rich medical pluralism of its antecedents, and its than a fascinating microhistory; it is an exemplar
yin-yang rhetoric governed medical and gender of balance between science and sociology in the
discourse for centuries to come. history of science.
Chapters 2 and 3 introduce Song dynasty un- LISA RAPHALS
derstandings of fuke, in which the female body
was governed by blood and the male body by qi, Howard Hotson. Paradise Postponed: Johann
with corresponding emphasis on menstruation, Heinrich Alsted and the Birth of Calvinist Mil-
“separate prescriptions for women” (pp. 51, 85), lenarianism. (International Archives of the His-
and accounts of internal depletions of blood tory of Ideas, 172.) x Ⳮ 227 pp., illus., bibl.,
caused by female emotions. Within the govern- index. Dordrecht/Boston: Kluwer Academic
ment-sponsored print culture, “literati physi- Publishers, 2000. $72, £49, €86.
cians” (ru yi) combined elite medicine and pop-
ular oral healing traditions. Gynecology ( fuke) In this ambitious and sophisticated book, How-
and obstetrics (chanke) became negotiated sites ard Hotson expands on the argument presented
between female healers and male doctors, herb- in the final chapter of his intellectual biography
alists, and ritual advisors, where male and female of Alsted, published only months earlier (Johann
birthing specialists performed a wide variety of Heinrich Alsted, 1588–1638: Between Renais-
functions. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 address changes sance, Reformation, and Universal Reform [Ox-
in fuke during the Ming dynasty. Expanding ford, 2000]). At issue is a major but understudied
print culture increased the popular readership of problem in early modern cultural history: Why
medical texts and the prestige of medical au- had many sober Calvinists become, by the sev-
thors. Intensive critique of the Song “separate enteenth century, outright millenarians, with
prescriptions” model reformulated understand- highly positive attitudes toward nature and the
ings of bodily gender. One result was the con- earthly future? Hotson discovers an answer in
traction of fuke to disorders that genuinely con- the vast and still largely unexplored body of
cerned women alone. By the end of the Ming, Alsted’s writings, on which he is now the undis-
the rise of smallpox and the growth of internal puted authority.
(neidan) alchemy and male longevity practices Although his commitment to the Reformed
shifted medical attention toward pediatrics and faith is beyond doubt, Alsted was among those
male disorders and limited medical interest in ambitious spirits whose professed orthodoxy re-
women to fertility. Changing social patterns al- sisted intellectual narrowness of any sort. As a
tered gender roles in medical practice as new so- notable product of the dizzying religious and in-
cial constraints limited contact between male tellectual climate of central Europe in the era
healers and female patients, and hierarchical dis- preceding the Thirty Years’ War, he came to
tinctions between literati doctors and “granny” share the sort of hopeful expectancy, girded by
healers ended the Song pattern of cooperation astrological, neoplatonic, and hermetic visions,
between male and female healers. Chapters 7 and that characterized early Rosicrucianism and vari-
8 introduce Ming historical narratives by male ous “new prophets.” Such youthful hopes, look-
and female healers that suggest more permeable ing to a conversion of the Jews and a collapse of
boundaries between the “inner and outer Christ’s enemies as the great cosmic cycle
spheres,” including the roles of women in main- moved toward completion, clearly did not make
taining female seclusion and rare cases of female Alsted a millenarian. He anticipated no earthly
physicians (nü yi). reign of Christ, no new historical age, but merely
Furth’s history entails a polarization between a brief spiritual dawn before the end itself. More-
traditional and late imperial accounts of the over, he did not derive such hopes from Scrip-
medical body: the one abstract and androgynous, ture; their basis was “speculative, philosophical,
the other gendered in detailed accounts of clini- and aesthetic” (p. 83).
cal practice. Recent archaeology and scholarship Hotson argues that Alsted became a genuine
on the complex antecedents of the Yellow Em- millenarian only as he suffered through the up-
peror’s Classic provide a more complex view of heavals that came to central Europe after 1618.
gender in the early texts than Furth describes, During the 1620s he gradually retreated into a
but her focus is elsewhere. Throughout she biblically based view, which offered longer-term
maintains three concurrent viewpoints: fuke as a hope in a time wrecked by war and witch-
learned discourse, the role of gender ideology in hunting. His adoption of millenarianism was
medicine, and the cultural construction of the thus largely the result of disillusionment. Yet

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Hotson also shows that even as Alsted developed index. Oxford/Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Pub-
a more outwardly measured and scripturally de- lishers, 2000. $27.95 (paper).
fensible position, he never abandoned his her-
metically inspired “optimism.” While he no Early on, Paolo Rossi defines his readership.
longer advertised their extrascriptural origins, his This book, he writes, is not “for the historian or
philosopher of science” but, rather, “for those
hopes remained rooted in neoplatonic and her-
young people seeking to establish a personal re-
metic ideas that were essentially foreign to the
lationship with the history of ideas and the com-
Protestant apocalyptic tradition. The key sources
plex, prolific, fascinating things which are sci-
of his best-known millenarian work, the Diatribe
ence and philosophy” (p. 8). It is part of a series
de mille annis apocalypticis (1627), were astro-
in European history written for a wide public,
logical and speculative writings by confession-
each volume of which is published in English,
ally indistinct figures such as the “nominally Lu-
French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Rossi em-
theran” Christoph Besold (p. 153).
phatically places the “birth of modern science”
Was the newly hopeful outlook that emerged
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the
among seventeenth-century thinkers—an out- time period encompassed by his account. The
look epitomized by Calvinist millenarianism— work includes chapters on general develop-
thus largely a product of late-Renaissance her- ments, such as secrets (the hermetic tradition),
metic dreams? This proposition faces some engineers, the new cosmos of Copernicus, Kep-
major problems. For instance, many Lutheran ler, and Brahe, the chemical philosophy, the
thinkers had shown similar enthusiasm for such magnetic philosophy, instruments such as the
astrological and magical notions, which were telescope and microscope, academies, and clas-
thus not so foreign to “the Protestant apocalyptic sification. It also contains focused chapters on
tradition” as Hotson suggests. Yet most Luther- Galileo, Descartes, and Newton.
ans did not move toward millenarianism in re- Rossi liberally uses the term “scientist” for
sponse to the blows of war; on the contrary, they early modern figures and emphatically regards
withdrew into a thoroughly nonmillenarian, even the origins of modern science as the traditionally
nonapocalyptic, piety. configured “scientific revolution,” which he sees
We may wonder whether Hotson has taken as a fully justified term. He insists on the dis-
seriously enough certain distinctive features of continuity between the positions of medieval
Alsted’s confessional culture, above all an un- natural philosophers and early modern “scien-
derlying sense of worldly confidence, reflecting tists” and provides succinct summaries of the
the Calvinist emphasis on God’s abiding prom- differences between medieval and early modern
ises to the elect. Alsted’s neoplatonic and her- views in mechanics, cosmology, astronomy, and
metic dreams are perhaps best viewed not as the other areas. He itemizes his disagreements with
source of his millenarian hope, but as one ex- historians of medieval natural philosophy who
pression of this underlying confidence. On this lay some claim for origins in earlier centuries.
view millenarianism was a deeper, more mature Using Gaston Bachelard’s notion of the “epis-
manifestation of the same outlook, an almost temological obstacle,” he describes the views of
natural tendency given Alsted’s background and medieval natural philosophy as obstacles to be
education. This perspective can account more overcome. Nonspecialist readers will clearly un-
fully than Hotson’s for the Calvinist millenarians derstand that there are differences among histo-
and quasi-millenarians who preceded Alsted, in- rians on this issue without hearing the arguments
cluding his own teacher, Johannes Piscator. from the other side. What they will not catch a
Still, despite its problematic main thesis, this glimpse of is the point of view that objects to the
book is packed with erudition and sheds much use of anachronistic categories such as “scien-
light on the complex interactions between scrip- tist” and that suggests the heuristic value of fo-
tural, philosophical, and magical traditions. We cusing on actors’ categories such as “experimen-
can be grateful to Hotson for raising new ques- tal philosophy” rather than “science” in the
tions and for revealing heretofore unknown com- seventeenth century.
plexities in the labyrinthine world of the late Re- The greatest strength of this work comes out
naissance. of Rossi’s extensive and deep knowledge of the
ROBIN B. BARNES primary sources that he analyzes throughout. His
discussions of key texts and of the positions of
Paolo Rossi. The Birth of Modern Science. significant figures are detailed and useful. He
Translated by Cynthia De Nardi Ipsen. (The provides clear summaries of an impressive num-
Making of Europe.) ix Ⳮ 276 pp., fig., bibl., ber of texts, of the thought of key figures, and of

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configurations of ideas such as the mechanical that biblical literalism invariably inhibited the
philosophy. To give just one example, his dis- acceptance of Copernicanism. Howell clearly
cussion of Copernicus’s De hypothesibus mo- demonstrates that virtually all of the major pro-
tuum coelestium commentariolus (ca. 1507– tagonists subscribed to a view of the authority of
1512) is a model of clarity that provides Scripture and held that in matters of controversy
sufficient detail to introduce the central ideas of it was to be interpreted primarily in its literal
the treatise. His synthetic chapters—such as sense. Clearly, then, within the constraints of lit-
“Countless Other Worlds,” on infinity, the void, eral interpretation, different individuals man-
and the plurality of worlds, and the chapter on aged to arrive at diverse views. Much of the suc-
the mechanical philosophy—constitute wide- cess of God’s Two Books lies in demonstrating
ranging, learned surveys in which a profound how subtle and varied the position characterized
knowledge of the sources enables him to present as “biblical literalism” could be. For those who
tightly compressed, dense, but clearly compre- sought reconciliation of the new cosmology and
hensible accounts. The chapter on Galileo pro- the literal truth of Scripture, a number of strate-
vides an outstanding summary and discussion of gies were available. Most commonly, it was
Galileo’s thought, one of the best short accounts claimed that the literal words of Scripture were
that I know of. “accommodated” to ordinary use, although
Rossi’s knowledge and use of primary sources which passages had been accommodated and to
is not matched by an interest in recent scholar- what extent was a matter of debate. Distinctions
ship in the history of science. He rarely mentions were also drawn between matters of faith, on
recent works of scholarship in his text. A bibli- which Scripture was authoritative, and matters
ography of works cited or referred to in each of natural philosophy, on which, generally
chapter is provided, followed by a list of sug- speaking, it was not. Again, however, there was
gested additional readings. These references in- room for discussion about which doctrines fell
clude the primary sources cited and some sec- into which category. Finally, there were even
ondary scholarship, including only a very few imaginative attempts to show that certain literal
items that are less than fifteen or twenty years readings of Scripture actually supported the Co-
old. The nonspecialists targeted as the readers of pernican position.
this work will discover early modern science to More important even than the variety of op-
be a richly complex and fascinating subject that tions available for biblical literalists was the is-
can be studied with an abundance of primary sue of the physical truth of astronomical hypoth-
sources. Yet they will acquire no sense of the eses. A profound transformation took place in
history of science as a highly active and some- the sixteenth century in which the function of
times contentious discipline that produces an on- astronomy became less that of “saving the phe-
going and rich body of scholarship that in essen- nomena” with hypothetical accounts of the mo-
tial ways furthers the study and interpretation of tions of heavenly bodies and more a quest for
those sources. the real cosmic system. This move from mathe-
PAMELA O. LONG matical instrumentalism to mathematical realism
in astronomy—for which Howell offers a num-
Kenneth James Howell. God’s Two Books: Co- ber of interesting explanations—was paralleled
pernican Cosmology and Biblical Interpretation by the shift from allegory to literalism in early
in Early Modern Science. viii Ⳮ 360 pp., figs., modern biblical hermeneutics. It was the con-
bibl., index. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of junction of these tendencies that gave rise to the
Notre Dame Press, 2001. $39.95 (cloth). possibility of controversy, for as long as astro-
nomical claims were considered mere mathe-
Discussions of early modern cosmology and bib- matical hypotheses and refuge could always be
lical interpretation tend to focus almost exclu- sought in nonliteral readings of Scripture, the po-
sively on events surrounding the condemnation tential for conflict was considerably reduced.
of Galileo, and it is frequently assumed that op- One of the great virtues of this book is its dem-
position to the heliocentric hypothesis was onstration of the way in which early modern con-
motivated primarily by a misplaced biblical lit- troversy about the moving earth, frequently un-
eralism. Kenneth Howell’s book is a welcome derstood as an instance of a more general conflict
corrective to this trend, providing an excellent between science and religion, actually masks a
account of the interpretive strategies of such ma- more fundamental debate about the status of as-
jor figures as Brahe and Kepler, as well as Ga- tronomy.
lileo and a number of important minor charac- Howell is at his best when providing detailed
ters. The first casualty of this survey is the view and nuanced accounts of the positions of the ma-

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
jor players. The chapter on Kepler is particularly and representation first and as Chinese second.
illuminating, and the discussion of Galileo man- That is, she argues that from the mid-seventeenth
ages to shed new light on a well-worked topic. century onward, the Qing employment of pic-
One might have wished for a comparable dis- tographic representation in these two areas was
cussion of Descartes’s position, for while there not dissimilar from that of Western Europe.
is an interesting chapter on Copernicanism and Both, she posits, considered governmental con-
Cartesianism in the Netherlands, no direct treat- trol and dissemination of maps and pictures or
ment of Descartes’s stated views on these issues descriptions of what the Chinese often call “mi-
is provided. Admittedly, the French philosopher nority populations” central to their expansionist
was notoriously reticent in expressing opinions ambitions. Like Western European nations with
on “theological” topics, but even his silence is colonies across the sea, China’s Qing govern-
significant. The likelihood that Descartes aban- ment, suggests Hostetler, self-consciously spon-
doned plans to publish Le monde on account of sored illustrated maps and writings in which
the condemnation of Galileo, his modest asser- their superiority to colonial populations—in
tion of the hypothetical nature of the cosmo- China’s case non-Han peoples who lived north,
logical speculations in The Principles of Phil- south, east, and west of the central provinces—
osophy, and his contribution to a new was portrayed as unambiguous and unquestion-
physico-mathematics make his position directly able.
relevant to this discussion. Howell also seeks to Hostetler offers several explanations as to why
minimize the importance of the Catholic- these phenomena may have occurred in China
Protestant divide in matters of biblical hermeneu- and Western Europe at the same time. China, she
tics, yet this is somewhat at odds with his admis- argues in Chapter 2, was aware of its global po-
sion that there was a considerable degree of sition. The Qing court employed Europeans who
institutional control of biblical exegesis and theo- brought maps and scientific devices to China and
logical dogma in Catholic countries. Again, the taught European techniques to Chinese officials.
case of Descartes might have been illuminating Hostetler’s insistence on understanding Chi-
here. These are relatively minor considerations, nese cartographic and ethnographic documents
however, particularly in view of the fact that there globally leads her to take issue with standard
is so much other rich material on offer. Howell scholarly literature on Chinese cartography. In
has made a major contribution to our understand- particular, she refines ideas in Volume 2, Book
ing of the historical interactions of “science” and 2, of J. B. Harley and David Woodward’s His-
“religion” and has demonstrated how early mod- tory of Cartography (Chicago, 1994), devoted to
ern thinkers, committed to the unity of knowl- East and South Asian cartography, in which Chi-
edge, sought to reconcile the truths of the Book nese mapmaking is considered coterminous with
of Nature with those of the Book of Scripture. but distinct from Western European cartography
PETER HARRISON (p. 10). Hostetler’s assertion of the similarities
is persuasive when one views European and
䡲 Early Modern American maps of the seventeenth century
(Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries) alongside Chinese ones, especially with regard
to the representation of colonial peoples on those
Laura Hostetler. Qing Colonial Enterprise: maps. Indeed, the presence or omission of ethnic
Ethnography and Cartography in Early Modern populations on maps is for Hostetler a key factor
China. xx Ⳮ 257 pp., illus., tables, app., bibl., in comparisons throughout the book.
index. Chicago/London: University of Chicago The author’s best examples of what she calls
Press, 2001. $35, £22.50. the “politics of representation” are drawn from
albums that depict the Miao, a non-Han popu-
Laura Hostetler’s Qing Colonial Enterprise is a lation with many subgroups that today populate
study of how maps and pictures of minority peo- southern provinces of China, autonomous re-
ples were used by the Chinese dynasty Qing gions in those provinces, Taiwan, and countries
(1644–1911) to enhance their imperial ambi- of Southeast Asia including Laos, Cambodia,
tions. This creative and original juxtaposition of and Thailand. A genre unto itself, Miao albums
ethnography and cartography offers new insights were first made early in the Qing dynasty as a
into early modern China, the most studied period way of informing officials about the peoples over
of Chinese history. whom they administered. The non-Chinese peo-
From the beginning of the book, Hostetler ples are both described and illustrated. Special
makes it clear that she intends to examine the interest is paid to customs of courtship and mar-
Chinese material as ethnography, cartography, riage. Hostetler is not surprised that the Miao are

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rendered with the same kinds of shortcomings as count of Bacon’s philosophical development, so
colonial peoples of the Western European em- far as that is possible, or discuss his writings in
pires. Rather, this is consistent with her over- their chronological order. His chief concern is
arching argument. with the character and singularity of Bacon’s
Countless scholars of various aspects of Chi- natural philosophy, some of its sources, affilia-
nese studies have drawn parallels between events tions, and differences from others, and finally
in Chinese and non-Chinese history or have em- with its significance in the transformation of the
ployed European models to strengthen their ar- philosopher into a scientist, and science from an
guments or to explain themes of Chinese civili- individual and arcane pursuit into a communal
zation. It is less common for a scholar to suggest and public enterprise.
that our understanding of European movements Gaukroger divides his exposition into six sub-
such as modernization can be sharpened by stantial chapters. These deal with the nature of
studying China. The examination of China in Bacon’s project and its relationship to human-
global perspective is one of the strengths of this ism, its legitimation of natural philosophy, Ba-
book. con’s view of the shaping of the natural philos-
There is no book to which Qing Colonial En- opher, the place Bacon assigned to method in
terprise is obviously comparable. Rather, it joins science, and finally his theory of matter as a
a small number of recent works, such as Philippe means of attaining dominion over nature. All the
Forêt’s Mapping Chengde: The Qing Landscape chapters contain valuable observations and a
Enterprise (Hawaii, 2000), whose authors ex- wide range of references that bring out compar-
plore uncharted avenues (in Forêt’s case, the use isons and contrasts between Bacon and other
of landscape) through which the Qing dynasty thinkers. Some of the book’s major themes,
pervaded every aspect of society in order to fur- however, are doubtful and lack adequate support.
ther its expansionist ambitions. Hostetler accom- Gaukroger, for instance, attributes consider-
plishes this purpose with fresh material and a ably more importance to rhetoric and law in the
truly fresh approach. Not only is the combination development of Bacon’s natural philosophy than
of maps and images of colonial peoples inno- is justifiable. Bacon’s humanistic education and
vative; many of the images and most of the trans- interests made him an accomplished student and
lations are published here for the first time. The practitioner of rhetoric, and he was similarly a
success of her pursuit offers stimulating and re- great lawyer and jurist. He drew on rhetoric for
warding reading. the organization of ideas and arguments and the
NANCY SHATZMAN STEINHARDT framing of questions. But by rejecting the central
concept of invention in rhetoric (a subject Gau-
Stephen Gaukroger. Francis Bacon and the kroger ignores), on the ground that true inven-
Transformation of Early-Modern Philosophy. tion consisted not in finding arguments but in
xii Ⳮ 249 pp., bibl., index. Cambridge/New inventing new arts and sciences, Bacon erected
York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. $59.95 a great divide between rhetoric and science. Gau-
(cloth); $21.95 (paper). kroger further maintains that Bacon’s knowledge
of legal inquiry and procedure guided his plans
Although Francis Bacon’s philosophy has never for reforming science. Yet the focal point of his
been a neglected topic, his reputation as a thinker project for renewed progress in the knowledge
has risen and fallen between the seventeenth cen- of nature was the conception of a reformed in-
tury and the present. That he has been the subject duction as a method of discovery, and as far as
of a growing number of studies in recent years I can see, Bacon made no connection between
is a welcome sign of the renewed interest in his this method and law. The two had different aims,
work and of the reappraisal of his contribution moreover: the principal goal of legal inquiry was
to philosophy and science. Stephen Gaukroger’s particular facts, that of Baconian induction was
book is the latest of these studies, which, to- the discovery of axioms. In general, it would be
gether with the publication of the first volumes surprising if Bacon, who repeatedly insisted on
in the new Clarendon Press edition of Bacon’s the necessity of making a fresh start in the in-
works, are helping to infuse fresh life into Ba- vestigation of nature, should have found much
conian studies. Gaukroger’s book is not a gen- help in pursuing this goal in the old and long-
eral survey of Bacon’s thought but a broad and established disciplines of rhetoric and law.
learned examination of his natural philosophy— Gaukroger believes that one of Bacon’s aims
the most difficult and complex part of his was to reform the behavior of natural philoso-
thought—to which he devotes some close atten- phers and to do so in part by inculcating the need
tion. Gaukroger does not present a genetic ac- for civility in scientific discourse. Here he picks

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up a point that has become prominent of late in mon’s House was much more like a scientific
studies of seventeenth-century English science. research institute than a religious order.
Although Bacon condemned sterile debates such Although there are illuminating and provoca-
as those he attributed to the medieval schoolmen, tive discussions throughout this book, the fifth
he never mentions civility in philosophical ex- and sixth chapters are especially instructive in
change or criticizes its absence as a fault. When their treatment of Bacon’s method, his atomism,
we remember how adversarial and bluntly criti- his theory of matter, his cosmological theory,
cal he could be in his comments on Aristotle and and his naturalistic conception of spirit. I was
other philosophers, ancient and modern, we may glad to note Gaukroger sees no need to defend
question whether civility was ever among his Bacon’s theory of science against Bacon’s mod-
concerns. It was not the behavior of philosophers ern detractors and has devoted himself solely to
that he wanted to change but their habitual ways the historical understanding of his natural phi-
of thinking about the world and nature. Here losophy and its significance. All students of Ba-
what he strove to do was to make them conscious con’s philosophy of science will want to read
of a number of instinctual and acquired mental Gaukroger’s book and will undoubtedly find
attitudes and prejudices that were a systematic much in it that is interesting and valuable.
cause of error in the investigation of nature. He PEREZ ZAGORIN
called these attitudes and prejudices the idols of
the mind, and his identification of them and their Peter A. Schouls. Descartes and the Possibility
effects as obstacles to the progress of knowledge of Science. xii Ⳮ 171 pp., bibl., index. Ithaca,
was one of his most original contributions to phi- N.Y./London: Cornell University Press, 2000.
losophy. Gaukroger presents an excellent dis- $35.
cussion of this subject, but I see no basis for his How must we and the world be constituted if
claim that Bacon’s theory of the idols depended science is possible? René Descartes had some
on the rhetorical tradition. He also contends that ideas. For example, he wrote in 1639 to Marin
the cognitive state Bacon desiderated for natural Mersenne, “The imagination, which is the part
philosophers included the purging of the pas- of the mind that most helps mathematics, is more
sions. This argument seems questionable, as Ba- of a hindrance than a help in metaphysical specu-
con did not speak of the passions in his account lation” (p. 59). In another missive he suggested
of the idols of the mind. Elsewhere I have argued that “besides [local] memory, which depends on
that he ignored the passions when analyzing the the body, I believe there is also another one, en-
effect of the idols (Perez Zagorin, “Francis Ba- tirely intellectual, which depends on the soul
con’s Concept of Objectivity and the Idols of the alone” (pp. 59, 52).
Mind,” British Jounral for the History of Sci- Peter Schouls marshals brief passages such as
ence, 2001, 34). these alongside discussions of Descartes’s major
In his fourth chapter, on the shaping of the works to sketch a partial portrait of the human
natural philosopher, Gaukroger presents a fan- being and the universe. Schouls touches on both
ciful parallel between Bacon’s conception of the metaphysics and cognition, asking how things
latter and the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits, he must be arranged to allow Descartes’s famous
suggests, give us the best idea of Bacon’s notion method to be mobilized. His conclusions run as
of the scientist. Although this analogy is intrigu- follows. First, as should come as no surprise,
ing, is it really plausible, and are the Fathers of Descartes “insists on a thoroughgoing dualism
Solomon’s House in Bacon’s New Atlantis simi- that allows him to characterize human beings as
lar to the members of the Jesuit order? There is essentially free and to characterize nature as
at least one fundamental difference between the causally determined” (p. 44). Science is based in
two. The rules and discipline of the Society of the free activity of intuiting necessary connec-
Jesus required and trained its members always tions among ideas, rather than in a Baconian pre-
to think as the church thinks, whereas Bacon’s sentation of instances to the intellect and induc-
philosophy equipped the scientist to be a skep- tion (pp. 40, 154). Second, Schouls develops
tical inquirer critical of authority. The basis of from Descartes’s cues a theory of cognition that
the authority of the Fathers of Solomon’s House, allows for the pursuit of science by the exploi-
and of the respect accorded them, was not such tation of that free human creativity. The mind
power as that of priests and confessors, which includes divisions into reasoning, intellectual
they were not, but such strengths as humanitar- imagination and memory, and corporeal imagi-
ian motivation, great scientific knowledge, and nation and memory. Establishing the intellec-
success in solving practical problems. Solo- tual/corporeal divide, which is not made entirely

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explicit by Descartes, is the primary focus for independent of “a perceptual physical world,” can
Schouls’s development. It rests on fairly strong provide a clear understanding of “various realms
arguments: as Descartes points out to Hobbes, of possibility, while geometric or imagistic figu-
we need noncorporeal imagination, for example, ration indicates possibilities, or actualities, in the
to discuss successfully the properties of God— specific realm which constitutes the human sen-
according to Descartes’s conception of God, sible world” (pp. 119, 134–135). This seems
anyway (pp. 48, 97). Third, Schouls brings the likely to be true of Descartes’s later work but is
previous points into full development with a not supported by Schouls for works and areas of
speculative discussion of intellectual argument thought distinct from the Geometry, which itself
and scientific method. Descartes is taken to sug- is rather light on theory of cognition. It also flies
gest that the free process of generation of hy- in the face of Descartes’s derision in the Rules of
potheses and intuition of connections carried the “wonderful and mysterious . . . sheer non-
through in the intellectual imagination is judged sense” that may arise from “incorrect judgment of
to be true of this world by the “disciplining” ac- the intellect alone” (The Philosophical Writings
tivities of the corporeal imagination and of ex- of Descartes, trans. John Cottingham et al. [Cam-
perimental manipulation. The broader range that bridge, 1985], Vol. 1, pp. 61, 59).
is coherent possibility is narrowed to the scope ERIC PALMER
of reality by its application in the corporeal
world (pp. 95, 141). Roger L. Williams. Botanophilia in Eighteenth-
This book is a work in the history of philos- Century France: The Spirit of the Enlighten-
ophy, narrowly defined, for latter-day philoso- ment. (International Archives of the History of
phers; it makes no efforts toward presenting Ideas, 179.) 197 pp., illus., bibl., index. Dor-
intellectual history or history of science. Practi- drecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000. $67
cally no citations and very few references to Des- (cloth).
cartes’s contemporaries are made. While the
book attempts to clarify Descartes’s own efforts This work is divided into two sections: the first
at categorizing mental capacities and metaphys- treats the development of botanical systematics
ics, the discussion is revisionary and is not car- and nomenclature, both in France and elsewhere
ried out in the terminology of the times. As (Linnaeus is extensively discussed); the second
Schouls acknowledges, we’re dealing with our discusses the relationship between botanical sys-
question: “‘What must nature and mind be like tematics and the more general phenomenon of
for human progress to be possible?’ is not one eighteenth-century “botanophilia,” that is, the
which, in this form, Descartes himself poses” popularity of botany, botanical art, and horticul-
(p. 42 n 24). ture. The first section takes on a well-treated sub-
Schouls’s main concern is to provide a con- ject but is still valuable in its emphasis on French
sistent interpretation of method, metaphysics, systematics and taxonomic connections with ma-
and cognition across several key Cartesian teria medica and in helping to lay to rest asser-
works: the Rules for the Direction of the Mind— tions that pre-Darwinian taxonomists were uni-
an especially early work—the Discourse on formly essentialists, a story that has been
Method and its accompanying essays (especially vigorously combated by Staffan Müller-Wille,
the Geometry), and Meditations on First Philos- Gordon McOuat, and Mary P. Winsor, among
ophy. Schouls’s references are current, though others. The second part of the work, which dis-
thin (three pages of bibliography). His claim that cusses Rousseau’s botany, the compilers of pro-
the Rules shows a strong continuity with later vincial floras, the growth of regional botanical
work concerning method and cognitive theory societies, botanical painting, and forestry, is
makes for an interesting challenge (p. 74). He something of a grab bag, but one filled with fas-
brings his view on this matter into discussion cinating information drawn from both provincial
with relevant work by Dennis Sepper and Vé- and Parisian sources. If Roger Williams has not
ronique Foti but neglects an important contri- quite synthesized a picture of the Enlightenment
bution by John Schuster (“Descartes’ Mathesis as seen through the lens of botany (as the subtitle
Universalis, 1619–28,” in Descartes: Philoso- seems to imply), he has nevertheless written a
phy, Mathematics, and Physics, ed. Stephen book of much interest to the botanici and botan-
Gaukroger [Barnes & Noble, 1980]; see esp. ophili alike, and one that will moreover interest
pp. 62–67). The third (very interesting) thesis readers of Emma Spary’s Utopia’s Garden (Chi-
noted above is light on support. Schouls does not cago, 2000) as a complement to that book’s cov-
provide enough material to bolster the claim that erage of the Jardin du Roi.
Descartes held that an intellectual imagination, It is grievous, finally, to note (particularly in

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light of this slight book’s hefty price tag) that the turelle in favor of a more diffuse model of a tree.
publisher, Kluwer, has served its author poorly: Loveland agrees, but he notes that Buffon con-
while it is artfully laid out, the book is unfortu- tinued to use imagery of the chain of being and
nately rife with typographical errors. of the principle of plenitude throughout the His-
A. J. LUSTIG toire naturelle. Was Buffon therefore a hypo-
crite? Loveland convincingly argues that Buffon
Jeff Loveland. Rhetoric and Natural History: employed the chain of being as a rhetorical de-
Buffon in Polemical and Literary Context. (Stud- vice and a heuristic tool, to cast doubt on systems
ies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, of taxonomy (since the scale of nature was di-
2001, no. 3.) x Ⳮ 214 pp., frontis., bibl., index. vided arbitrarily), to provide moral commentary,
Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2001. Fr 450 and to bolster his presentation of his own system.
(paper). In the second half of the book Loveland turns
to three highly contested topics: systems, math-
“Rhetoric” and “literary style” are not terms that ematics, and nominalism. In each case rhetorical
spring to mind when one reads modern scientific analysis adds significantly to our understanding
papers. To the eighteenth-century reader, how- of Buffon’s sometimes-contradictory discus-
ever, style was at least as important as the con- sions of these areas. Loveland’s account of the
tent of scientific works, and Jeff Loveland’s ex- midcentury debate over methodology adds a di-
cellent book amply demonstrates that historians mension that has hitherto been missing; his anal-
cannot ignore the rhetorical strategies employed ysis of the word “système” and its uses in authors
by early modern authors. from Fontenelle to d’Alembert and Condillac
The multiple-volume Histoire naturelle (1749– amounts to a major reassessment of this debate.
1788) of Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buf- Similarly, his analyses of mathematics and nom-
fon, was probably the best-known scientific inalism offer important new interpretations of
work of the eighteenth century. While Buffon seemingly familiar arguments.
meant it to be a serious and original contribution Lest historians worry that Loveland is
to scientific thought, he also wished to appeal to “merely” a literary scholar, let me assure them
a broad audience. An analysis of Buffon’s use of that he has thoroughly mastered and engaged
rhetoric—defined by Loveland as “a set of lin- with the literature in both the history and the
guistic techniques for attracting and persuading philosophy of science. If anything, I feel that he
readers” (p. 17)—brings to the foreground this is too modest in his claims for the value of rhe-
tension between the popular and the scholarly, torical analysis, for in Rhetoric and Natural His-
between Buffon’s private philosophy and his tory he has amply demonstrated that, particularly
public expression of it. in the study of the eighteenth century, historians
Loveland divides his book into two main sec- ignore rhetoric at their peril.
tions. Following an introduction that usefully de- ANITA GUERRINI
fines terms, the first three chapters discuss the
ways Buffon attracted his audience. The first Richard Drayton. Nature’s Government: Sci-
chapter, on style, offers a fine survey of the ence, Imperial Britain, and the “Improvement”
meaning of literary style in the late seventeenth of the World. xxii Ⳮ 346 pp., frontis., illus., in-
and eighteenth centuries and of how Buffon and dex. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press,
his contemporaries employed stylistic tech- 2000. $40.
niques. The next two chapters explore less fa-
miliar terrain, examining final causes and the The idea that the British possession and govern-
chain of being as rhetorical devices. Loveland ment of non-European territories should be
acknowledges that these topics are usually guided by a concern for the “improvement” of
viewed as concepts rather than as devices, but their peoples has been a component of British
his analysis convincingly shows that their evo- imperial rhetoric since at least the late eighteenth
cation by Buffon and other authors was often a century. Based on a condescending perception of
matter of desired effect rather than conviction. non-Europeans as “savages” or “barbarians,”
But only because these concepts were so deeply empire became “a process of preparing the rest
embedded in early modern culture would their of the world to become properly human”
evocation be meaningful to the reader. Love- (p. 268), as Richard Drayton puts it. The expor-
land’s analysis of the chain of being is especially tation of European science, in particular agron-
valuable. Most historians argue that Buffon omy and botany, was central to this view. Na-
abandoned the chain of being as an intellectual ture’s Government demonstrates how the history
tool over the course of writing the Histoire na- of domestic British scientific institutions such as

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the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the Royal

Society was entangled within the history of im-
perial expansion. For Drayton, Kew was a cen-
tral institution in the development of a cosmo-
politan imperialism that attempted to order and
classify so as “improve” its production across the
globe. This cosmopolitanism was based on an
exchange of sorts. Non-European flora and fauna
found their way into Western gardens, whilst Eu-
ropean knowledge colonized the non-Western
world. But this exchange was based on a “fraud.”
Just as the process of global economic integra-
tion that occurred under the aegis of colonial rule
destroyed “local” non-Western industries, the
globalization of botany “failed to make adequate
sense of the local value or meaning of the things
which it transacted” (p. 272). The positive aspect
of the story that Drayton tells is the emergence
of a more cosmopolitan world in which there is
“a more closely integrated human tribe.” But
modernization and integration had a much
darker side, in which the rich, complex diversity
of local cultures is replaced by the glib gener-
alizations of a supposedly “universal” Western
science.
Nature’s Government makes two important
arguments that historians of science and of im-
perialism need to take note of. First of all, Dray- French watercolor of coffee plant (1753),
ton argues that plant sciences had a crucial role introduced two centuries earlier into the West
in the emergence of the ideologies of British im- Indies (from Drayton, Nature’s Government,
perial rule during the late eighteenth and nine- p. 75).
teenth centuries. Botany was central to the no-
tion of “improvement” on which imperial
rhetoric rested. Imperial officials attempted to British science. In particular, the founders of bo-
discover conditions in which the non-European tanical institutions such as Kew were indebted
peoples under their rule would awaken, develop, to the monarchical scientific culture of France’s
and extend the improvement of their natural hab- ancien regime. Just as Drayton argues that the
itats. The botanical garden, a laboratory and institutions of imperial rule that emerged after
store of species to be transplanted across the 1784 were modeled on the reform of the French
Empire under Choiseul during the 1760s, the
globe, had the power of civilization. Here, Dray-
Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew were based on
ton reminds us that British scientific institutions
Louis XV’s reorganization of the Jardin du Roi.
such as the Royal Botanic Gardens were never
Drayton challenges those who emphasize the pa-
merely “domestic” organizations. They were rochially British character of Britain’s imperial
concerned with the relationship between Britain culture, arguing that the increasingly authoritar-
and the rest of the world and sought to forge a ian form of imperial rule that developed under
science that was imperial and global, not merely George III emerged after the infusion of Conti-
British or European. As the stammering voice of nental influences. Drayton concurs with histori-
Mr. “Whisky” Sisodia puts it in Salman Rush- ans who have noted the emergence of a new style
die’s Satanic Verses—a voice Drayton uses as of imperial ideology between 1790 and 1815 in
an epigraph—“the trouble with the Engenglish which Enlightenment notions of “improvement”
is that their hiss history happened overseas, so converged with an increasingly elitist, aristo-
they dodo don’t know what it means” (p. iv). The cratic, and monarchial emphasis on the inevita-
history of science in Britain, Drayton says, can- bility of benign, despotic rule. The war with
not be separated from the history of British im- France is usually seen as the catalyst for the
perialism across the globe. newly authoritarian tone of British rule. Defeat-
Second, Drayton makes a strong case for the ing France required Britain to import a French
role of the continental European influences on style of enlightened absolutist rule.

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
Nature’s Government is a powerful, well- did botany and agronomy respond to the various
written, and largely convincing work. The reader colonial situations they were exported to? What
might quibble at Drayton’s rather grandiose was the relationship between, say, British plant
claims. He offers a history of the central role science and Indian schools of botanical thought?
botany had in the making of European imperi- How did the structure of scientific institutions in
alism—indeed in the making of the world we Calcutta differ from the structure of those in
live in today. He concludes by suggesting that London? How did the emphasis on cultural, po-
“the story I have followed through five centuries litical, and physical difference that Europeans
is the story of your origins” (p. 274). But equally employed in their rule across the globe produce
convincing stories could be told in which other forms of discourse and practice that differed
disciplines had a more central role. One could from those of Europe? These are questions his-
write the history of imperialism as the history of torians of science, medicine, and other disci-
economic thought. After all, the first professor plines have begun to explore. In doing so, they
of political economy in England was Thomas have begun to move beyond the assumption that
Malthus, employed at the East India Company’s imperialism merely transported Europe overseas
college at Haileybury to train the boys who and instead have begun to think about what was
would govern India. Geology, theology, and peculiarly colonial about the colonial experi-
astronomy could provide equally convincing ence. Yet Drayton dismisses this important area
hooks on which to hang a history of the British of research. For him, science in the non-
Empire. In different ways, all could claim to en- European world is simply European science ex-
capsulate the essence of imperial ideology. But ported elsewhere.
the historian has the freedom to choose the story Nature’s Government is a richly evocative
she or he wishes to tell. A historical work should discussion of an imperially oriented scientific
be judged by its internal coherence and how its discipline in Britain. But it remains a work of
themes address the state of historical debate, parochially British history, albeit one that draws
rather than by what it omits. Other scholars our attention to the way that British science
might be able to tell the story Drayton narrates gazed overseas. To understand the complex va-
another way. But to say that is not to criticize riety of scientific practice across the world, one
Drayton’s work, but to appeal for others to ad- needs to examine the encounter and engagement
dress the themes he raises in other, different between Europeans and their non-European sub-
ways. jects and collaborators across the imperial ter-
More serious criticism can be leveled at Dray- rain. Without such an understanding—which
ton’s assumption that the relationship between Drayton lacks—the historian cannot even begin
science and empire can be written as the history to understand the emergence of the “modern”
of “the expansion of Europe.” A generation or science that transformed the globe.
two ago, historians told a story in which the dy- JON WILSON
namic societies of Western Europe reached out
beyond their own boundaries to “discover” and Miles Ogborn. Spaces of Modernity: London’s
“encounter” the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Geographies, 1680–1780. (Mappings: Society/
Pacific. It was, they said, this process of expan- Theory/Space.) xii Ⳮ 340 pp., illus., figs., bibl.,
sion that made the modern world in which we index. New York/London: Guilford Press, 1998.
live today. Drayton criticizes this historiography $21.95.
by showing how the “European science” that ex-
panded outward was made in the process of ex- How modern was the eighteenth century? Since
pansion itself. Botany as we know it would not J. C. D. Clark attacked the “modernist” view of
exist without empire—to speak of European bot- the period (embodied in J. H. Plumb but evident
any at all is to think about the way Europeans as well in Paul Langford, Roy Porter, John
attempted to classify and govern the plant spe- Brewer, and others), the question has been very
cies of the globe. But Nature’s Government re- much on historians’ minds. But Anglo-American
mains wedded to what is now an intellectually historians, disposed toward a pragmatic empiri-
discredited approach. Drayton sees Europe as the cism, have generally been reluctant to confront
exclusive origin of the scientific practices that the question in light of the vast relevant theo-
are exported to transform the globe. The author retical literature. Miles Ogborn, a historical ge-
of Nature’s Government pays scant attention to ographer, has no such inhibition. His treatment
the way in which the encounter between Europe of the eighteenth century is firmly in the service
and its non-European subjects produced the sci- of theoretical reflection.
entific practices he speaks of. How, for example, Ogborn’s eighteenth century, if not modern,

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
did see the foundations of modernity being laid. for an original, thought-provoking, and illumi-
He realizes, of course, that the model of moder- nating book.
nity has faced some stiff challenges in recent However, it is also a frustrating book. In some
times. Thus, he begins his study by arguing that respects very original, it is in others derivative.
the categories of modernity and modernization It reads at times like a theoretically minded gloss
are still useful if properly understood. In place on other people’s work: the treatment of pleasure
of any monolithic or totalizing model of moder- gardens, for instance, is extended commentary
nity, we need to see it as fragmented and mul- on David Solkin, John Brewer, and Peter de
tiple. In place of a narrative positing some Big Bolla; the treatment of the Magdalen hospital
Break between the modern and what came be- aims to extend John Bender’s analysis of the
fore, we need to see a set of intricate laminations penitentiary back in time . Moreover, the prolep-
between old and new. Instead of equating mo- tic orientation of the analysis subordinates the
dernity with the inevitable progress of rational- history of the eighteenth century to the larger
ity, individualism, and other abstractions, we theoretical project. In the end, Ogborn does not
need to see modernization occurring in highly succeed in taking the teleology out of modernity.
particular and contingent circumstances. If, as he admits, “modernity is always partial”
Geography, Ogborn asserts, can help us ap- (p. 161), he is forced to leave undigested the un-
proach the modernity of the eighteenth century modern corners of his modern spaces, not to
with the right delicacy, since analysis of the con- mention all the eighteenth-century’s spaces of
ceptualization, organization, and operations of unmodernity. Finally, the prose is often opaque,
particular spaces shows the palpable, albeit com- at times more oracular than lucid.
promised, unfolding of aspects of modernity. He LAWRENCE E. KLEIN
thus proceeds to examine a set of “geographies”
in eighteenth-century London. (A “geography,” Maria Teresa Monti (Editor). Albrecht von
for Ogborn, is simultaneously an experience of Haller: Commentarius de formatione cordis in
space by eighteenth-century persons and an an- ovo incubato. Foreword by Edward R. Weibel.
alytic category for assessing the character of the (Studia Halleriana, 6.) clxxviii Ⳮ 677 pp., fron-
period.) Since he wants to resist presenting the tis., illus., bibl., index, CD. Basel: Schwabe Ver-
onward march of modernity, he provides instead lag, 2000. Fr 98, DM 118, ÖS 860.
something like London’s old Lord Mayor’s
Show: a measured pace from tableau to tableau. This is an outstanding critical edition of the
His substantive chapters cover the Magdalen Swiss physiologist Albrecht von Haller’s major
hospital, the streets of Westminster, Vauxhall contribution to embryological studies, the Com-
Gardens, the paraphernalia of the Excise Office, mentarius de formatione cordis in ovo incubato
and the Universal Register Office project. As in (1767). Maria Teresa Monti, the editor, is a well-
the Lord Mayor’s Show, the tableaux are iconic, known expert on Haller’s physiology, as evi-
corresponding respectively to individualization, denced by her Catalogo del fondo Haller della
the formation of the public sphere, commodifi- biblioteca Nazionale Braidense di Milano
cation, bureaucratic rationalization, state forma- (Franco Angeli, 1983–1994) and Congettura ed
tion, and the transformation of time and space experienza nella fisiologia di Haller (Olschki,
through communications improvements. So, for 1990). In a lengthy introduction, she analyzes in
all the effort to show how, in each tableau, the detail the evolution of Haller’s views on gener-
modern emerges befuddled by complexity, ten- ation from animalculist preformationism to epi-
sion, and “disruption,” the book has a highly genesis and finally, from about 1755 on, to ovist
schematic structure. preformationism.
Ogborn has surveyed vast amounts of theo- The focus of interest is Haller’s experimental
retical and secondary historical literature, re- work on the embryogenesis of the chick embryo.
corded in ample footnotes. He has also been re- Probably in the aftermath of his disillusion with
sourceful in deploying primary materials. The Buffon’s programmatic but amateurish genera-
chapter on the Universal Register Office, for in- tion theory, Haller began his first series of sys-
stance, sets a satirical play of 1761 against Henry tematic observations in 1755–1757 with the ob-
and John Fielding’s proposals for the office. The jective of correcting Marcelo Malpighi’s and his
chapter about the relations of public and private followers’ observations on the same subject, par-
harnesses a wide range of writings from philos- ticularly with regard to the stages and processes
ophy and policy to topography and poetry. As- of heart and vessel formation. In due course
sembling this particular set of sites and attending Haller came to infer a continuity of the vitelline
to them with such geographical alertness makes membrane with the embryo’s intestinal struc-

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
tures, a major argument in favor of a preexistent, annexed compact disk provides an important re-
though infravisible, system of organs. This initial search tool for further study of the text.
series of observations occasioned the publication FRANÇOIS DUCHESNEAU
of Sur la formation du coeur dans le poulet (1758)
and the drafting of two Latin memoirs addressed 䡲 Modern (Nineteenth Century to 1950)
to the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen.
Shortly thereafter, however, the German phys- Nicholas Wright Gillham. A Life of Sir Francis
iologist Caspar Friedrich Wolff (1733–1794) Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth
proposed in his Theoria generationis (1759) and of Eugenics. 416 pp., illus., figs., notes, bibl.,
Theorie von der Generation (1764) an experi- index. New York: Oxford University Press,
mentally well-supported epigenetic alternative to 2001. $30 (cloth).
Haller’s hypothesis. Taking up the challenge,
Any study of Francis Galton’s life must reside
Haller undertook in 1763–1765 a second series
in the shadows cast by Karl Pearson’s monu-
of extensive microscopical observations and ex- mental four-volume tribute to his statistical and
periments based on the available fixation tech- eugenics predecessor. One would not expect, or
niques. Beyond its remarkable descriptive ad- even hope for, another labor of love to rank with
justments and conceptual revisions, this new Pearson’s, but Nicholas Wright Gillham, a Duke
work aimed to confirm the theoretical framework geneticist, provides a sound, readable account
Haller had hesitatingly adopted in the previous that will become, for most, the Galton biography
period, a framework that determined his critical of choice. Gillham seeks to distinguish his study
assessment of Wolff’s causal hypothesis in the from Pearson’s, and from one published in 1974
last volume (1766) of the Elementa physiologiae by Derek Forrest, by placing Galton’s life more
corporis humani (1757–1766). In light of these adequately in the context of his times.
empirical developments, Haller revised his ear- It is no small challenge. What is the proper
lier Latin memoirs for the press. Monti unveils context for activities ranging from African ex-
this complex editorial process by comparing the ploration and geography to weather mapping,
final text with its earlier versions and, more im- fingerprinting, composite photography, and psy-
portant, with the 1,758 observation protocols chological surveys of distinguished men, as well
that Haller recorded in his “laboratory” note- as Galton’s best-known work in biometry, sta-
books. The analytic unfolding of the text and the tistics, and eugenics? Gillham doesn’t try very
reconstitution of its historical stratifications re- hard to find patterns that characterize the whole
veal the complex interweaving of reasoning, em- life, beyond the obvious and significant one that
pirical data, and technical artifacts, along with Galton was forever counting and measuring. He
the extreme experimental integrity and strong proceeds rather from episode to episode, backing
ideological and religious commitments, that up his account of Galton’s activities with good
combined to form one of the crucial moments of historical detective work, providing capsule bi-
embryological theory in the eighteenth century. ographies of his more significant friends and col-
In characteristic fashion, Haller divided the final leagues and background to his various fields of
work in two unequal parts. The more important study. In the wake of recent misunderstandings
one is devoted to a historia phaenomenorum that between scientists and historians, it is cheering
synthesizes most of the protocols previously re- to see a scientist, in what appears to be his first
corded so as to establish the empirical truth of effort at historical writing, attending to forms of
his system of micromechanistic preformation. publication, as in his characterization and brief
The other part presents a much briefer, much histories of some Victorian reviews, or describ-
denser overview of the correlations between ing the scene of a public lecture at the Royal
Haller’s empirical inferences and various con- Institution. He has read extensively in the rele-
current embryological theories. vant scholarship of history of science, as well as
Overall, besides illuminating an important ep- in the Galton archive and contemporary publi-
isode in the development of embryology, this cations, and if there is not too much here that is
critical edition affords previously undocumented really new, the book brings together and puts in
insights into the methodological specifics of order information from a diversity of sources.
experimental physiology as it was practiced by The focus is decidedly biographical, even if
one of the leading architects of Enlightenment there is not much effort to get at the man’s inner
life sciences. Monti’s work is to be praised for life. Following a prologue, the book sets out in
its scholarly accuracy, systematic coverage of good Pearsonian fashion with a discussion of
manuscript sources, and analytic acumen. The Galton’s ancestry. It proceeds evenhandedly

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through its subject’s career, with about as much and then proceeds to relate these to their context
attention to his expeditions in southwest Africa of contemporaneous debate. The “animal” theme
as to his epochal work on regressions and cor- is neatly subdivided by chapter: pets and their
relations. If local scenes are nicely painted, such epitaphs, educational uses of animals, the poli-
large contemporary questions as the challenges tics of animal protection, animals as food, nature
to religious faith, the changing status of science and ecology, evolutionary ideas. The continuing
in British society, expanding democracy, and argument is that the Romantic emphasis on na-
class tensions figure scarcely at all. The great ture gives a new significance to the age-old
polymath is perhaps a bit too neatly compart- theme of the relationship between humans and
mentalized. Gillham is sometimes a little impa- animals.
tient with Galton’s analogies, as indeed was While the poets are the usual major figures
Pearson, both perhaps failing to recognize their from the literary canon, often “minor” and ob-
fertility for him and the connections they can scure examples of their work are chosen. This is
reveal to us. He seems not to appreciate how especially so in Chapter 1, which provides three
completely Galton’s biometric statistics was different readings of Byron’s “Inscription on the
rooted in biological conceptions. One of his few Monument of a Newfoundland Dog.” The illus-
significant mistakes, repeated from previous trations include a photograph of the monument
scholarship, is the claim that Galton’s introduc- in question. The poem is read in the contexts of,
tion of the term “regression” was owed to a new first, “theriophily,” a tradition of satirizing the
realization that his mathematics of heredity was human by contrast with animals; second, pet-
fundamentally statistical rather than biological in keeping; and third, the deployment of animals in
character. In fact, the term “reversion” had been political rhetoric. This complex structure works
meant to point to a shift in the direction of an superbly well to introduce us to a number of key
ancestral pattern, and “regression” reflected his issues, through the detailed investigation of an
new belief in points of organic stability. unusual particular instance.
Paradoxically, some of the more scientific dis- Chapters that range more widely through a
cussions, as of Galton’s work on correlation and poet’s output work less well. The sections on
heredity, are among the weaker parts of the Keats and Shelley often move too rapidly be-
book. By contrast, Gillham treats quite expertly tween different examples and issues, and the po-
the controversy between biometricians and Men- etic material is not always relevant to the debates
delians, Galton’s warring followers, suggesting being discussed. I felt this particularly in the
that the eugenic appropriation of a radically sim- chapter “Children’s Animals,” where a larger ar-
plified Mendelianism helped the Mendelians to gument about the opposition between Locke and
“trump” the biometricians. Rousseau fails to integrate a section on chil-
THEODORE M. PORTER dren’s literature with material from Coleridge.
Wherever Byron appears, however, the connec-
Christine Kenyon-Jones. Kindred Brutes: Ani- tion between example and context is well sup-
mals in Romantic-Period Writing. 229 pp., bibl., ported, through a wealth of detail and close read-
index. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001. $74.95 (cloth). ing. The Wordsworthian chapter, “Animals and
Nature,” centers on the critical argument over the
The subtitle of Christine Kenyon-Jones’s book place of Wordsworth in the present-day ecology
needs some qualification. The book’s main focus debate and convincingly argues the difference
is the poetry of the major literary figures of the between Wordsworth’s mostly animal-less na-
period: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, ture and the nature of the ecological movements.
with a preponderance of Byron. I would guess The nonliterary reader will find in this book a
that it originated as a thesis on Byron, and he useful introduction to a number of current and
dominates the resulting book. Four of the six Romantic-period debates: ecology, vegetarian-
chapters are concerned with his poetry or with ism, animal protection. Kenyon-Jones deploys
Byron and other Romantic poets, who come more recent theorists—Lévi-Strauss, Mary
across as distinctly less interesting in comparison. Douglas—to emphasize the continuing impor-
While, however, using Romantic poetry as its tance of the issues. Historians of science will be
starting point, Kindred Brutes then opens out most interested in the final chapter, on the pre-
into wider concerns and different kinds of writ- Darwinian evolutionary debate. It is here, how-
ing. Ideas about the relationship between hu- ever, that the connection between poetry and
mans and animals in the late eighteenth and early ideas seems most tenuous. Examples from Ten-
nineteenth centuries are its theme. Each chapter nyson’s In Memoriam are introduced, perhaps
takes particular examples from Romantic poetry because the passages from Keats are not espe-

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cially helpful. But Tennyson’s connections to because of budget cuts and, again, personality
Victorian science have been investigated else- conflicts. Volume 6 collects Peirce’s work be-
where with greater depth and rigor. The chapter tween the two dismissals—forty-seven items, in-
gives the impression of an introductory survey, cluding materials from a correspondence course
in contrast to the in-depth particularity of the ear- on the art of reasoning; the Peirce-Gurney dispute
lier chapters on Byron. It ends by arguing an over the existence of ghosts, appearing in the Pro-
anticipation of Darwinian thought in Byron’s ceedings of the American Society for Psychical
skeptical views of human nature and natural the- Research; the unfinished manuscript on meta-
ology, hinting that Darwin’s early reading of Ro- physical architectonics, “A Guess at the Riddle”;
mantic poets may have influenced his theories. several essays and reviews on logic and mathe-
This is a highly interesting idea that could be matics; the published report on the expedition to
investigated in more precise detail. Lady Franklin Bay, “Pendulum Observations at
TESS COSSLETT Fort Conger,” and part of the unpublished Geo-
detic Survey report on gravity measurements;
Charles S. Peirce. Writings of Charles S. Peirce: several book reviews; and the pieces critical of
A Chronological Edition. Volume 6: 1886–1890. Herbert Spencer’s mechanistic and materialist
lxxvi Ⳮ 697 pp., illus., figs., tables, apps., bibl., philosophy.
index. Bloomington/Indianapolis: Indiana Uni- Putting Peirce’s complete works in print has
versity Press, 2000. $49.95. proven a difficult task. He was a prolific writer,
but much of what he wrote was never published.
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), best known On his death his papers were donated to Harvard
as the father of pragmatism, an important and in- University, where some materials got lost or mis-
fluential philosophical movement, was also an placed. The first major effort to collect and pub-
original scientist who made valuable contribu- lish them was undertaken by Charles Hartshorne
tions to mathematics, physics, and geography; the and Paul Weiss in the eight-volume Collected Pa-
theory of signs; the history, methodology, and pers of Charles Sanders Peirce (Belknap, 1931–
philosophy of science; and symbolic logic. The 1958). This notable effort revealed the richness
Peirce Edition Project plans to publish his com- of Peirce’s intellect and clarity of expression. It
plete works in about thirty volumes, each volume also published for the first time important mate-
collecting materials written during a specific time rials, densely written and marred by obscure pas-
period and appending a substantial scholarly ap- sages and inconsistent assertions. Scholarship has
paratus consisting of a biographical introduction; since surmised that these problems stemmed from
a set of annotations supplying the relevant his- a flawed editing of the then-available materials
torical, textual, biographical, and editorial de- and an unfortunate piecing together of passages
tails; a bibliography of Peirce’s references; a belonging to different periods.
chronological catalogue; an essay on editorial The new Chronological Edition aims to recon-
theory and methods; a textual apparatus; and a struct a reliable text in the light of Peirce’s dis-
name and concepts index. Six volumes have been cernible intentions. Its editorial criteria and poli-
published to date, covering the years 1857–1890. cies are stated in the very readable essay on theory
Volume 6 collects materials written between and method—a must for anyone engaged in
1886 and 1890—a period in Peirce’s life that, working with primary sources. True to these ob-
“though not without hope and accomplishment, jectives, the editing is meticulous, attentive to
was a time of disillusionment and defeat” both readability and faithfulness. To achieve such
(p. xxv). By 1886 Peirce had already authored a balance, the editors included a detailed scholarly
series of important essays on science, mathemat- apparatus describing editorial decisions, textual
ics, and logic—such as the widely read “The Fix- ambiguities, alternative readings, and so forth.
ation of Beliefs” (1877) and “How to Make Our The result is a readable yet scholarly text, superior
Ideas Clear” (1878)—and was supervising the in accuracy and clarity to any prior edition, best
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey measurements of appreciated in a page-by-page comparison with
the earth’s gravity. An appointment at Johns Hop- the corresponding version in the Collected Pa-
kins University, in 1879, had improved his pre- pers of, for instance, “A Guess at the Riddle.” All
carious economic circumstances. In 1884, how- in all, the Chronological Edition is a brilliant ef-
ever, he was dismissed from Johns Hopkins, in fort, of interest not just to Peirce scholars but also
part because of “immoral” behavior (see Writings to philosophers of science, mathematicians, his-
of Charles S. Peirce, Vol. 4, pp. lxii–lxv), in part torians, and anyone wanting to peer into the work-
because of conflicts with colleagues; and by 1891 ings of a brilliant, complex, and troubled mind.
he would lose his position at the Geodetic Survey OSCAR R. MARTI

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Phyllis Weliver. Women Musicians in Victorian rect relationships that Weliver proposes between
Fiction, 1860–1900: Representations of Music, literary and scientific texts would be easier to
Science, and Gender in the Leisured Home. (Mu- accept, moreover, if her chapter organization
sic in Nineteenth-Century Britain.) x Ⳮ 330 pp., compared the two kinds of evidence directly,
illus., tables, apps., bibl., index. Aldershot/ rather than separating them.
Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2001. $79.95. The next three chapters cover familiar terri-
tory in Victorian literary studies: George Eliot’s
In her closing words, Phyllis Weliver acknowl- complex fictional responses to music, science,
edges the complexity of the project she under- and philosophy. While most of Weliver’s dis-
takes here: she defines her work as primarily “an cussion of evolutionary science—like her earlier
investigation of cultural thematics, not to pose discussion of mental science—is a loosely or-
answers, but instead to demonstrate how multi- ganized patchwork of secondary and well-
ple and sometimes contradictory uses of music known primary sources, she usefully extends
coexisted in Victorian literary, musical, and sci- existing Eliot scholarship with her Schopen-
entific discourses” (p. 284). The sentence accu- hauerian readings of the novels. My greatest res-
rately reflects the organization of the book, ervation here, as elsewhere in the book, is that
which tends (like the title) to be discursive; We- Weliver has not consulted essential primary
liver presents no unified argument (not even a sources that could support her inferences: in this
consistent emphasis on women musicians), and case, the nine volumes of The George Eliot Let-
her often-clumsy writing does not always dem- ters, edited by Gordon S. Haight (Yale, 1954–
onstrate direct connections between her contex- 1978). Weliver’s tone-deaf insistence on the
tual material and her interpretations of Victorian phrases “racial memory,” “racial development,”
novels. Those interpretations themselves, how- and “racial instinct” is also problematic in these
ever, are insightful, and well worth seeking out chapters, even in the context of nineteenth-
within the book. century evolutionary science—one of many su-
The central “cultural thematics” that Weliver perficial problems that an editor should have
explores are the unstable social value of music addressed.
within Victorian society; the depiction in Vic- Weliver’s final chapter combines the cultural
torian novels of music as both seductive snare and scientific readings outlined earlier to inter-
and medium of divine insight; and the per- pret George du Maurier’s 1894 novel Trilby and
sistence of musical references and imagery in to suggest that Victorian fiction’s multiple re-
nineteenth-century texts on mental science, evo- sponses to music led directly to the characteristic
lutionary science, and philosophy. In the first manner and matter of modernist writing. Here
two chapters of her book Weliver surveys first Weliver’s subtle and cogent close readings of
the social history of Victorian music and then fiction intermingle with recitals of historical and
nineteenth-century beliefs and documents about scientific facts and theories that are clearer and
mesmerism, hypnotism, and associationist psy- more persuasive than those in earlier chapters:
chology. She links mesmeric theory to earlier the conclusion is better focused than any other
theories of the transmission and effects of sound, section of the book. Ultimately, though histori-
emphasizing the conceptual importance of har- ans of science will find little new material here,
mony in both fields. Weliver further asserts that they may well be interested to see how their own
allusions to music are widespread and significant work can be used to illuminate literature.
in nineteenth-century mental science and that CYNTHIA ELLEN PATTON
music becomes a powerful symbol first of mes-
merism and later of associationist views of hu- Shawn Michelle Smith. American Archives:
man consciousness. In the next chapter she uses Gender, Race, and Class in Visual Culture. xvi
this background to interpret the musical perfor- Ⳮ 299 pp., frontis., illus., bibl., index. Princeton,
mances of women characters in a genre—the N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000. $55.
sensation novels of the 1860s—that she treats as
if it were the norm of Victorian fiction; another American Archives examines the interplay be-
chapter interprets both the depictions and the tween nineteenth-century visual culture, includ-
structural imitations of music in Charles Dick- ing scientific and commercial photography, and
ens’s The Mystery of Edwin Drood in terms of middle-class identity formation. In particular, it
mesmeric and associationist theory. These inter- tracks the process by which this identity changed
pretations are the most obvious in the book, and over time, becoming increasingly racist—or “ra-
they depend heavily on speculation about Dick- cialized,” as the author puts it. Working from the
ens’s intentions for the unfinished text. The di- assumption that external appearances revealed

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inner qualities or “essences,” many middle-class the importance of biological heredity in assign-
Anglo-Saxon people turned to concepts regarding culture and social power.
ing supposed facial types to establish social hi- Such views, however, did not go unchal-
erarchies based on these types. In short, they lenged. Black women such as Ida B. Wells and
“utilized visual concepts of identity to claim a Anna Julia Cooper took on the racists in their
gendered and racialized cultural privilege” (p. 4). writings. W. E. B. DuBois’s “American Negro”
The book, however, also includes those who photograph exhibit at the Paris Exposition of
challenged and resisted such representations and 1900, which offered striking resemblances to the
ideas of racial superiority. forms found in eugenicists’ poses, contested rac-
Shawn Michelle Smith utilizes a wide range ist notions by conveying the diversity, humanity,
of sources, going beyond photographs them- personality, and power of the individuals it de-
selves, to engage literary and scientific theories picted. Moreover, some Anglos challenged the
and arguments that relied on photos to make gendered, if not the racial, hierarchies imposed
their case. She is interested not only in the arti- by middle-class identity formation. Women, in-
facts and archives (the photographs) but in the cluding Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, occa-
“various gazes” (a concept dear to cultural stud- sionally returned the “masculine gaze” and as-
ies people) found in literary and scientific rep- serted their own power and independence in the
resentations. Those, in turn, mediated social process.
power. The study begins, then, with Nathaniel This is an ambitious, creative, and challenging
Hawthorne’s romance The House of the Seven book. The breadth of material Smith includes is
Gables, which demonstrates how antebellum truly impressive, although not always well inte-
middle-class claims to privilege rested primarily grated. Nor is the argument always convincing.
on gendered identities represented by female That eugenicists found baby pictures and family
bodies in a private domestic sphere protected by albums fodder for their “science” does not mean
men. But as the nation grappled with the social that the women who created these images and
upheaval brought about by emancipation and collections shared the eugenicists’ views or mo-
Reconstruction, images of the middle class took tives. The evidence here is slim, indeed. Part of
on increasingly racial overtones, most dramati- the challenge comes in wading through the
cally and convincingly demonstrated in the prose. This is less the fault of the author, I sup-
emerging sciences of biological racism and eu- pose, than a reflection of the state of cultural
genics. The former, in arguing that racial dis- studies rhetoric. Clear, straightforward writing
tinctions were innate, inherited, and unchanging, would have done much to bring this interesting
asserted Anglo-Saxon supremacy. Building on and important book to the broader readership it
these assumptions, eugenicists attempted to link deserves.
character traits with distinct racial features, doc- SHERRY L. SMITH
umenting heads and facial features in extensive
photographic archives. These studies of the Freddy Litten. Mechanik und Antisemitismus:
races, as well as of criminals, supposedly testi- Wilhelm Müller (1880–1968). (Algorismus, 34.)
fied to the connections between outward appear- x Ⳮ 506 pp., illus., tables, bibls., index. Munich:
ances and inner essences, further distinguishing Institut für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften,
2000.
the Anglo middle class from inferior “others.”
White women became implicated in these Wilhelm Müller is best known to historians of
“discourses” because their role as reproducers science, if at all, for who he was not: instead of
put them at the center of eugenicists’ fear that Werner Heisenberg, it was Müller who was ap-
miscegenation would pollute the superior race. pointed professor of theoretical physics at the
Women were essential to perpetuating middle- University of Munich in 1940. Heisenberg’s can-
class status, and many obligingly embraced these didacy, strongly backed by the previous holder
ideas. Smith maintains that baby pictures and of the chair, Arnold Sommerfeld, shattered
family albums reproduced and reinforced “racial against the intrigues of partisans of the so-called
hierarchies” (p. 115), as did organizations such deutsche Physik (“German physics”). Müller’s
as the Daughters of the American Revolution, obscurity has been increased by the fact that
which established membership on the basis of even many of his backers were severely disap-
genealogy (bloodlines) and thus conflated Amer- pointed with his performance in Munich. In this
icanness with Anglo-Saxonism. The DAR not book Müller appears as the protagonist of his
only barred recent immigrants but women of own story. Freddy Litten thereby creates a re-
color, following eugenicists in their insistence on vealing picture of the mental and social world of

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
Müller and other scientists and philosophers who that often served a useful function for both self-
affiliated themselves most strongly with various proclaimed proponents and opponents.
aspects of Nazism. From this perspective, For historians interested in understanding the
Müller’s appointment was far from a “victory” complexities of academic politics in the Nazi era
for one side in a clear-cut conflict; it was, rather, or in tracing in detail the multifarious causes and
a sign of the “weakness of all participants.” In- consequences of radical nationalism and anti-
deed, argues Litten, it is “useless and mislead- Semitism in Germany in the interwar period, this
ing” to see deutsche Physik as in any way a uni- biography of Müller will be an informative and
fied movement (p. 383). at times provocative resource.
Litten relies on an exhaustive knowledge of RICHARD H. BEYLER
the relevant archives and extant publications by
and about Müller. Indeed, a good half of the text J. Blackmore; R. Itagaki; S. Tanaka (Editors).
is made up of excerpts from Müller’s publica- Ernst Mach’s Vienna, 1895–1930; or, Phenom-
tions and papers, reviews, personnel evaluations, enalism as Philosophy of Science. (Boston Stud-
and the like. Litten’s comments and annotations ies in the Philosophy of Science, 218.) 347 pp.,
are helpful, but readers should be prepared to index. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers,
make their way through extensive primary ma- 2001. €128, $118, £80.
terial. Ernst Mach’s Vienna is a collection of twelve
The first part of the book takes a biographical essays devoted to Ernst Mach and those philos-
approach. Litten briefly surveys Müller’s edu- ophers, scientists, and writers who corresponded
cation and work at the technical universities of with him or were influenced by his thought.
Hanover, Prague, and Aachen, where he proved Some of the essays are contributed by the edi-
himself a competent if not especially innovative tors—Ryoichi Itagaki, S. Tanaka, and the noted
applied mathematician and technical physicist. Mach specialist John Blackmore; some are cob-
More detail is devoted to Müller’s call to the bled together from diverse writings of Mach’s
University of Munich, where he was apparently associates, correspondents, and fellow writers
no one’s preferred choice. Müller’s tenure in and philosophers; and some are independent
Munich went from this bad start to an even worse contributions from invited scholars working in
conclusion owing to his widely acknowledged the field of the history of science—Henk de Regt
incompetence as a theorist, several singularly (on Erwin Schrödinger), Michael Stöltzner (on
unfortunate appointments of assistants, contin- Otto Neurath), Henk Visser (on Ludwig Witt-
ued opposition from allies of Sommerfeld, and genstein), and Michio Imai (on Robert Musil).
infighting among the supposed backers of deut- By these means, Ernst Mach and his thought are
sche Physik. Litten also details Müller’s “dena- elucidated from a variety of standpoints. Light is
zification” proceedings after the war (he was also cast on the adherents of Mach’s philosophy,
eventually categorized as a “fellow traveler”). all of whom are shown to have been profoundly
Part 2 analyzes Müller’s scientific and philo- influenced by his ideas, even where, as with
sophical writings. The latter were a mixture of Wittgenstein, they may not have openly ac-
anti-Semitic speculations in the mode of Otto knowledged their debt to him. On a secondary
Weininger, idiosyncratic biblical exegesis, mys- level, the collection also points to the importance
ticism, neo-Kantian idealism, resentment against of the city of Vienna as a focal point for the
the dominant trends of modern physics, and an emergence and popularity of Mach-inspired phi-
almost pathological identification of personal losophy. This is made clear in the final essay,
frustrations with cultural and political questions. where Vienna, the venue of meetings of the Uni-
After 1945 Müller claimed that his anti-Semitic versity of Vienna Philosophical Society and of
writings were intended as purely contemplative, Schlick’s “Vienna Circle,” is lauded for its role
abstract inquiries and not as programs for action, in inspiring the peculiar brand of “presentist”
but Litten shows that Müller also was an eager and phenomenalist philosophy that has become
exponent of Nazi politics. associated with the name of Ernst Mach.
The third section, with Litten’s conclusions, is The common thread running through the es-
the briefest but perhaps the most significant part says is Mach’s attempt to “save the appearances”
of the book. In particular, noting the many dis- of the physical world and the influence this at-
sensions and disagreements among the Nazi sci- tempt subsequently exerted over his followers
entists that emerge in this story, Litten judges and even some of his opponents. After digesting
the concept of deutsche Physik as more a myth Kant’s critical philosophy in his early years,
than a reality—though to be sure it was a myth Mach attempted in his writings to restrict sci-

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
entific inquiry to the study of the visible world. Soraya Boudia. Marie Curie et son laboratoire:
This was part of a wider campaign in turn-of- Sciences et industrie de la radioactivité en
the-century Vienna against speculative meta- France. 234 pp., illus., bibl., index. Paris: Édi-
physics. The editors also see this campaign in tions des Archives Contemporaines, 2001.
terms of a wider historical movement in Ger- Fr 139.
many against the Galilean tradition of science.
Dominique Pestre, in an astute introduction to
As a result, the volume may be understood as an
this book, offers the surprising but true obser-
attempt to explain the German Sonderweg in sci-
vation that the reputation of perhaps the most
ence from the seventeenth to the early twentieth
famous woman scientist in modern times needs
century. Science since Galileo, it is argued, had
rehabilitation. In 1903 Marie Sklodowska Curie
increasingly extended its inquiries beyond the
was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, in
practical realm of appearances in attempts to un-
physics; then in 1911 she won another, in chem-
derstand physical phenomena. The German tra-
istry. Just a few years ago she became the first
dition, particularly since Kant, had put forward
woman whose remains rest in the Pantheon in
a countermodel of science, resisting the indirect Paris, along with those of other French immor-
realism of the Galilean tradition and choosing tals, including her husband, Pierre. Her name is
instead to be guided by the reliable sensory data attached to both a Paris university and a univer-
of the appearances. Mach’s presentist approach sity in Lublin, Poland.
to science continued this tradition. Using sensory But critics have attacked her reputation at the
phenomena that had been accorded objective deepest level, by questioning her scientific work.
status through the application of the principle of Since she collaborated closely with her husband,
economy, Mach’s skeptical approach was ulti- her accomplishments have been difficult to sepa-
mately forced to deny atoms any direct existence rate completely from his. After Pierre’s tragic
in the world. Although this approach was op- death in 1906, Marie Curie made no other break-
posed by Einstein and was ultimately not to sur- through discoveries on a par with the first two,
vive the controversy with Max Planck in the the discovery of polonium and radium. While
years 1908–1911, it commanded influence in Ernest Rutherford and his British colleagues pur-
Habsburg Austria at least until the late 1920s. sued the atom and laid the groundwork for nu-
The logical positivism of the Vienna Circle was clear weapons and power plants, she seemed
indebted to it; the early Wittgenstein arguably more interested in the industrial and medical
remained under its influence; and Erwin Schrö- possibilities of radioactivity.
dinger, who demanded that Anschaulichkeit or The goal of Soraya Boudia is to reconstitute
“observability” be considered a necessary crite- Madame Curie’s reputation by representing her
rion in the construction of scientific theories, was as a scientist at work. The book, beautifully writ-
never to disavow it. Ernst Mach’s Vienna there- ten and impeccably organized, sounds this con-
fore provides valuable information about Ger- textual theme forcefully, without drama or rhe-
man and Austrian attempts to advance a now- torical excess. Boudia criticizes using the lens of
antiquated “save the appearances” science nuclear physics to evaluate Curie’s accomplish-
against the rising tide of modern science, which ments. Instead, she rightly brings us back to the
sought not to describe, but to understand, the epoch before anyone could know where the new
phenomena of the physical world, however re- “invisible chemistry” would lead. The 1895 dis-
sistant these phenomena proved to be to direct covery of x-rays was a marvel. Henri Becque-
physical observation. rel’s 1896 observation of uranium’s seemingly
The approach of elucidating Mach’s thought magical “rays” caused less of a stir, but enough
via a chorus of offstage voices, though at times to attract Marie Curie’s attention.
fragmentary, thus bears surprising fruit. Readers Curie picked for her doctoral thesis the unex-
should be prepared for a large number of typo- plored question of whether other elements be-
graphical and punctuation errors and occasional sides uranium emitted radioactive waves. Once
weak translations from the German. These, how- she had cleared the brush from this path, borrow-
ever regrettable, do not detract from the book’s ing and mixing laboratory techniques, Pierre
overall achievement, which is to advance knowl- wholeheartedly joined the quest. Paris provided
edge of Mach’s phenomenalist thought and to a community of generous colleagues, including
provide insights into science in the capital of the Becquerel. In July 1898 the Curies discovered
Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late nineteenth polonium, which they described as 17.5 percent
and early twentieth centuries. more active than uranium. Then in December,
TIM MEHIGAN using fractional crystallization, the Curies ob-

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tained a substance 900 times more active than encountered and explains how he moved so ef-
uranium, which they named radium. fortlessly between the humanities and the sci-
At this point in the narrative, Boudia intro- ences. His travels to the Far East and his trans-
duces the international scientific community. formation into an astronomer and founder of the
Not only British physicists but scientists in Aus- Lowell Observatory were characteristic of Low-
tria, Germany, and the United States were mo- ell’s pursuit of independence and desire to live
bilized by the Curies’ discoveries. The Nobel a more expressive life than was deemed permis-
Prize for the Curies, shared with Becquerel, sible within conservative Brahmin society.
brought them fame, relief from working in an Strauss examines the deep influence the writ-
unheated laboratory, and pressures to do more. ings of Herbert Spencer had on the formation of
Especially in the postwar years, Marie Curie Lowell’s anthropological and astronomical in-
(who had coined the word “radioactivity”) be- quiries. Spencer’s views were manifested in
came involved on several fronts outside the lab- Lowell’s deterministic theories of development,
oratory. As many modern scientists have done, whether they encompassed the progression of
she cultivated industry, medicine, the state, and human societies or the conditions of habitability
private benefactors to support her scientific re- on adjacent planets. Lowell exploited Spencer’s
search, especially on radium. For years the in- hierarchy of disciplines that placed astronomy
dustrialist Émile Armet de Lisle provided her (and cosmogony) at the top of the scheme. Not
with a research laboratory at his factory. Henri surprisingly, Lowell’s philosophy of science,
de Rothschild came up with funds and institu- which employed only supportive evidence and
tional ideas, as did Émile Roux at the Pasteur rejected methodological criticisms on a priori
Institute. If she made no further breakthrough grounds, drew harsh criticism from astronomical
discoveries, she was no different than most other colleagues for its “persistent use of flawed evi-
Nobel laureates or other successful scientists. dence and strained interpretations” (p. 265).
Along the way, she opened professional doors Strauss offers a penetrating analysis of the cul-
for the women who worked for her and chan- tural world of the Brahmins and the rejection by
neled funding to basic science. Setting interna- Lowell of the traditional values held by his fa-
tional standards for measurement was also im- ther’s generation. These psychological struggles
portant to her. She succeeded in persuading the exacted their toll, however, and created the prin-
international committee in charge to accept the cipal tensions within Lowell’s adult life. Nor
curie (the amount of an isotope that decays at a were his relationships with women spared an
fixed rate of disintegrations per second) as the equally profound ambivalence. Was Lowell’s
universal unit of radioactivity. This kind of “im- entry into matrimony at age fifty-three under-
mortality” by naming, as Robert Merton has taken, as he himself had once mused about his
pointed out, is usually awarded a scientific male Korean subjects, “simply and solely to be
founding father. Always unusual, Marie Curie married,—abstractly as it were,” lest he be “ac-
pressed her own and her husband’s case without counted a boy though he should live to be a hun-
distinguishing between the two. One wonders dred” (Chosön [Ticknor, 1886])? We can never
whether Pierre Curie would now be remembered know for sure.
without Marie Curie’s years of effort. Boudia’s Strauss provides a balanced treatment of Low-
book is itself disinterested and effective. Its sub- ell’s travels and researches in the Far East, where
ject would have approved. he secured a moderate degree of anthropological
JEANNE GUILLEMIN immersion. In turn, Lowell’s observations of
Mars became emblematic of a still-more-distant
David Strauss. Percival Lowell: The Culture voyeurism. Strauss attributes little significance,
and Science of a Boston Brahmin. xi Ⳮ 333 pp., however, to Lowell’s Korean experience in the
frontis., illus., index. Cambridge, Mass./London: formulation of his important synthesis concern-
Harvard University Press, 2001. $45. ing the “quality of impersonality,” which was
expanded in three consecutive works. Nor does
David Strauss’s contextualized biography offers Strauss seem to realize that Lowell’s (and Spen-
the first coherent synthesis of Percival Lowell’s cer’s) developmental theories, particularly the
diverse accomplishments and eccentricities. His attempts to fashion an account of the universe
thematic approach contrasts sharply with previ- from the nebular hypothesis to Western man, had
ous narrative accounts of Lowell’s studies of a precedent in Robert Chambers’s anonymously
Mars and his search for Planet X, authored by published Vestiges of the Natural History of
the historian William Graves Hoyt. Lowell’s Creation (1844).
evolutionary perspective influenced all that he Strauss enriches our understanding of many

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relationships nurtured between Lowell and the gion. Although Whewell takes his philosophical
Harvard-Brahmin culture over the establishment arguments to have a great deal of significance,
of his Arizona observatory and the support of his in the final analysis they fail to provide humanity
Martian theories. Significantly, he has restored with the kind of consolation, hope, support, and
the record of the Harvard astronomer William H. conviction that religion alone can offer.
Pickering’s influence on the selection of moun- One of the motivating factors for this sea
taintop observatories in the American West—a change in Whewell’s thinking was the anony-
measure of credit expunged by Lowell in favor mous publication in 1844 of a book by the Scot-
of himself. Ironically, the observatory Lowell tish publisher Robert Chambers (Vestiges of the
founded, and the workers whom he supported, Natural History of Creation) advancing the idea
achieved recognition in spite of, rather than be- that the universe evolved from clouds of gas,
cause of, its directors’ imperative. On account of with life being in a state of constant change and
Lowell’s legacy, twentieth-century planetary as- development. This, of course, implied that the
tronomy did not become a reputable scientific entire universe could be populated with different
endeavor until Gerard P. Kuiper achieved sig- life forms that arose from various chemical com-
nificant advances in observational techniques us- binations. Humans were simply part of the evo-
ing larger telescopes. lutionary chain. It was the evolutionary aspects
My greatest criticism concerns this volume’s of Chambers’s work that were most disturbing
lack of a bibliography; examination of primary to Whewell the Anglican priest; and in 1853 he
and secondary literature is restricted to cumber- published (also anonymously) a response argu-
some endnotes. Minor errors arise in Strauss’s ing against the possibility of life elsewhere in the
description of Neptune’s axial rotation as retro- universe. Humans were created by God, who
grade (pp. 153, 158); it is the orbital revolution launched and governed their course in a certain
of Neptune’s satellite, Triton, that is properly path, thereby making man’s position different
classed with the rotation of Uranus. Despite from that of all other creatures. This miracle of
these shortcomings, Strauss has masterfully in- creation was undermined by the evolutionary ar-
tegrated the disparate aspects of Lowell’s life guments advanced by Chambers; hence argu-
and careers into a compelling and convincing ments against extraterrestrial life could also
portrait of his subject. Is this the shape of biog- serve as arguments against evolution.
raphy to come? In Plurality Whewell uses scientific evidence
JORDAN D. MARCHÉ II from geology, astronomy, religion, and philos-
ophy to argue for the uniqueness of the earth,
claiming that uninhabited celestial bodies were
William Whewell. Of the Plurality of Worlds. not superfluous creations but instead were com-
Edited by Michael Ruse. (Facsimile of the first parable to organs for which man could not iden-
edition of 1853.) 509 pp. Chicago: University of tify a useful function. The work prompted a
Chicago Press, 2001. (Paper.) number of responses from his contemporaries—
Augustus De Morgan, John Herschel, David
William Whewell’s Of the Plurality of Worlds is Brewster, and many others. These were pub-
a somewhat curious work. Not only does it rep- lished, together with responses from Whewell
resent a complete change from Whewell’s earlier (identified as “Z”), as a dialogue and added as a
published views about extraterrestrial life, it ap- supplement to the second edition of Plurality.
pears that these changes were motivated primar- Michael Ruse’s volume contains a first edition
ily by religious concerns; yet Whewell maintains facsimile together with the criticisms and re-
that the work is scientific in nature. Quite simply, sponses that Whewell added to the second edi-
he sees the debate about extraterrestrial life as a tion. This, in itself, would be a valuable addition
conflict of religious belief on a point that is es- to the rather small collection of Whewell’s
sentially scientific. It is exactly in this context, works easily available in print, but Ruse has
however, that Whewell thinks philosophical ar- done us the service of adding eighty-five typeset
gument has an important role to play. Properly pages previously unpublished. Whewell deleted
utilized, it can discredit the view that science and these from the first edition on the grounds that
religion are at odds, and it can undermine at- they made the work too long and technical. The
tempts to see philosophy as simple conformity original texts are supplemented with an infor-
with religion. This is the methodological task mative introduction by Ruse that not only puts
Whewell sets for himself in Plurality: to use the the work (and the responses) in a proper histori-
power of philosophical argument as a way of cal and philosophical context but provides us
clarifying the relation between science and reli- with a cogent summary of Whewell’s argument

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in Plurality. Ruse’s presentation of the argument a map, however, it was also necessary to connect
is particularly useful insofar as it calls attention such fixed points with particular locations on the
to examples of Whewell’s rhetorical power of ground. Constructing these fixed points proved
argumentation, something that is not always ob- to be a complex process, involving a variety of
vious from reading some of his other works. One rhetorical strategies. Burnett devotes most of his
hopes that the publication of Ruse’s volume will study to analyzing the rhetorical strategies
draw further and much-deserved attention to this Schomburgk and others used to construct car-
and Whewell’s other philosophical and historical tographic authority. The underlying rhetorical
writings. strategy in colonial mapmaking was “consum-
MARGARET MORRISON matio,” in which many arguments and strategies
are deployed to make a single point. Schom-
D. Graham Burnett. Masters of All They Sur- burgk, for example, invoked the historical au-
veyed: Exploration, Geography, and a British thority of Raleigh and Humboldt by depicting
El Dorado. xvi Ⳮ 298 pp., frontis., illus., bibl., their routes on his maps. At the same time, how-
index. Chicago/London: University of Chicago ever, Schomburgk’s maps rejected many of Ra-
Press, 2000. $45. leigh’s and Humboldt’s findings. Burnett de-
scribes this rhetorical process of simultaneous
During the nineteenth century, European powers appropriation and erasure as “metalepsis.”
grappled with the problem of how to define and Schomburgk bolstered the authority of his ob-
demarcate their colonial territories. They em- servations by making precise measurements us-
ployed naturalists—explorers, cartographers, ing scientific instruments, thereby drawing on
and geographers—to transform these terrae in- the cultural authority of Humboldteanism. He
cognitae into mapped and bounded territories. also used images of important landmarks, such
Although these colonial maps appear to be au- as the flat-topped mount Roraima, to “make the
thoritative, D. Graham Burnett argues that empire visible” and to define key boundary
they—and the process of mapmaking itself— points. Burnett uses the same strategies himself.
were in fact fraught with ambiguities. Burnett His book includes thirty-three maps and litho-
focuses on the work of the Prussian naturalist graphs and eighteen color illustrations, which re-
Robert Schomburgk in British Guiana. The col- produce the most important images of Guyana.
ony, supposed home of the legendary city of El The sum of these traverse surveys, astronomical
Dorado, had been visited by such eminent ex- observations, paintings, and maps would—ide-
plorers as Sir Walter Raleigh and Alexander von ally—fix points that constituted British Guiana.
Humboldt. Nonetheless, when the British ac- In spite of the certainty depicted in these repre-
quired the colony from the Dutch in 1803, Eu- sentations, however, Schomburgk and his suc-
ropeans still knew little about its interior or its cessors found it difficult to demarcate bound-
boundaries, which were contested by neighbor- aries on the ground. These remained ambiguous
ing Venezuela, Brazil, and Dutch Guiana. Draw- and unclear, and Burnett concludes that, ulti-
ing on archival sources in both Britain and Guy- mately, the unified boundary line we see on
ana, as well as on Schomburgk’s extensive maps is a “fib” (p. 206).
published works, Burnett vividly reconstructs In addition to introducing readers to the fas-
his mapping expeditions through British Gui- cinating life of Schomburgk, Masters of All They
ana’s dense jungles during the 1830s and 1840s. Surveyed is, more broadly, an innovative study
Burnett uses the story of Schomburgk to ex- in the rhetorical construction of geographical and
plore the rhetorical strategies that European ex- scientific knowledge. It would be a valuable text
plorers, mapmakers, and colonial officials used in courses on the history of cartography, the his-
to construct geographical authority. The key tory of science, and imperial history.
problem they faced was reconciling the uncer- STUART MCCOOK
tainty inherent in geographical fieldwork with
the certainty required on political maps. To map Jeremy Gaskell. Who Killed the Great Auk?
remote areas, nineteenth-century explorers such [xii] Ⳮ 227 pp., frontis., illus., figs., apps., bibl.,
as Schomburgk used the traverse (or route) sur- index. Oxford/New York: Oxford University
vey, which involved a combination of dead reck- Press, 2001. $25.
oning and astronomical sightings. Such traverse
surveys were much less accurate than the trigo- The great auk became extinct during the mid-
nometric surveys then being carried out in Brit- nineteenth century. Until then, it had been a reg-
ain and the United States. Astronomical sight- ular visitor to northern Britain and a commer-
ings could fix one’s point on the globe. To make cially valuable bird of Newfoundland. Since it

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depended on a small number of islands as breed- At the end of the nineteeth century, Jules Soury
ing grounds, and because it was a flightless bird, published a “critical history of theories and doc-
the great auk found itself particularly vulnerable trines” of the central nervous system. Compari-
to human encroachment and succumbed to it be- son between Soury’s work and L. S. Jacyna’s
fore our sensitivity to environmental destruction new study reveals obvious as well as deeper con-
and loss of diversity began to reverse the trends trasts suggesting how historical writing on the
that had led to so many modern extinctions. neurosciences and, more broadly, historiography
Evidence for a history of the great auk remains of science have changed over the intervening
sketchy at best. Early naturalists, such as Buffon, century.
wrote accounts of the great auk drawn from a Soury’s work is immense (easily ten times the
varied set of imperfect sources: travel accounts, length of Jacyna’s), encyclopedic in its chrono-
descriptions of museum specimens, and encyclo- logical reach—extending from classical antiq-
pedias. Jeremy Gaskell has carefully surveyed uity to virtually the date of publication—and
all the literature on the great auk and has at- aims at comprehensive coverage. Jacyna limits
tempted to reconstruct what we know of its his focus to one century—terminating well short
range, behavior, and ultimate demise. He has of the present—to material in English, French,
produced an enthusiast’s book that makes good and German, and to a single neurological disor-
use of the great figures familiar to those inter- der. Both authors, accomplished historians rather
ested in the history of ornithology. Buffon, Bris- than practicing neuroscientists, draw on insights
son, Faber, Temminck, Gould, and Newton all from philosophers—in Soury’s case from Des-
make cameo appearances in his book, along with cartes, Kant, and Haeckel, in Jacyna’s from
a few obscure egg collectors and colonial ad- Nietzsche and Foucault, with a dash of Derrida
ministrators. Gaskell intelligently mines the rec- and a large dose of recent social studies of sci-
ord in order to reconstruct the shifting picture ence and literary theory. While Soury is reso-
Europeans had of the great auk. Although his lutely materialist and triumphalist in surveying
volume makes use of the history of science, his advances in what one contemporary reviewer
interest centers on the fate of the great auk, not termed “the great epic of modern brain science,”
the context in which it played out. Jacyna presents an in-depth reading of the texts
Given the paucity of the record concerning the of aphasia as narratives whose medical authors
to a greater or, more rarely, lesser degree reduced
great auk, one cannot be surprised that Who
the complexities of language loss to brain local-
Killed the Great Auk? is correspondingly thin
ization and their afflicted patients to pathological
fare. Gaskell elucidates the range of the bird and
objects. The “lost words” of the title thus refer
some of its natural history, documents its steady
to the silencing of the aphasic patient’s persona
decline during the eighteenth and nineteenth
in medical discourse as well as the impairment
centuries, and concludes with an environmental of language owing to brain damage.
warning. Although he states that the destruction Jacyna sets the scene by contrasting two “dis-
of the great auk served as a catalyst for legisla- tinct genres” (p. 25) of case history in the earliest
tion protecting seabirds, he fails to demonstrate medical discourse on aphasia, those of Jacques
any strong link. Nor does he tie his story signifi- Lordat and J.-B. Bouillaud. Lordat, in part be-
cantly to any of the larger narratives in the his- cause he had personally experienced an episode
tory of ornithology. The bibliography, while of aphasia, wrote sympathetic accounts of pa-
quite good in recording citations of great auks in tients with language impairment, taking note of
the early literature, tellingly contains no refer- their individuality and his own responses to
ences to any of the literature in the history of them. Bouillaud, on the other hand, a leader of
ornithology. For those who know something of the postrevolutionary Paris clinical-anatomical
that history, this book provides enjoyable read- school, focused on objective physical signs to
ing (albeit on a narrow but neglected topic), and the exclusion of the patient’s voice and distinc-
environmentalists will find in it another caution- tive self.
ary tale. Other Isis readers might find it too spe- Bouillaud’s model of the single impersonal
cialized to be of much interest. narrator prevailed during the classical period
PAUL LAWRENCE FARBER ushered in by Paul Broca’s localization of the
speech center in 1861 and dominated the litera-
L. S. Jacyna. Lost Words: Narratives of Lan- ture of aphasia until the end of the century. Ja-
guage and the Brain, 1825–1926. x Ⳮ 241 pp., cyna draws on a rich array of medical discourse
illus., index. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univer- that he deconstructs persuasively to show how
sity Press, 2000. $45, £28.50. formulaic case histories accompanied by abstract

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standardized brain diagrams effectively deprived sought an overview of nineteenth-century Ger-

the patient of an individualized identity. Jacyna’s man anthropology but who have, until now,
textured exposition supports the conclusion that lacked the convenience of a single book-length
the nineteenth-century movement to reduce the treatment of the subject. For this reason alone,
hitherto distinctively human, “higher” attribute Anthropology and Antihumanism in Imperial
of speech to brain anatomy and physiology sig- Germany should take its place among standard
nified a major cultural transformation. Neverthe- references in the history of anthropology. Zim-
less, the schema may be too absolute. Jacyna dis- merman’s book shares with George Stocking’s
cusses fully the exceptional status of John Victorian Anthropology (Free Press, 1987) a the-
Hughlings Jackson, who accorded a higher- matic organization, allowing for the use of
attribution psychic element to speech function. varied historical materials in the elucidation of
Even among the more typical aphasiologists, one topics that a more conventional narrative presen-
can often find rich “human documents”; Jacyna tation might leave undeveloped. Zimmerman’s
mentions Charcot’s patient “Monsieur X,” whose subtly theorized, inventively structured study of
words are quoted in the medical case history. Not the German anthropological community is a
mentioned are the same neurologist’s Leçons du happy reminder that historical meaning can take
Mardi, which consisted in large measure of dia- forms other than the narrative monograph.
logues between physician and patient, albeit al- Zimmerman is less interested in telling the
lotting a truncated speaking part to the patient. story of the Berlin Museum of Ethnology or So-
Henry Head, working with wounded World ciety for Anthropology than in using the written,
War I veterans, broke radically with a reduction- visual, and material documents of the period to
ist model that he openly condemned. Jacyna address problems in the sociology and cultural
shows how the patients’ youth and class (many study of scientific knowledge. Where this ap-
were officers) enabled Head to introduce batter- proach works best, Zimmerman conveys to the
ies of individualized psychological tests and re- reader a representation of German anthropology
habilitation methods, as well as conversation and preoccupied with the study of material objects
dream interpretation, and to convert the older and conceptually ordered by the visual logic of
one-sided clinical narrative into a fruitful part- the museum displays housing them. The “anti-
nership. Nonetheless, Jacyna notes, Head’s pa- humanism” of the title derives from anthro-
tients remained by necessity a select group of pology’s antagonism toward the textual inter-
experimental subjects. pretation dear to the German tradition of
The final chapters, “Dissonant Voices” and Geisteswissenschaften. Objects, bones and skel-
“Making Good,” discuss objections raised to etons, not texts, were the locus of truth, and Ger-
classical aphasiology around the turn of the twen- man colonialism (or imperialism; the author uses
tieth century and the definitive emergence, after the two terms interchangeably) was a resource
World War I, of more active therapeutic interven- for their accumulation. Zimmerman’s passages
tions that placed patient, family, and social situ- on the use of imperial arms and authority to
ation at the center of discourse and practice. Ja- gather anthropological artifacts are among the
cyna remarks about the earlier dissidents’ lack of most compelling documentations linking anthro-
impact on the dominant paradigm: “Classical pological science with the practices of colonial
aphasiology was not simply a set of texts; it was expansion of which I am aware.
a body of practice grounded in the technologies This said, there is a national insularity in the
of the clinic” (p. 203). Nonetheless, Jacyna’s own presentation that leads to several exaggerated
closely reasoned and insightful study of texts as claims regarding the distinctiveness of German
narratives and his cautionary final sentence es- anthropology. Though Zimmerman is critical of
chewing the reduction of human complexity to a the Sonderweg tradition of historiography, he
cerebral substrate witness the distance historiog- suggests in several places that the retrospective
raphy has traveled since the days of Jules Soury. significance of German anthropology is to be
TOBY GELFAND found in the practices it bequeathed to Nazism.
In fact, what became Nazi racial science had
Andrew Zimmerman. Anthropology and Anti- precedent in anthropology throughout Europe.
humanism in Imperial Germany. ix Ⳮ 296 pp., The French had a lively tradition of spurious
illus., notes, bibl., index. Chicago: University of physical anthropology animated by Paul Broca,
Chicago Press, 2002. $60 (cloth); $25 (paper). the Italians a virulently racist criminal anthro-
pology inspired by Cesare Lombroso. The Brit-
Andrew Zimmerman has done a service to those ish had their own fondness for cephalic indexes,
scholars of European human sciences who have and theirs were some of the earliest “antihuman-

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
ist” theories of eugenic racial hygiene. If German cieties, gathered in clubs, created institutions,
anthropology’s antihumanism bore a family re- and established research programs in the life sci-
semblance to garden-variety European physical ences, within the federal government, in colleges
anthropology, wherein lay the distinctiveness of and universities, and in research communities
German anthropology? such as Woods Hole and Cold Spring Harbor.
Nowhere else, Zimmerman argues, was anti- Without ever getting bogged down in too much
humanism as acute as in Berlin anthropology; detail, he gives us an appreciation of the multiple
through its material links with German coloni- activities in which American scientists engaged
alism, this antagonism attained world historical as they built their profession. He moves easily
significance. Here one might counter that from general overviews that give us a panorama
Freud’s antihumanism was more influential and of the territory to more intimate studies of people
that the Leipzig neogrammarian philologists, such as Asa Gray, Louis Agassiz, Spencer Baird,
who rejected Indo-European philology for a uni- C. O. Whitman, Charles Davenport, William E.
versal science of language, were equally intol- Ritter, and Alfred Kinsey, among others, who
erant of Geist. Across the Rhine, Durkheim’s led American science in new directions, some
ethnographic theories fueled the hatred of the more successfully than others. While covering
royalist Action Française and sparked riots vast ground, he engages the reader’s attention by
among humanists in the Latin Quarter. I raise keeping the individuals in clear focus.
these issues only because Zimmerman claims The treatment of people is insightful and sym-
centrality for German anthropology in a “global pathetic. In a series of vignettes Pauly captures
history of humanism,” the European (not to men- each person’s essential qualities—and eccentric-
tion global) coordinates of which the book ities—and shows how in diverse ways they ex-
makes no attempt to survey. Zimmerman’s em- pressed the many varieties of American experi-
phasis on colonial at the expense of domestic ence, particularly in the decades bracketing
European contexts leaves the book analytically 1900. In describing these people, their institu-
lopsided. The “global” history of human science tions, and their social interactions, as well as
would include the flow of objects, ideas, and their research interests, he gives us a vivid pic-
people among Berlin, Leipzig, and Paris no less ture of the evolving subject of biology. In an
than between Berlin and Togo. Though this book epilogue he suggests how to relate these Pro-
is an original, well-written study of the colonial gressive Era themes to current concerns in the
basis of German anthropology, it is not, on ac- life sciences.
count of that, world history. Pauly recognizes that biology is not some-
DAVID HOYT thing created just by university professors; it is
produced by all educators who pull together a
set of topics and give them coherence in texts
Philip Pauly. Biologists and the Promise of and curricula. He uses the innovative curriculum
American Life: From Meriwether Lewis to Al- at DeWitt Clinton High School in New York to
fred Kinsey. xvi Ⳮ 313 pp., illus., index. Prince- illustrate how teaching contributes to the defi-
ton, N.J./Oxford: Princeton University Press, nition of a subject and a discipline. He grounds
2001. $29.95, £18.95. his analysis in places as well as people, in the
communities that formed in cities and smaller
Phil Pauly’s new book is a gracefully written towns all over the country: Boston, Washington,
series of essays recounting the history of Amer- D.C., New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Woods
ican biology over roughly a century and a half, Hole, La Jolla. As he takes us on a cross-country
from 1800 to the mid-twentieth century. The tour he shows us how this science, these con-
book is particularly recommended for courses in cerns, these new directions, were quintessen-
the history of American science, as it should be tially American. Shaped by an American geo-
accessible to student readers. Two large themes graphical and social context, the biology that
predominate. One is the emergence of a new sci- was the collective product of these many people
ence of biology in the United States. Pauly deftly was indeed, in its outlook and its subject matter,
draws our attention to many of the most impor- the expression of American thoughts, values,
tant events and people who created a new science anxieties, and aspirations.
of biology over the course of the nineteenth The second large theme, also underscored by
century. Little has escaped his attention as he Pauly’s attention to geographical and social con-
introduces us to the key individuals who made text, is that American biologists were participat-
American science competitive with European re- ing in many ways in discussions of what it meant
search and shows us how these people built so- to live in a democracy. Thinking about biologi-

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cal subjects glided easily into thoughts about hu- most significant achievements at Cambridge was
man society, social evolution, the preservation to persuade the university to acquire a new,
of threatened species, and the need to educate much larger plot of land for its botanical garden.
and uplift the American public. Of liberal, pro- The old eighteenth-century garden had gradually
gressive bent, many biologists participated in been enclosed by the town and could not be ex-
these discussions and saw their biology as in- panded. It was too small for the collections that
forming the broader discussions in central ways. were arriving from overseas explorers and did
With the emergence of a new agricultural sci- not have enough space for experiments. Of
ence, with the creation of Science Service as a course, Henslow is best remembered for men-
way to control the popularization of science, toring the young Charles Darwin and getting him
with the opening up of new inquiries into human aboard H.M.S. Beagle for the voyage that gave
sexuality, and in a myriad of other ways, these him a place in the scientific world. Darwin at-
biologists were thinking about—and talking tended Henslow’s botanical lectures, but he also
about—what it meant to live in a democracy and attended the regular soirees at Henslow’s home
how biology fit into this debate. Their biological where students and professors socialized and
viewpoint was dynamic, experimental, and eco- discussed science. Combined with Henslow’s
logical, with keen attention to the interactions botanical walking tours of the local countryside
between organisms and environment. With op- and his own inveterate beetle collecting, they
timism and energy, they tried to fulfill a vision gave Darwin a taste for the scientific life un-
of what it was to be American. Pauly adopts his available in most lectures and tutorials.
own ecological approach and gives us a dynamic Unfortunately, much of Henslow’s life at
view of the evolution of these communities and Cambridge was less gratifying than his encour-
the discipline of biology. The result is an engag- agement of Charles Darwin. His professorship
ing history that will be valued by both specialists carried an annual stipend of £200 and allowed
and general readers. him to collect student fees from lecturing; how-
SHARON KINGSLAND ever, attendance at the lectures was limited since
botany was not a requirement for anyone except
S. M. Walters; E. A. Stow. Darwin’s Mentor: a few medical students. To meet the needs of his
John Stevens Henslow, 1796–1861. xx Ⳮ 338 growing family, Henslow had to seek out a gen-
pp., illus., figs., apps., notes, bibl., index. Cam- erous church living, which he finally obtained in
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 1837 in the parish of Hitcham, Suffolk. Incon-
$59.95 (cloth). veniently for Henslow’s academic career, the
Church of England was just then engaged in a
Max Walters, former director of the Botanic Gar- vigorous reform: nonresident clergy, quite com-
den, University of Cambridge, and Anne Stow, mon in the 1820s, were reduced to a small mi-
former librarian of the Scientific Periodicals Li- nority by midcentury. Henslow, a conscientious
brary, University of Cambridge, have put to- man, was not one to resist this trend, and within
gether an astute and informative new biography two years of his new appointment he made the
of John Stevens Henslow, Regius Professor of move to Hitcham, where he quickly found him-
Botany at Cambridge from 1825 to 1861. Making self deeply concerned with the myriad problems
good use of Henslow’s publications and papers of the poverty-stricken rural parish. Although he
and recent research on Victorian science, they re- returned to Cambridge annually to deliver his
count his family background, his life as a Cam- botany lectures, his effectiveness as an aca-
bridge academic, and his later career as a country demic—and his scientific career—was largely
clergyman. We learn about his research, his stifled.
teaching, his contributions to university life, and Henslow did not agree with Darwin about
his ties to numerous scientific contemporaries. evolution. As early as 1823, Henslow rejected
As a botanist, Henslow appreciated the value biblical literalism as a guide to geological think-
of plant physiology but made no contributions ing, and his studies of Primula (later followed
to it, nor did he do anything for cell theory; his up by Darwin) led him to doubt whether there
publications centered on the traditional topics of were any clear limits to plant variation. At the
morphology and taxonomy. As a teacher, he im- same time, he could not imagine that entire
mediately abandoned the artificial Linnaean sys- realms of plants and animals had arisen from a
tem and introduced his students to the natural few original forms. Henslow had ties not only to
system and morphology of the Swiss pioneer evolutionists like Darwin and J. D. Hooker (who
A. P. de Candolle. He eventually wrote a text- became his son-in-law) but also to the scientific
book devoted to Candolle’s ideas. One of his lions of Cambridge, Adam Sedgwick and Wil-

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liam Whewell, neither of whom would counte- The target of Oosterhuis’s argument will be
nance the idea of evolution. Through his even- much more familiar to modern readers. He wants
handed manner, he retained the friendship of to dispute the one-sided model of clinical power,
them all, but his own natural environment was developed by Michel Foucault, that sees sexual
the university and the Church, not the cosmo- identity as something fashioned by the medical
politan arena of scientific adventure. profession and then attached to passive victims
WILLIAM MONTGOMERY as part of a larger project of discipline and con-
trol. Although Oosterhuis’s characterization of
Harry Oosterhuis. Stepchildren of Nature: Foucault’s argument is probably unfair, his an-
Krafft-Ebing, Psychiatry, and the Making of Sex- tagonism does at least provide him with a theo-
ual Identity. (Sexuality, History, and Society.) retical framework that allows him to bring out
x Ⳮ 321 pp., illus., table, bibl., index. Chicago/ the critical importance of Krafft-Ebing’s archive.
London: University of Chicago Press, 2000. $30, Rather than seeing case histories as devices for
£19. inscribing psychiatric identities and deviant sex-
Shortly before he died in 1902, the German sex- ualities, Oosterhuis claims that they “offered a
ologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing had looked space in which uncertain individuals could artic-
forward to completing a new synthetic work on ulate their predicament in the form of personal
sexual psychopathology that would combine narrative” (p. 280). Within this model, psychi-
data from the 1,386 case histories he had atric diagnosis emerges as a dialogic process in
amassed over the course of his career. Ninety which the case history serves both the nosolog-
years later, the Dutch historian Harry Oosterhuis ical agenda of the physician and the political in-
was given the opportunity to resurrect this ma- terests of the deviant individual. In Oosterhuis’s
terial by Krafft-Ebing’s descendants. Although view, works like Krafft-Ebing’s Psychopathia
their values and theoretical concerns were quite Sexualis provided a kind of forum that allowed
different, there is a sense in which the projects homosexuals and others to breach the loneliness
of Krafft-Ebing and Oosterhuis moved in tan- and alienation that characterized their lives
dem. Both were concerned with rescuing the au- within nineteenth-century bourgeois society.
thentic voices of perverts that had been obscured There is much to recommend Oosterhuis’s ap-
behind a veil of nineteenth-century respectabil- proach. His idea of diagnosis as a process of con-
ity. Both were interested in mapping out the so- testation and negotiation fits well with current
cial and environmental factors that sustained sociological models of power. Moreover, his
new sexual identities. And both psychiatrist and recognition of the complexity of this process al-
historian have been legitimated through their lows him to recapture many of the previously
proximity to the archive: their unparalleled ac- ignored factors in the confession of sexual iden-
cess to the confessional letters of hundreds of tity. Oosterhuis provides fine descriptions of the
sexual deviants allowed them to challenge the role of changing ideas of romantic attachment
restrictive preconceptions that had dominated and introspective investigation in the constitu-
their respective fields. tion of narrative case histories. Yet it might have
In truth, however, their targets are very dif- been useful to have had some acknowledgment
ferent. Krafft-Ebing, as a German pioneer in the of the sexual pleasures and motivations involved
emergent field of office psychiatry, used hered- in the act of confession itself, as well as some
itarian theory and the confessions of his upper- recognition of the problematic nature of the ma-
class clients to campaign against the repressive terial. As the Viennese psychiatrist Moritz Ben-
legislation that criminalized homosexual acts. edikt recognized almost a century ago, it was of
He also challenged the therapeutic nihilism that course possible that many of Krafft-Ebing’s
had dominated Austro-German neuropsychiatry. anonymous correspondents were deceiving him
Although Krafft-Ebing always insisted that sex- and that his complex psychopathology was built
ual perversion should be seen as a form of de- on tricks and groundless fantasies. Similarly,
generation, he recognized the important role that Oosterhuis, in his eagerness to rescue the voices
psychological factors and unconscious associa- of perverts from the condescension of history,
tions played in the generation of abnormal fan- treats as authentic confessionals what could have
tasies. This recognition opened up the possibility been simple experiments in pornographic fiction.
of therapeutic interventions (through techniques The problem with abandoning Foucault’s her-
such as hypnosis) that would at least offer some meneutics of suspicion is that it leaves the well-
respite from the ongoing disruption caused by intentioned historian with no way of discrimi-
deviant desires. nating between the chance products of the

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clinical encounter, active hoaxes, and the sup- how Keats’s medical training affected his poetry,
pressed voices of the dispossessed. particularly “Ode to Psyche.”
RHODRI HAYWARD Earlier critics have dealt extensively with
Wordsworth’s and Coleridge’s association with
Alan Richardson. British Romanticism and the scientists like David Hartley and Humphry
Science of the Mind. xx Ⳮ 243 pp., illus., notes, Davy. They have also dealt with Keats’s medical
bibl., index. New York: Cambridge University training. Until now, however, the poets’ interest
Press. 2001. $54.95 (cloth). in radical brain science has not been adequately
explored. Richardson’s analysis yields marvel-
In an important, wide-ranging study, Alan Rich- ous new insights into quite different aspects of
ardson explores the impact of avant-garde brain literary theory and poetry. For example, Words-
science on British Romantic literature. Of his worth’s attitude toward “the language really used
many insights, the most important concerns the by men,” his interest in rustic language, and his
change from mind-body dualism to a view of interest in emotion in language all seem clearer
mind as embodied, not separate from the body when seen in light of brain studies. Keats’s work
but incorporated into it through the brain and a also is enhanced by Richardson’s analysis. Only
network of nerves. Although he acknowledges fragmentary notes survive from Keats’s atten-
the major differences between Romantic brain dance at lectures by Sir Astley Cooper, so they
science and today’s cognitive sciences, Richard- have not received much attention. However,
son stresses questions that should motivate neu- careful notes taken by an American student at
roscientists as well as literary and cultural his- the same lecture series have survived, giving in-
torians to new explorations of old issues. sight into what Keats may have learned from
From the 1790s to the l830s, new scientific Cooper. This enables Richardson to explore the
theories on the nature of the brain emerged that relationship of Keats’s poetry to the new brain
affected attitudes toward psychology and phys- science in greater depth.
iology. Although it seems strange to modern The book is richly illustrated with nineteenth-
minds, only in this period was the brain estab- century engravings of the anatomy of the brain
lished as the organ responsible for thought. Rich- and nervous system and contains extensive notes
ardson’s opening chapter identifies major works and bibliographic citations. It is as readable and
and ideas in what he calls “neural Romanticism”: exciting as it is careful, thought provoking, and
Erasmus Darwin’s identification of the brain as intelligent.
an “active organ” with complex links to sensory RUTH BARTON
organs, Pierre-Jean-George Cabanis’s view that
the brain “digests” impressions just as the stom- Susan Wells. Out of the Dead House: Nineteenth-
ach digests food, F. J. Gall’s belief in innate dis- Century Women Physicians and the Writing of
positions springing from a specific brain orga- Medicine. xii Ⳮ 312 pp., illus., bibl., index.
nization, and Charles Bell’s pious belief in mind Madison/London: University of Wisconsin
that works in and through the brain. Press, 2001. $57.95 (cloth); $22.95 (paper).
After introducing the scientific ideas about
mind and brain, Richardson concentrates on the Did nineteenth-century women physicians write
impact that those ideas had on four Romantic medicine differently from men? Susan Wells
writers: Samuel Coleridge, William Words- clearly believes so and adduces a good deal of
worth, John Keats, and Jane Austen. In separate evidence—case notes, medical theses, speeches,
chapters for each author, he begins with a gen- even banquet toasts—to prove her thesis.
eral overview of the author’s attitude toward the Women doctors, she argues, were more inter-
new science, then moves to examine a particular ested in the “heart histories” of their patients;
work that exemplifies that influence. The topics they practiced a different kind of medicine; their
differ from chapter to chapter, so that, overall, construction of the human body was different
readers see a range of types of impact. Richard- from that of men. And all this was reflected in
son concentrates on theories of dream and the their medical writing. But she also questions the
unconscious in Coleridge’s preface to and poem characterization of scientific knowledge as
“Kubla Khan”; on the way the terminology of purely masculine and seeks to recapture a sense
the avant-garde brain science clarifies Words- of women’s agency in scientific work. She is a
worth’s discussion of language in the preface to literary scholar interested in the rhetoric of early
Lyrical Ballads; on how the new brain-based women physicians as they applied their knowl-
psychologies destabalize then-accepted gender edge to concrete situations.
differences for Austen in Persuasion; and on Wells uses contemporary theoretical and ideo-

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logical hypotheses to characterize the ways in back at contemporary views of the women who
which nineteenth-century women reacted to their pioneered in medicine a century and a half ago.
anomalous position in a heavily male-dominated THOMAS NEVILLE BONNER
profession. Thus, the influential Ann Preston of
the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, Barbara Clow. Negotiating Disease: Power
who denied that women’s medical opinions dif- and Cancer Care, 1900–1950. xviii Ⳮ 238 pp.,
fered from those of men, is described as “an icon bibl., index. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s Univer-
of womanly regularity—in contemporary terms sity Press, 2001. $65 (cloth); $27.95 (paper).
as a female man.” Preston modeled a “gender
masquerade” to prove the “gender regularity” of Barbara Clow’s Negotiating Disease: Power and
women doctors “while taking up practices nor- Cancer Care, 1900–1950, is less about the treat-
mally barred to them” (pp. 67–68). She was able ment of cancer than about who treats cancer and
to devise a “cross-dressing strategy” for the who decides how it is treated. Ironically, the au-
whole college. thor of this book about the influence—restraints
Hannah Longshore, on the other hand, a mav- and restrictions—of power and authority finds it
erick early graduate of the Woman’s College, necessary to set her work firmly in the context
accepted science as “a particularly male discur- of the authorities of twentieth-century American
sive form” but then contradicted this character- medical history—James Harvey Young, James
ization “by performing ‘male’ science as a Patterson, Charles Rosenberg, and the sociolo-
woman” (p. 144). The most accomplished of gist Paul Starr. In this framework, Starr’s Social
nineteenth-century American women doctors, Transformation of American Medicine (Basic,
Mary Putman Jacobi, widely respected by her 1982) stands as the most limiting text. Its pre-
male colleagues, finally, “could pretend to write sumption that organized medicine emerged as
as a male” (p. 147). Her best-known work, a dominant, its authority virtually unchallenged,
study of rest during menstruation, was “a per- by the middle of the twentieth century remains
formance of unmarked transvestism” since the the focal point of Clow’s critique.
submission of the work had been anonymous Clow sees things rather differently. She offers
(p. 189). “a revised interpretation of medical power, one
The evidence for Wells’s argument, while dil- in which the influence of the laity and alternative
igently researched, is narrow and not finally per- healers moderated, and sometimes even mas-
suasive. Much of it is drawn from the Archives tered, the authority of the medical profession and
and Special Collections on Women in Medicine the state” (p. xiv). Clow argues that philosophi-
at the Medical College of Pennsylvania. Little is cal debates of two sorts were in play: medical
said about the experiences of women at coedu- practitioner versus person diagnosed with cancer
cational schools of medicine, such as the Uni- and medical practitioner versus medical practi-
versity of Michigan, where comparisons be- tioner. These battles for authority were contested
tween men and women students would seem to in public space among politicos, organizations,
be of greater validity than comparisons of those institutions, and individuals.
at the Woman’s College and the University of Her evidence leads Clow to suggest that the
Pennsylvania. The students at the Woman’s Col- medicalization of cancer treatment was a domi-
lege, after all, were quite different from those at nant and profound occurrence but that no una-
male colleges: they tended to be older, some nimity of perspective was embraced by medical
were married, some had children, and many had providers or those for whom treatment was pro-
family responsibilities. Unlike some of the vided. Persons diagnosed with cancer rallied
men’s schools, moreover, none of the schools for against both the diagnosis and the prognosis.
women had a university connection or an ade- That rallying proved to be the central act in the
quate teaching hospital. A far more interesting drama. By combating established authority, per-
comparison would be between men and women sons diagnosed with cancer seized control of
students at such fully coeducational and science- their lives; they achieved agency. The efficacy
oriented schools as those in Zurich and Bern. At or lack of efficacy of the medical course chosen
times, women even outnumbered men at the is in this analysis beside the point. What is criti-
Swiss schools. cal is the assertion of prerogative, which is an
One wonders what nineteenth-century women end in itself, the mature expression of a fully
would have thought about being depicted as maximized individual.
“cross-dressers,” “transvestites,” and engaged in That sort of understanding derives its impetus
a “gender masquerade.” One wonders, too, how from psychosocial theory, popularized in the
historians fifty or a hundred years hence will look 1970s as part of the human potential, self-

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
esteem, and other movements. There individual ten interesting descriptions of complex theories
action was equated with control and acknowl- and interventions.
edged as something desirable and necessary. In Readers will learn about the difficulties of de-
Clow’s telling of the story, persons diagnosed fining epilepsy, especially as the notion of “ep-
with cancer were exceedingly logical and used ilepsies” replaced older beliefs in a unitary
that logicality and rationality in their search for pathological entity. As a result, it was impossible
what Clow describes as a course of cancer “man- to determine the incidence of epilepsy. Uncer-
agement.” Individuals selected management tainty about etiology and classification made
courses that intersected or resonated with their prognosis problematic. Contested explanations
logical assumptions, thereby providing them- of pathology moved from blood flow to meta-
selves with voice, in effect “voting” through bolic deficits. Increased knowledge of neuronal
their actions. function was crucial to understanding the mech-
The method that Clow uses to tell this story anisms involved in epilepsy, but uncertainty
is likewise arresting. Since it is exceedingly dif- about the function of neuronal discharges made
ficult to generate statistical evidence on these it difficult to recognize the role of neuronal dis-
questions, she instead presents scenes. These inhibition in epilepsies. Contests over classifi-
scenes are essentially a handful of examples se- cation of types of epilepsy meant that diagnosis
lected both to humanize the discussion and to and prognosis were often based on hunches
make it poignant and emotive. Rather than serv- rather than reliable data. Etiology was anyone’s
ing as data per se, they stand as guides to the guess, and treatment often did more harm than
text and testimony to the lives lived. In a not good. Others have written about the extent to
dissimilar fashion, Clow restricts her focus to the which the inability of physicians to develop ef-
Province of Ontario, Canada. But she argues that fective interventions sometimes made them con-
what happened there was representative of what temptuous of their patients’ distress, and Fried-
occurred throughout North America generally. lander provides much evidence in support of
In this book, concepts of power and authority such conclusions. As interesting as these parts of
function as the sole meaningful cultural discrim- the story are, a reader might wish for more in-
inants. Resurrecting individual initiative and au- tegration. For instance, although the cast of char-
tonomy overshadows any other sort of historical acters remains largely the same in the various
inquiry or desideratum. clinical chapters, it is not always clear whether
ALAN I. MARCUS or if their views on classification, etiology, or
pathology influenced their diagnosis and treat-
Walter J. Friedlander. The History of Modern ment of patients. A reader interested in the extent
Epilepsy: The Beginnings, 1865–1914. (Contri- to which wider cultural views, including those
butions in Medical Studies, 45.) xxii Ⳮ 297 pp., influencing general medical practice and re-
tables, bibls., index. Westport, Conn./London: search, impacted thinking about epilepsy will be
Greenwood Press, 2001. $75. frustrated.
As result, the audience for this volume likely
In nine topical chapters, Walter Friedlander, tak- will be neurologists with an interest in the his-
ing up where Owsei Temkin’s classic story (The tory of their profession rather than historians of
Falling Sickness [2nd ed.; Johns Hopkins, medicine or science interested in the extent to
1971]) left off, examines the history of epilepsy which external forces shaped the boundaries of
from the end of the Civil War to the outbreak of specialists’ thinking about epilepsy and those af-
World War I. Temkin integrated wider cultural flicted with it. Indeed, Friedlander’s focus rarely
attitudes with medical thinking in his history, extends to wider developments in medicine and
while Friedlander’s approach is internalist, rel- neuroscience contemporaneous with his chro-
egating social and cultural issues to his final nology. His discussions remain uninfluenced by
chapter. Influenced by his neurological ap- the corpus of recent studies on the history of neu-
proach, Friedlander’s book resembles a medical roscience and the brain.
text on epilepsy. His concerns move from defi- Friedlander concludes that a “snapshot” of the
nition to pathology, classification, diagnosis, eti- history of epilepsy to 1914 “reveals a depressing
ology, treatment, and psychology. The chapter scene from the standpoint of both the patient and
on social aspects of epilepsy presents a number the physician.” Patients, “largely viewed as hav-
of interesting legal and cultural issues, but its ing a progressive, dementing disease,” were so-
discussion is not integrated into the clinical cially ostracized, and even their doctors “often
chapters that precede it. Even the clinical chap- did not like them.” Because physicians could not
ters stand alone, each presenting detailed and of- agree on definitions of epilepsy, their “beliefs

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
about incidences and prognoses were largely ance and on the impact of the Medical Research
guesswork,” and their clinical judgment was Council on debates over policy. The fact that
“unreliable” (p. 277). To the extent that this is both of these initiatives were established during
true, it is not evident from the clinical chapters the prewar years suggests that Hardy’s neat peri-
why it was so beyond the fact that practitioners odization is achieved at the expense of a more
did not know what we do today. We have only nuanced understanding of the messy processes
the faintest glimpse of the possible political and of historical change. On the other hand, this
cultural context in which physicians labored and schema provides a convenient framework for
patients existed. “There are two ways that history packing a considerable amount of material into
can be offered,” writes Friedlander in his intro- a relatively short space. Moreover, her footnote
duction. The first is “as a process evolving to citations and bibliography cover an impressive
what there is at present,” while the second por- and well-chosen range of secondary and in some
trays “the situation as it existed at a particular cases primary sources that will provide students
time” (p. ix). Friedlander wants his history of with ready access to more detailed discussion of
epilepsy to include both approaches, but history the issues she introduces.
must be more than a snapshot if it is to move Hardy also considers the impact of changing
beyond antiquarian interest. Snapshots may be medical provision on patterns of health and
cropped in ways that mislead us into believing morbidity during the later nineteenth and twen-
we have seen the larger picture when we have tieth centuries. She dissents from Thomas
not even glimpsed the forces that might have McKeown’s sweeping dismissal of the role of
framed it. medical intervention in reducing mortality and
HOWARD I. KUSHNER morbidity rates. In particular, she argues, the pre-
ponderance of recent research suggests that pub-
Anne Hardy. Health and Medicine in Britain lic health measures did much to control infec-
since 1860. (Social History in Perspective.) xii tious diseases during the nineteenth century and
Ⳮ 220 pp., tables, bibl., index. Houndsmills, were crucial to the maintenance of civilian and
U.K./New York: Palgrave, 2001. $65. especially military health during World War II.
Her assessment of therapeutic innovations is less
The Palgrave “Social History in Perspective” se- sanguine. Apparently dramatic improvements in
ries aims to provide students with in-depth sur- therapeutic efficacy in the postwar period had
veys of topics of current interest in British social frustratingly little impact on mortality rates and
and cultural history. Anne Hardy’s Health and only limited consequences for morbidity, chiefly
Medicine in Britain since 1860 fulfills this remit by alleviating more minor annoyances to health
admirably and will be a valuable introductory or and well-being. As Hardy acknowledges in her
reference text for any course that touches on the introductory chapter, however, retrospective as-
growth and consequences of health care in mod- sessment of the health of populations is a noto-
ern Britain. riously difficult matter, resting on often-ambig-
The book is strongest in charting the changing uous data and contestable methodological
patterns of health care provision. Hardy includes assumptions. Students might have benefited
the growth and consolidation of private and stat- from fuller discussion of the technical debates
utory medical provision, innovations in preven- surrounding such judgments.
tive and therapeutic technique, shifting priorities Science receives little detailed attention in this
in government policy, the demands of military volume. Its role as a source of therapeutic and
mobilization in two world wars, and the growing preventive innovations is largely taken for
expectations of consumers in her purview. The granted, and there is no discussion of why cor-
book is divided into five chapters, corresponding porations or government chose to promote re-
to the two world wars and the periods before, search, let alone of how that research was shaped
between, and after them. On the whole, this or how its products were assimilated into prac-
works well for the pre- and postwar periods, tice. But that is not the purpose of the book,
which there is a good case for regarding as dis- which sets out rather to provide a succinct and
tinct epochs in health care provision, the former accessible survey account of medicine and its
characterized by preventive medicine and public effects on health in Britain since the 1860s and
health policy, the latter by the therapeutic revo- an introduction to the relevant secondary litera-
lution and the National Health Service. It is less ture. Hardy has achieved that aim with clarity
clear what distinguishes the interwar years. and conviction, and her book deserves to be
Hardy’s characterization of that period rests widely cited on course reading lists.
heavily on the growth of National Health Insur- STEVE STURDY

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
Douglas M. Haynes. Imperial Medicine: Pat- Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, Haynes il-
rick Manson and the Conquest of Tropical Dis- lustrates the ways British imperial doctors pur-
ease. 229 pp., illus., tables, index. Philadelphia: sued their interests and defined their professional
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001. $37.50, identity. Manson’s ingenuity in establishing a lu-
£26.50. crative private practice, his attacks on charitable
missionary medicine, and his use of research on
Patrick Manson (1844–1922), the so-called fa- exotic diseases to secure upward mobility to-
ther of tropical medicine, played a crucial role ward the metropolitan center are all amply dis-
in establishing tropical medicine as a specialty. cussed.
His discovery of the mosquito as the intermedi- Another merit of Imperial Medicine is its de-
ate host of the human filarial parasite initiated a tailed examination of the patronage system in
new research orientation that led to the elucida- British imperial science and medicine. Haynes
tion of the etiology of malaria, yellow fever, and shows that the support of the authoritative met-
several other parasitic diseases. Manson’s con- ropolitan helminthologist Thomas Spencer Cob-
nection with Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of bold was pivotal in advancing Manson’s career.
State for the Colonies, was an important factor There is an illuminating analysis of Manson’s
that aided the founding of the London School of use of the interest generated in the medical press
Tropical Medicine. The school trained medical by the priority dispute between Cobbold and
men for colonial service, and Manson was a Timothy R. Lewis (an army medical officer in
medical advisor on British colonial policy. For India renowned for his investigation of micro-
a long time the most authoritative biography re- organisms) to publicize his research on filariasis.
mained The Life and Work of Sir Patrick Manson The book also contains a minute account of
(1927), by his protégés Alfred Alcock and Philip Manson’s cooperation with Ross in the malarial
Manson-Bahr (the latter was also Manson’s son- research that eventually won Ross a Nobel Prize.
in-law). Unsurprisingly, that biography does not Manson, after establishing himself in London as
address current scholarly concerns. Douglas an authority on tropical disease, promoted
Haynes’s book is an overdue and welcome ad- Ross’s research to vindicate his “mosquito-
dition to the flourishing field of the history of malaria theory” and to elevate the status of trop-
imperial medicine. ical medicine.
Although a chronological account of Man- The relation between the imperial state and the
son’s career informs its scope and narrative, Im- institutionalization of tropical medicine research
perial Medicine is not a conventional biography. is another major theme of Imperial Medicine.
Comprehensiveness is not a priority. For exam- The founding of the London School of Tropical
ple, there is no coverage of the eventual break Medicine is one of Manson’s lasting legacies.
between Manson and Ronald Ross. And apart However, the early years of the school were
from his work on malaria, there is little discus- fraught with controversy. Manson’s proposal to
sion of Manson’s research activities in his later establish the school as the only portal of entry to
career. Rather, the book focuses on three impor- the Colonial Medical Service met with stiff op-
tant events in Manson’s career: his research on position from other medical schools that claimed
filariasis during his early career in China, his fa- to possess the expertise to teach tropical medi-
mous collaboration with Ross in the latter’s cine. The colonial doctors, who preferred the
groundbreaking malaria research, and his role in training to be done in the colonies, were not in
the establishment of the London School of Trop- favor of the project either. Later, when the Co-
ical Medicine. A major theme Haynes explores lonial Office set up the Tropical Diseases Re-
in connection with these events is the relation search Fund, Manson faced competition from the
between the imperial state and the Victorian eminent experimental physiologist Sir Michael
medical profession. He criticizes previous stud- Foster. Foster argued that, instead of establishing
ies of the nineteenth-century British medical lectureships in Manson’s school, more grants
profession, such as those of M. Jeanne Peterson, should be allocated to install a professorship of
Irvine Loudon, and Anne Digby, for failing to protozoology in the more prestigious University
take the Empire into account. Jobs created by the of London. Each time Manson steered his proj-
Empire were the major outlets for graduates of ects through objections and controversies with
the Scottish and Irish medical schools, whose ca- political shrewdness. Besides exploiting his con-
reer prospects in Britain were dim. The Empire, nection with Chamberlain, Manson achieved his
Haynes argues, was a key factor that shaped the goals by appealing to the Colonial Office’s pref-
Victorian medical profession. By investigating erence for economy and flexibility. Most of these
Manson’s early career as a medical officer to the events have already been ably discussed in sev-

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eral articles by Michael Worboys, though of the post–World War I years allowed them to
Haynes does detail a few more episodes that avoid publicizing this aspect and instead to pro-
shed light on the functioning of the Colonial Of- mote their positions under the guise of Ameri-
fice. canism.
A central subject of Imperial Medicine is the Hoffman’s story focuses on the major leader
relation between the metropolitan center and the in the fight for health insurance, the American
colonial periphery in nineteenth-century British Association for Labor Legislation (AALL),
imperial science and medicine. This is not un- which targeted the workers of New York State
charted territory. Historians such as Worboys, for coverage, and draws on the rich sources of
David Arnold, and Roy MacLeod have investi- the Progressive Era—records of insurance com-
gated the issue from different perspectives. It is panies, labor unions, employer organizations,
a pity that the book contains no substantial his- and women’s groups, as well as the most notable
toriographical engagement with their writings. individuals of the period—in order to demon-
As the works of John Farley and Frederick Chur- strate the confluence of interests that thwarted
chill show, nineteenth-century studies of para- this particular reform, which Hoffman points out
sitic life-cycles involved conceptual issues cen- was fairly limited compared to today’s stan-
tral to contemporary biology. Historians of dards.
tropical medicine may wish that there were more Of particular interest to historians of science
attempts to contextualize Manson’s work in is Hoffman’s evidence that rural general practice
nineteenth-century parasitology and biology in physicians, during a time of growing medical
this otherwise fine book. The subtitle of the book specialization, proved themselves a powerful op-
is somewhat misleading: it contains little exponent not only of health insurance interests but
amination of the extent to which Manson’s work also of the urban, university-affiliated, specialist
changed sanitary measures and medical practice physicians living “downstate” who had initially
in the tropics. Nevertheless, those who are inter- supported health insurance. Another important,
ested in the history of imperial medicine and the if disturbingly Darwinian, element of the argu-
Victorian medical profession will find this ments against providing health insurance came
densely documented volume valuable. from the commercial insurance companies,
SHANG-JEN LI which emphasized the racial inferiority of Afri-
can Americans and immigrant groups whose
Beatrix Hoffman. The Wages of Sickness: The lives would be “unnaturally” elevated by health
Politics of Health Insurance in Progressive insurance, thus producing a weaker American
America. (Studies in Social Medicine.) xvi Ⳮ population.
260 pp., illus., bibl., index. Chapel Hill/London: However, Hoffman’s recounting of this New
University of North Carolina Press, 2001. $39.95 York campaign also has broader implications.
(cloth); $17.95 (paper). First, in one of the first eastern states to grant
female suffrage, women’s political skills
When the State of Maine, in which I live, re- emerged in a new way, providing a cautionary
cently extended health insurance coverage to the tale about the dangers of assuming a common
“domestic partners” of state workers, I was sur- gendered interest over health insurance. Simi-
prised at the diverse political interests that or- larly, the rhetoric of manliness used in this cam-
ganized to support and to oppose the move. After paign provides a fresh perspective on attitudes
reading Beatrix Hoffman’s The Wages of Sick- about workers and about Americans in this im-
ness: The Politics of Health Insurance in Pro- migrant, urbanized society. Other issues raised
gressive America, I now understand that the poli- by this health insurance campaign, such as paid
tics of such an action have a long and rich maternity leave for working women, the role of
history. In her deftly argued book Hoffman the state in protecting or promoting health, and
explains how physicians, employers, com- the power of various interest groups, remind us
mercial insurance companies, and the leadership of the enduring nature of historical questions.
of the labor movement organized to oppose Ultimately, Hoffman argues, the powerful ide-
government-sponsored compulsory health insur- ology of Americanism killed the idea of health
ance in the second decade of the twentieth cen- insurance so completely that the AALL and
tury, thus solidifying a position that would ef- other supporters, exhausted and demoralized, de-
fectively resist universal health coverage for the clined to pick up the banner in subsequent leg-
rest of the century. Further, while these groups islative sessions. Specifically, the opponents of
opposed health insurance because it was against compulsory health insurance, limited as its pro-
their economic self-interest, the political climate posed coverage was, effectively played on the

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
fears of Bolshevism as well as the reviled Ger- those other “alternative” sciences, mesmerism
man roots of universal health coverage to “pro- and phrenology. In Physiognomy and the Mean-
mote the spirit of true Americanism” (p. 170) in ing of Expression in Nineteenth-Century Cul-
the postwar era. Americanism, in this context, ture, Lucy Hartley wants to establish the respect-
meant opposition to anything that increased the ability of the field. Covering the century between
role of the state and threatened to curtail personal the English publication of its founding text, Jo-
liberty. For those opposed to health insurance, hann Caspar Lavater’s Essays on Physiognomy
of course, “personal liberty” meant the economic (1789), and Francis Galton’s Hereditary Genius
rights of physicians, employers, and commercial (1892), she proposes to establish a continuous
insurance companies. Just as destructive to the tradition relating the two works through the
campaign, the flip side of “Americanism” changing understanding of facial expression,
brought charges of unpatriotic activity against culminating in the emergence of modern psy-
those who supported health insurance, accusa- chological thought.
tions that forced them to spend time defending Hartley certainly casts a wide net. She begins
their loyalty even as they expressed their outrage with alleged antecedents to Lavater such as Des-
at the tactic. cartes, the painter Charles Le Brun, and the phi-
This history also provides important lessons losopher David Hartley; spends one section dis-
about political and social change—and not only cussing Lavater himself; then moves on to look
about the ability of seemingly disparate groups at the development of ideas about the correlation
to create effective alliances. For instance, those of external expression with the internal mind in
seeking greater state responsibility for the lives the work of (among others) the neuroanatomist
of those less able to care for themselves need to Charles Bell, Georges Cuvier, the Pre-Raphae-
be aware of the sometimes-divergent class per- lite Brotherhood, Herbert Spencer, the physiol-
spectives among those who would be supporters. ogist Alexander Bain, the novelist Wilkie Col-
In the campaign for health insurance, women’s lins, Charles Darwin, and Francis Galton. For
groups divided over the propriety of married historians of science the key figures are Bell,
women in the workplace, and labor organiza- early in the nineteenth century, who kept the
tions disagreed as to whether unionized workers theological overtones of Lavater’s original work,
or the unorganized should be targeted for cov- and Darwin and Galton, who secularized the ma-
erage. In accounting for differences, Hoffman terial and adapted it to the principles of evolu-
asks that we appreciate the specific experiences tion.
of individuals involved in addition to the politi-
cal machinations.
Finally, while this well-written book provides
useful comparisons between the 1910s battle for
health insurance and the more recent attempt
during the 1990s, readers should also be left with
the lingering question of how “American” has
come to signify the state’s protection of the pur-
suit of economic self-interest rather than its pro-
motion of justice and democracy.
ALLISON L. HEPLER
Lucy Hartley. Physiognomy and the Meaning

of Expression in Nineteenth-Century Culture.
(Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Lit-
erature and Culture, 29.) xii Ⳮ 242 pp., illus.,
bibl., index. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2001. $54.95.
Physiognomy claimed to reveal to its practition-
ers the internal nature of a person from a study Wood’s engraving of a sulking chimpanzee used
of the external form. In particular, the face—its in Charles Darwin’s Expression of the Emotions
features and expressions—came to have great (from Hartley, Physiognomy and the Meaning of
interpretive meaning for physiognomists. Inevi- Expression in Nineteenth-Century Culture,
tably, the discipline has been associated with p. 155).

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The fundamental problem with Hartley’s book unable to cope with the challenges of the Great
is that she tries to do all this in less than two Depression. But as a growing list of scholars—
hundred pages of text, and it leaves her wanting Kendrick Clements the latest among them—
depth. Her discussion of Lavater’s Essays on have pointed out, there was a lot more to Hoover
Physiognomy takes up only ten pages. We are than this superficial memory allows. Hoover ac-
left unclear as to the principles and practice of tually was a complex, sophisticated thinker with
physiognomy in the founding document. This a broad political vision whose programs ad-
vagueness could be inherent in the discipline. dressed a variety of issues, including, as Clem-
But if so, that is something we need to know. In ents ably shows, conservation. Clements argues
any case, without a clear description of Lavater’s that it is a mistake to judge Hoover simply as a
work, it becomes difficult to trace the continuing reactionary, antistatist, anticonservation, and
impact of physiognomy through the subsequent pro–free market politician. Hoover feared the
culture. Although Hartley’s footnotes and refer- authoritarianism of centralized regulatory bu-
ences indicate extensive familiarity with the rele- reaucracy, but he also believed that federal agen-
vant current literature, in mustering her own cies could help state and local governments, cor-
sources she moves from one to another with little porations, and citizens to structure the economy
sense of the historical context connecting one and achieve conservation goals. Hoover also
author with the next. In one chapter, for example, sought to fashion conservation policies appro-
she examines the idea that physical beauty cor- priate to a consumer society of the sort that be-
responds to nobility of character in a variety of came widespread in 1920s America. He was
sources: Herbert Spencer, Alexander Bain, Al- among the first leaders to recognize that nature
exander Walker (who, we are told, was trained had a recreational, not just an extractive, value
as a physiologist and wrote a treatise on beauty and that healthy, constructive outdoor activities
in women in 1839), John MacVicar (for whom could help Americans avoid the physical and
we are given no biographical information but moral decadence that might accompany their af-
who also wrote on beauty), the novelist Wilkie fluence.
Collins (for whom Hartley offers an extensive What did Hoover actually achieve? How suc-
analysis based on modern secondary literature), cessful was he? Hoover was a good and intelli-
and a clergyman named W. T. Clarke (about gent man who sought to steer America between
whom we learn nothing). We need to know more the Scylla of capitalist economic excess and the
about who some of these people are and why Charybdis of authoritarian federal government
they are worth listening to. We need to know regulation, but a critical reader of this book is
something of the cultural depth that allows these forced to conclude that in balance he failed as a
various individuals to participate in a common conservationist. His achievements were few. As
discourse. We need to know something of the secretary of commerce during the 1920s he en-
network that allows them to be related one to couraged voluntary product standardization and
another and to Lavater. We need to know more waste elimination, measures that he thought
about the social, cultural, and political context would help lower costs, increase profits, and
of these ideas and the practices to which they spread material prosperity. He helped to nego-
were put. While the topic in itself is worth ex- tiate the Colorado River Compact, and he coor-
ploring and certainly has ramifications in many dinated relief efforts during the 1927 Mississippi
fields, it is far too vast for the amount of space River flood. As president from 1929 to 1933 he
Hartley has allocated. The links between Lavater approved funds for the construction of Hoover
in the late eighteenth century and Galton in the Dam, increased spending on American Indians
late nineteenth remain unsatisfactorily ex- and backed away from the assimilation policy,
plained. and supported national park expansion (although
LEEANN HANSEN without federal funds). But sometimes stunning
failures accompanied these successes. Partly be-
cause of inept politicking, partly because of the
Great Depression, Hoover’s plans for rational-
Kendrick A. Clements. Hoover, Conservation, izing oil and timber production, for promoting
and Consumerism: Engineering the Good Life. outdoor recreation, and for placing the admin-
xvi Ⳮ 332 pp., illus., bibl., index. Lawrence: istration of grazing in state hands all collapsed.
University Press of Kansas, 2000. $35. Furthermore, it is striking how Hoover’s efforts
sometimes ended up augmenting the federal
Most people probably know Herbert Hoover as government power that he intended to minimize.
the unimaginative, frustrated president who was Hoover Dam consolidated the federal presence

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
on the Colorado River. The failure of Hoover’s arching narrative begins with the fuel crisis of
grazing initiative highlighted the weaknesses of the eighteenth century. As wood became scarcer
state natural resources administration and led to and more expensive, Americans looked to closed
the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act, a measure that ex- stoves as a means for conserving fuel and heat-
panded federal regulation of grazing on public ing domestic spaces more efficiently. By the
lands. After his presidency, Hoover became a nineteenth century, the open hearth had given
bitter, inflexible, reactionary man who criticized way to the familiar cast-iron stove, which in turn
New Deal conservation programs. was gradually abandoned for gas and electrically
Kendrick Clements convincingly demon- fueled stoves. The narrative is familiar, but Pris-
strates that Hoover’s conservation must be cilla Brewer complicates it with two themes:
assessed on its own terms, and he succeeds ad- nostalgia and failure.
mirably in highlighting an overlooked but im- As each of these technologies was abandoned,
portant period of conservation history. However, certain voices mourned its passing and the con-
a reader hoping to find a redeemed Hoover in currently disappearing values it had supposedly
these pages will probably come away disap- engendered. Others recognized, however, that
pointed. The best chapters—meticulously re- each of these technologies had very real short-
searched and clearly written—are those that de- comings. The strongest voices of nostalgia
tail his failures. Hoover may have had good ideas tended to be those of men who had little day-to-
and a vision of a better America, but he was un- day experience with stooping over pots hung in
able to realize his goals. This is an excellent an open hearth or struggling to light a badly de-
book, but a sobering one for anyone who, like signed stove. Women were more likely to rec-
Hoover, seeks alternatives to the way that con- ognize the advantages of turning a knob to con-
servation has been administered in the United trol a cooking fire rather than spending hours
States. stoking and cleaning and adjusting the dampers
MARK FIEGE of a wood or anthracite stove.
Brewer identifies herself as a scholar in the
Priscilla J. Brewer. From Fireplace to Cook- American studies tradition. That background
stove: Technology and the Domestic Ideal in shows in her creative use of sources and en-
America. xxii Ⳮ 338 pp., illus., bibl., index. Syr- gagement with large cultural themes. However,
acuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2000. she is also not afraid to look inside what histo-
$29.95. rians of technology call the “black box”—to
think about how these technologies work. The
Mary Drake McFeely. Can She Bake a Cherry result is a fine examination of the relationship
Pie? American Women and the Kitchen in the between what technologies mean and how they
Twentieth Century. xii Ⳮ 194 pp., index. Am- work (in the mechanical sense).
herst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000. In contrast, Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? is a
$24.95. much more problematic book. The author, Mary
Drake McFeely, apparently received a Schle-
Both these books are about subjects that are at singer Library Fellowship to do research in their
the same time utterly familiar to us as people cookbook collection. Largely from these sources
(especially those of us who are female) and and her own experience, she has constructed a
nearly terra incognita to scholars. Beginning in story of women’s changing relationship to cook-
the 1980s with the publication of Ruth Schwartz ing throughout the twentieth century. Like pre-
Cowan’s More Work for Mother (Basic, 1983) viously published works on the subject, notably
and a few other significant volumes, historians Harvey Levenstein’s Revolution at the Table
have begun to reconstruct the history of (Oxford, 1988) and Laura Shapiro’s Perfection
women’s domestic work and household tools Salad (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1986), Mc-
within the larger historiographical contexts of Feely’s book repeats what has become a clichéd
women’s history, the history of technology, and narrative about how home economists ruined
various national histories. This is a slow process, good American cooking in the Progressive pe-
particularly in the history of food, where most of riod and how women dealt with shortages and
the standard books are still the work of talented rationing in the Depression and World War II,
amateurs. resorted to cans and packages in the 1950s, and
From Fireplace to Cookstove focuses on the rediscovered good food thanks to Julia Child in
physical transformation and changing cultural the 1960s.
meanings of domestic cooking and heating tech- McFeely is a very readable writer, with an eye
nologies in the United States. The book’s over- for a telling anecdote. As a result, this book will

ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff on Thu, 01 Jan 1976 12:34:56 UTC
A Barstow furnace in operation in 1885 (from Brewer, From Fireplace to Cookstove, p. 198).
undoubtedly win an audience among general herself brought something called Witch House
readers interested in the history of food. But it Stew to many suburban potlucks. It may have
is hard to imagine how the author of a well- been 1950s food, but it had the virtue of being
respected study of women factory inspectors in “a dark, rich mixture of lentils and ground beef
Britain somehow missed (or at least failed to and tomatoes that cost very little to make and
cite) most of the existing literature on her current fed multitudes” (p. 100). In this chapter, entitled
subject, not to mention the larger literature on “Tuna-Noodle Casserole,” we also get a whiff of
domestic technology. Moreover, it is twenty the middle-class snobbery that moves food fash-
years too late in women’s history to generalize ions along. In my own experience (as a person,
from the example of white, middle- or upper- not a scholar), tuna-noodle casserole still tastes
class women or to use prescriptive literature like good amidst the diverse offerings of today’s
cookbooks to make assertions about the actual multicultural middle-class food culture, despite
character of real women’s day-to-day lives. McFeely’s dismissal of it.
The most interesting insights in this book McFeely might have benefited both from
come from McFeely’s own memories. Here we Brewer’s skeptical approach to nostalgia and
learn that not all 1950s food was awful: McFeely from her attention to how women actually ex-

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
perienced domestic technology and domestic administrator at the Office of Naval Research,
processes. Since McFeely fails to get inside the especially encouraging the development of
“black box” by telling the reader how these American applied mathematics and early elec-
foods tasted or by actually trying the recipes in tronic computing. She then returned to New
these historic cookbooks, we are left to guess York as an administrator, first at Hunter College
whether the problem is that the food tasted bad and then at the City University of New York.
or that it just seems unsophisticated. Hopper initially continued as a programmer at
The history of the familiar is perhaps the most the Harvard Computation Laboratory and then
difficult history to write seriously and well. Both went to work in the fledgling commercial com-
these books suggest the possibilities and poten- puter industry. There she made important con-
tial pitfalls of scholarly research in this domain. tributions to the development of English-based
ARWEN P. MOHUN computer programming languages. All three
women who had served in the wartime Naval
Kathleen Broome Williams. Improbable War- Reserve continued on inactive duty into the
riors: Women Scientists and the U.S. Navy in 1960s. Indeed, Hopper was recalled to military
World War II. xvii Ⳮ 304 pp., illus., bibl., index. service at the time of the Vietnam War and did
Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2001. not finally retire from the Navy until 1986.
$34.95 (cloth). This volume is a useful addition to the grow-
ing literature on scientists at war and on gender
The outbreak of World War II redirected the and science. The sections on Hopper and on Rees
work of numerous scientists and mathematicians will be of special interest to historians of com-
in the United States to military ends. Most of puting. Moreover, the accounts of three success-
those mobilized, like most scientists and mem- ful female naval officers should intrigue both
bers of the armed forces at the time, were men. men and women beginning military careers.
However, women played important roles in war- PEGGY ALDRICH KIDWELL
time research projects. In this carefully crafted
volume, Kathleen Broome Williams traces the Jason Goodwin. Otis: Giving Rise to the Mod-
careers of four of these “improbable warriors.” ern City. 320 pp., figs., illus., bibl., index. Chi-
After an overview of women’s wartime service, cago: Ivan R. Dee, 2001. $27.95 (cloth).
she considers three women with doctorates who
enlisted in the U.S. Navy: the oceanographer If the Otis Elevator Company asked Jason Good-
Mary Sears (1906–1997) of Woods Hole, the win to use sprightly prose in his history of the
chemist-turned-meteorologist Florence van Stra- firm and its many international affiliates, their
ten (1913–1992) of New York University, and expectations were rewarded. He includes anec-
the mathematician and, later, computer scientist dotes and one long dialogue in a corporate his-
Grace Murray Hopper (1906–1992) of Vassar tory featuring brief biographies of the founder,
College. She also discusses the mathematician his son, and later executives. Goodwin adds a
Mina Rees (1902–1997) of Hunter College, who summary account of elevator construction and
served as a civilian administrative assistant at the improvements made to hoisting mechanisms and
Applied Mathematics Panel. Drawing on a wide to the cabs. He is alert to changes over time in
range of oral histories, publications, and manu- principles of management and in the company’s
script sources, Williams considers the training leadership. He introduces aspects of world af-
and wartime experience of each woman in turn. fairs, such as wars or national habits of doing
She gives a clear sense of the work they did and business, that explain the context in which Otis
how it fit within the objectives of wartime sci- flourished or encountered difficulties. The over-
ence. She also considers how the women con- all tone is triumphant, celebrating a company
fronted—or ignored—gender stereotypes and that led its field for many years. As one expects
compares their roles with those of women in in a commissioned history, the author devotes
Great Britain, Germany, and Japan. more space to periods of success than to analyz-
These scientists relished the responsibility and ing inadequacies, though we do learn about
the novelty of their wartime work as well as the problems when ingenious leaders of Otis pro-
opportunity for national service. The experience vided solutions.
transformed their careers. Of the four, only Sears This book will not satisfy those who need a
returned to her prewar position when the fighting clear and compact introductory account of ele-
was over. Straten spent the remainder of her vator technology and construction, although
working life as a civilian meteorologist for the much of the necessary information appears be-
U.S. Navy. Rees did pathbreaking work as an tween pages about personalities and business de-

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
velopment. A reader interested mainly in eleva- sons, Robert M. Solovay, and Jean van
tors and not the Otis company will find it more Heijenoort. xv Ⳮ 407 pp., frontis., illus., bibl.,
efficient to consult an encyclopedia article or a index. 1990. Oxford/New York: Oxford Univer-
publication on building technology. A corporate sity Press, 2001. $34.95 (paper).
history of Otis is not the place to look for all the
innovations by Westinghouse and other rivals or Kurt Gödel. Collected Works. Volume 3: Un-
an analysis of comparative business practices, al- published Essays and Lectures. Edited by Sol-
though Goodwin alludes to them when doing so omon Feferman, John W. Dawson, Jr.,
clarifies the story of the Otis firm. For better- Charles Parsons, and Robert M. Solovay. xx
balanced information, a reader of Isis should Ⳮ 532 pp., frontis., illus., bibl., index. 1995.
look for a more objective source and one that is Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press,
more fully annotated, although perhaps a book 2001. $39.95 (paper).
of that kind has yet to be written.
Goodwin apparently understands how the ma- The collected works of the twentieth century’s
chinery works, but he writes about much of it most famous logician, Kurt Gödel, have been re-
too briskly for a novice to absorb comfortably issued by Oxford University Press in paperback,
and probably has nothing new to teach an in- making this outstanding work of scholarship in
formed reader. While there are illustrations, they the history of logic more widely available.
are lamentably small and have only summary Each item is preceded by a commentary by a
captions; their size is probably not his fault. prominent scholar in the field. These include his-
Large and easily legible diagrams of various torical notes when appropriate. For the works in
types of elevators yielded to the portraits of com- German, the original German appears on the left-
pany leaders that had to be included in a cor- hand page while an English translation appears
porate history. The chronological and technical on the right. The indexes are good and the bib-
history of the elevator and its international var- liography is comprehensive. These features fa-
iations had to be interrupted by accounts of ex- cilitate scholarship. The photographs presented
ecutives’ travels and travails, their personalities in the three volumes lend a human touch to Gö-
and management styles. While accounts of world del and his associates.
affairs often help to explain downturns in busi- As we have entered a new century, Gödel’s
ness, these are so brief as to be hard for people results continue to influence new generations of
to understand if they were not alive at the times scholars. “On Formally Undecidable Proposi-
in question. Occasionally, we read in one chapter tions” has left its mark not only on mathematics
about events that occurred later than those re- and logic but on the whole intellectual arena. Gö-
corded in succeeding chapters, a choice the au- del’s is one of the names associated with the
thor made in order to complete a narrative about transition from modernism to postmodernism.
an executive, marketing techniques, or other The first volume of this series covers this very
matter. important period, 1929–1936. Gödel’s life is set
Goodwin has surely satisfied the Otis execu- into context by John Dawson in a biographical
tives with his lively narrative. I doubt that his sketch and chronology. His mathematical work
book will prove equally rewarding to readers of in Vienna with Hans Hahn and his membership
Isis, but they do not compose the intended au- in Karl Menger’s mathematical colloquium are
dience for a company-sponsored publication, described in the commentaries to the published
whom the author has served well. works from this period. This volume is an in-
CAROL HERSELLE KRINSKY valuable tool for research on the intellectual life
of Vienna in the period between the two wars.
Kurt Gödel. Collected Works. Volume 1: Pub- The second volume finds Gödel dealing with
lications, 1929–1936. Edited by Solomon Fe- the implications of his own work; it presents his
ferman, John W. Dawson, Jr., Stephen C. work at Princeton on the foundations of mathe-
Kleene, Gregory H. Moore, Robert M. Solo- matics and set theory. His friendship with Ein-
vay, and Jean van Heijenoort. xviii Ⳮ 474 pp., stein at the Institute for Advanced Study led to
frontis., illus., bibl., index. 1986. Oxford/New the work on relativity. Throughout this period he
York: Oxford University Press, 2001. $34.95 developed Platonist attitudes toward mathemat-
(paper). ical objects—or perhaps he always had them and
they deepened and became more noticeable dur-
Kurt Gödel. Collected Works. Volume 2: Pub- ing this period.
lications, 1938–1974. Edited by Solomon Fe- Gödel’s later writings, especially the unpub-
ferman, John W. Dawson, Jr., Charles Par- lished essays and lectures presented in the third

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volume, provide excellent sources for contem- liest Years (Morrow, 1972), Lapsley uncritically
porary work on the foundations of mathematics uses sources that should have been probed more
and the philosophy of mathematics, as well as a deeply for psychological insights. Lapsley ap-
historical perspective. pears to have been captivated by Mead’s suc-
LOUISE GOLLAND cessful efforts to forge a publicly acceptable ver-
sion of her relationship with Benedict. The lack
Hilary Lapsley. Margaret Mead and Ruth Ben- of any comparable material exploring Benedict’s
edict: The Kinship of Women. x Ⳮ 351 pp., il- views compounded the problem created by the
lus., bibl., index. Amherst: University of Mas- failure to assess the relationship to any great ex-
sachusetts Press, 1999. $34.95. tent apart from Mead’s publications. The coded
comments in Mead’s texts about her relationship
Hilary Lapsley has written an intellectual biog-
with Benedict and the silence about her partner-
raphy exploring the professional and personal re-
ship with Rhoda Metraux—silence that Me-
lationship between two influential anthropolo-
traux’s editing of Blackberry Winter rein-
gists, Ruth Benedict and Margaret Mead.
Arguably the most famous woman scientists in forced—make Lapsley’s reliance on admittedly
the United States and the best known practition- censored materials all the more inexplicable.
ers of their discipline, Benedict and Mead appear Had Lapsley applied a more rigorous conceptual
in Lapsley’s study as an individual test case of framework, like Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s
the role of collaboration in the production of “epistemology of the closet,” she might have
knowledge. Lapsley’s announced intention is to overcome the gaps and the deliberate omissions
investigate the role of sexuality in women’s in the evidence she used to write about her sub-
friendships, particularly in relationships between jects.
younger and older women, students and teach- Owing to its methodological, disciplinary, and
ers, using the intellectual partnership of Mead conceptual limitations, Lapsley’s examination of
and Benedict as evidence. Lapsley has set herself the “kinship of women” does not fulfill her stated
an impressive agenda; the book—based on a ambitions. Lapsley has recognized the impor-
close examination of the two women’s lives— tance of sexuality in Mead’s and Benedict’s re-
is aimed at scholars interested in the history of lationships with each other and with their other
anthropology and in issues of gender, sexuality, partners, but she develops these issues only mar-
and women’s history. ginally beyond the discussion presented in Mary
Methodologically speaking, Lapsley’s effort Catherine Bateson’s With a Daughter’s Eye: A
disappoints in several crucial ways. Avowedly Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson
exceptional women, Mead and Benedict enjoyed (Morrow, 1984). More successful as an intro-
unusual economic, sexual, and personal indepen- duction to the lives of two intellectuals, Mar-
dence as they developed their twenty-five-year garet Mead and Ruth Benedict: The Kinship of
partnership. An investigation of a singular ex- Women could serve as a text for an undergrad-
ample of same-sex intimacy and intellectual uate course. Its significant limitations mitigate
collaboration does not convince the skeptical against its suitability for more advanced study in
reader that Mead’s and Benedict’s pattern of sex- the history of science, sexuality, or gender.
uality, female friendship, and intellectual part- Scholars already familiar with its sources must
nership can necessarily shed light on the dynam- wait for a biographer to make fuller use of the
ics of other relationships, as the study’s initial parts of the Margaret Mead Papers at the Library
questions assume. The lack of any comparable of Congress that are now being made accessible.
material about other relationships—female, het- Lapsley’s biographical study will disappoint
erosexual, or male—calls into question Lap- scholars interested in learning about the history
sley’s reasons for believing that her examination of anthropology but will inform less experienced
of Mead and Benedict can explain broader pat- readers about the fascinating lives of two of the
terns of interaction. most celebrated women in twentieth-century sci-
Despite the author’s training in psychology, ence.
her acceptance of Mead’s interpretation of her DOLORES E. JANIEWSKI
relationship with Benedict and with other sig-
nificant persons adds another disquieting ele- Allison L. Hepler. Women in Labor: Mothers,
ment to the analysis. Relying primarily on Medicine, and Occupational Health in the
Mead’s biography of Ruth Benedict, An Anthro- United States, 1890–1980. (Women and Health:
pologist at Work (Houghton Mifflin, 1959), and Cultural and Social Perspectives.) xxi Ⳮ 177
her autobiography, Blackberry Winter: My Ear- pp., illus., bibl., index. Columbus: Ohio State

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University Press, 2000. $47.50 (cloth); $18.95 exposing them to reproductive hazards like lead
(paper). “shifted attention and concern from mothers to
unborn children” (p. 117). Feminists and medi-
This addition to Ohio State University Press’s cal researchers in the 1960s and 1970s began to
valuable series “Women and Health” is a thought- label fetal protection policies as discrimination
provoking contribution to the growing body of and to argue that some substances might also be
scholarship on the history of workplace health hazardous to men’s reproductive capacities. The
and safety and offers the most sustained gender policies became increasingly controversial when
analysis of the topic to date. Allison Hepler ar- women workers who had been forced to transfer
gues persuasively that “gender norms helped jobs—and even some who agreed to be steril-
construct concepts of occupational health and ized to keep their jobs—brought lawsuits in the
disease” in the United States (p. 2). The author 1980s, culminating in the 1991 Supreme Court
finds that, from the 1890s through the late twen- decision UAW v. Johnson Controls, Inc., that de-
tieth century, ideas about occupational hazards clared fetal protection policies unconstitutional
were deeply gendered, resulting in “different def- under the pregnancy discrimination provision of
initions of workplace health for women and for the 1964 Civil Rights Act. As Hepler points out,
men” (p. 1). Women’s occupational health was this was an ambiguous victory in that it gener-
always tied to their roles as mothers or potential ated “equal rights to a hazardous workplace” for
mothers, but as the definition of motherhood it- women and men (p. 5).
self changed, so too did attempts to regulate and Valuable as its insights are, Women in Labor
protect women workers. could have benefited from a broader canvas. Al-
A recurring theme of the book is the continual though the book attempts to include the perspec-
tension between two reform approaches: envi- tives of employers, labor unions, and physicians,
ronmentalism, which stressed the interconnect- the vast majority of sources are those of reform-
edness of workplace, community, and home, and ers—familiar figures like (the admittedly fasci-
scientific specificity, which narrowed workplace nating) Alice Hamilton, the Consumers’ League,
hazards to specific substances and their effect on and the Women’s Bureau. Narrow sources lead
individual workers. Hepler argues that environ- to a narrowness of focus—the book never ven-
mentalism, with its emphasis on the fatigue tures beyond white workers and reformers in the
caused by the “double day,” was the moving industrial Northeast, and any race, ethnic, or re-
force behind Progressive Era protective legisla- gional analysis is absent. Still, Hepler’s overall
tion that sought to protect women workers by argument about the gendered nature of occupa-
limiting their hours and excluding them from tional health is convincing and important, and it
jobs deemed hazardous to their health. should be of interest to historians of women, la-
Advances in industrial medicine during the bor, and medicine.
1910s and 1920s led to a shift away from envi- BEATRIX HOFFMAN
ronmentalism toward specificity. As researchers
learned more about the effects of substances like Ben Shephard. A War of Nerves: Soldiers and
lead and benzene on reproductive health, legis- Psychiatrists in the Twentieth Century. xxiv Ⳮ
lation moved from regulating women’s hours to 487 pp., illus., bibl., index. Cambridge, Mass.:
limiting their exposure to particular toxins. Harvard University Press, 2001. $27.95.
These regulations reflected a changing definition
of motherhood that was based more on women’s From shell shock in the Great War to post-
biology than on their social roles. As the struggle traumatic stress disorder after Vietnam, this book
between environmentalism and specificity con- explores psychological problems soldiers devel-
tinued through World War II, both approaches oped in war and the ways doctors diagnosed and
tended to shift responsibility for workplace treated them. Throughout the twentieth century,
health away from the employer and onto the Ben Shephard argues, military psychiatry has
worker: specificity because of its emphasis on served the individual soldier and society best
the uniqueness of individuals’ susceptibility to when there has been creative tension between two
hazards, environmentalism because its linkage of approaches: one that seeks to understand and treat
home and workplace allowed employers to the soldier-patient’s symptoms in all their com-
blame workers’ illnesses on their lifestyles away plexity, the other focused on getting him back
from the job. into battle as quickly as possible.
Hepler examines the rise in the 1950s of em- “Shell shock” was introduced in the medical
ployer “fetal protection policies,” which by ex- literature in 1915 to describe soldiers fighting in
cluding women of childbearing age from jobs trenches who developed hysterical sensory loss,

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weird gaits, shakes, uncontrollable crying, or This is an impressive book for several reasons.
amnesia. They were incapacitated but had no ob- One is Shephard’s skillfully constructed narra-
vious physical wounds. The new diagnosis of- tive, which explores its central theme by show-
fered a quasi-physical explanation (shells ex- ing how the fates of particular individuals de-
ploding nearby somehow affected the brain) that pended on what war, army, front, and battle they
short-circuited talk of cowardice and blame. It fought in, what doctors they encountered when
was extensively covered in the media and enthu- they broke down, and where and how they were
siastically taken up by civilians, soldiers, and treated. The horrors of war as only soldiers on
politicians. Through the summer of 1916 mili- the front lines can know them are unsparingly
tary psychiatry followed the “tender” approach: conveyed in the men’s own words, underscored
specialist hospitals were established in England by reports from other observers and by official
where soldiers evacuated with nervous disorders statistics showing the terrible losses on all sides.
were treated with psychological methods (hyp- Soldiers are represented as agents, however, and
nosis, psychoanalysis, group discussion). After Shephard treats the military and its purposes se-
terrible losses in the battle of the Somme, how- riously; this is not an account of passive victims
ever, every able-bodied soldier was needed. and an inherently evil institution. “To get at the
Military psychiatry reoriented toward less intro- historical truth,” the author says, “the case his-
spective, more pull-up-your-socks treatments tories must be reconciled with another, less
near the front, and there were far fewer psychi- enticing body of writing: official histories, war
atric casualties the following year in the fighting diaries, regimental histories, Pentagon memo-
at Flanders (“Passchendaele”). After the war an randa—dull, managerial, impersonal in tone and
official committee reviewed the Army’s han- full of military euphemism, the ‘tough school’ ”
dling of shell-shock cases, recommending (p. xxi). Shephard weaves material from these
prompt treatment close to the front with simple different sources together with unusual skill,
methods (prolonged treatment in England had alerting the reader to the sources’ possible bi-
often made things worse) and avoidance in the ases, juxtaposing different perspectives of the
future of terms like “shell shock,” which might same events, allowing the actors to speak for
offer a tempting way out for malingerers. themselves, and giving his own judgments on the
As World War II approached, with large num- complex, morally serious—and timely—ques-
bers of veterans already receiving pensions for tions that arise from his inquiry.
nervous disorders, a stricter pension policy and MARY BROWN PARLEE
a more restrictive definition of war neuroses
were adopted. Military psychiatrists in World 䡲 Recent (1950–)
War II treated soldier-patients from Dunkirk
who had suffered psychological collapse, civil- Tom D. Crouch. Aiming for the Stars: The
ians who cracked during the Blitz, Royal Air Dreamers and Doers of the Space Age. ix Ⳮ
Force fighter pilots who broke down after re- 338 pp., illus., tables, bibl., index. Washington,
peated bombing raids, and soldiers returning D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999.
from prisoner-of-war camps in Europe and in the $16.95 (paper).
Pacific. They were involved in personnel selec-
tion to weed out recruits likely to develop psy- Aiming for the Stars—Tom Crouch’s engaging
chological problems. For many reasons, includ- history of space travel—begins with flights of
ing a booming post–World War II economy that the imagination and carries the story through the
enabled veterans to return quickly to work and dramatic achievements of the Soviet and Amer-
family life, psychiatric casualties were much ican space programs. Crouch is well known as a
lower than in the Great War. Though Shephard’s senior curator of aeronautics at the Smithson-
main focus is on soldiers and psychiatrists in the ian’s National Air and Space Museum and the
British military, he uses a comparative approach author of the definitive biography of the Wright
throughout, considering policies and practices in brothers. Aiming for the Stars is a synthesis of
the German, French, and U.S. military to draw work in space history produced over the past
inferences about what does and does not work, thirty years by both professional historians and
and why, and from whose perspective. His chap- participants in NASA’s space program. Crouch’s
ter on psychiatry and the treatment of soldiers insights reveal the hand of a master historian
who developed psychological problems after re- steeped in aerospace history. He tells the story
turning to the United States from Vietnam draws of space travel with freshness and gusto.
out similarities and differences between shell Crouch begins with a description of the radical
shock and post-traumatic stress disorder. reorganization of the heavens achieved by the

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Copernican revolution. Johannes Kepler’s pre- in fact it proved an exceptionally expensive en-
diction in Somnium that the moon might some- terprise. The loss of Challenger in 1986 raised
day be visited by human beings was taken up by questions as to whether spaceflight would ever
science fiction writers of the nineteenth century. become routine. Crouch’s discussion of NASA’s
Crouch discusses how Jules Verne’s tales of unmanned program is disappointing. The book
journeys to the moon and H. G. Wells’s War of ends thoughtfully. Crouch thinks that despite the
the Worlds shaped the imaginations of some of “relentlessly hostile” environment of space and
the early pioneers of rocketry. Crouch has a gift the extraordinary frailty of human beings, it’s
for seizing the telling fact, often letting the likely that we will someday “set out on the ul-
“dreamers and doers” speak for themselves. For timate journey to the stars” (p. 314). Telling its
example, he notes that after reading Verne, Con- story with scholarly integrity and grace, Aiming
stantin Tsiolkovsky was “assailed by a sense of for the Stars is a delightful book, appropriate for
longing” (p. 25). Tsiolkovsky rejected Verne’s the general reader and students in courses on
imagined cannon-shell design for a space vehicle twentieth-century technology.
in favor of one propelled by a reaction motor, VIRGINIA P. DAWSON
essentially laying down the theoretical concepts
of liquid-fueled rockets. Errol Vieth. Screening Science: Contexts, Texts,
While the work of Tsiolkovsky and Herman and Science in Fifties Science Fiction Film. v Ⳮ
Oberth helped fan a rocket craze in Europe, the 263 pp., illus., tables, bibl., index. Lanham, Md.:
experiments of Robert Goddard in America re- Scarecrow Press, 2001. $55 (cloth).
mained largely unknown. His secretiveness kept
creative young engineers like Frank Malina at Researchers who examine science fiction films
the California Institute of Technology from cap- tend to ignore the “science” and focus instead on
italizing on his work. Hence the development of such films as “cultural products” revealing con-
rocket technology occurred not in the United temporary concerns. With 1950s science fiction
States but in Germany and the Soviet Union films, this usually leads to a simplistic scholarly
prior to World War II. mantra of three C’s—Communism, Conformity,
Drawing on research by Michael Neufeld in and Catastrophe—telling us little, or nothing,
The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the about science in fiction except as it relates to
Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era (Free Press, nuclear fears and anxiety over scientific prog-
1995), one of Crouch’s most provocative chap- ress.
ters reveals the moral ambiguities of the devel- Despite covering well-explored territory, Er-
opment of the V-2 at Peenemünde during World rol Vieth frequently avoids this trap and contrib-
War II. Crouch describes Dora, the V-2 factory utes some novel insights to the study of 1950s
in the Hartz Mountains where captive workers science fiction films, particularly in his use of
toiled under the harshest conditions. He does not lesser-known “B” movies and his discussion of
excuse the failure of German engineers like Ar- these films’ dependence on the context of the
thur Rudolf to take responsibility for the atroci- film industry. His most valuable contribution to
ties that occurred at Dora, nor the young the discussion comes in the book’s second half,
Wernher von Braun’s reluctance to acknowledge where he moves beyond the three C’s to examine
his membership in the elite Nazi S.S. corps. the films as science fiction, actually taking their
Although Walter McDougall’s masterful relationship to science into account. For exam-
. . . The Heavens and the Earth: A Political His- ple, he demonstrates that in science fiction films
tory of the Space Age (Basic, 1985) covers much the human sciences (medicine and psychiatry)
of the same ground in describing the space race represent the concept of “community” and are
between the two superpowers in the 1960s, put in opposition to a nonhuman science (e.g.,
Crouch’s interesting and succinct discussions of physics) that “seeks to impose the coldness of
both programs are revealing. The failures of the its rationality on the rest of the community”
American program occurred in the full light of (p. 188).
press coverage, while behind the brilliant pro- Most important, Vieth shows how filmmakers
paganda successes of the Soviet space program use “educative” devices within science fiction
were even more tragic failures and loss of life. films (film-within-a-film, voiceovers, scientist
With the winding down of the space race, “lectures”) to establish science as the only legit-
Aiming for the Stars loses some of its heroic cast. imate means of ascertaining “truth.” These de-
The final chapters are less interesting. Crouch vices reflect science’s supposed objective tone
points out that although NASA proposed the in order to persuade audiences that what they are
space shuttle as a means to reduce launch costs, viewing represents “fact.” In essence, filmmak-

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ers are coopting science’s legitimacy and social Atomic Clock. Translated by Stephen Lyle.
power to establish “the possibility that the events 346 pp., illus., figs., tables, index. New York:
constructed in the film could occur,” allowing Cambridge University Press, 2001. $110 (cloth);
the audience to “suspend disbelief ” (p. 203). $39.95 (paper).
Vieth argues that by using science to establish
the veracity of filmic events, filmmakers are re- This is a translation of Les fondements de la me-
inforcing the notion that science is the only le- sure du temps (Masson, 1998)—a generally ad-
gitimate venue for uncovering “truth.” equate translation, but one that lacks grace and,
While this argument is compelling, Vieth, like occasionally, clarity. It is not, nor excepting one
most who study science fiction, ignores scien- chapter is it intended to be, a historical account:
tists’ role in the construction of many 1950s sci- that one chapter, “The Evolution of Time Mea-
ence fiction films. In his discussion of Destina- surement” (Ch. 4), apart, “this book is devoted
tion Moon (1950), for example, he notes that the to presenting a snapshot of time measurement as
goal of an inserted cartoon was to convince the it is practiced at the time of writing” and is in-
audience of space travel’s “feasibility and ne- tended “as an introduction for graduate students
cessity” so they would “support other real-world or researchers entering the fields of time and fre-
proposals for space exploration” (p. 166). How- quency metrology and precise astronomical ob-
ever, the notion that this cartoon serves to pro- servation” (p. 38). Claude Audoin and Bernard
mote a scientific social agenda makes sense only Guinot are the leading French authorities on, re-
if those making the film have a stake in con- spectively, atomic clocks—that is, physical in-
vincing the audience to increase funding for struments for producing highly regular electro-
space exploration. While producer George Pal magnetic oscillations from transitions between
was indeed interested in rocketry, space travel intra-atomic energy states—and the establish-
was of a deeper concern to the scientists (Robert ment and comparison of astronomic and atomic
S. Richardson, Wernher Von Braun, Hermann time scales—that is, algorithms for piecing to-
Oberth, and scientists from CalTech) and sci- gether into a single, optimal, “paper” clock the
entific experts (the artist Chesley Bonestell and atomic oscillations in dozens of standards labo-
the writer Robert Heinlein) who helped with the ratories around the world and reconciling them
construction of the film, including the propagan- with the “clocks” given us by the alternation of
distic cartoon. Therefore, Vieth ignores the night and day and the motions of astronomic
power that this film had as a persuasive tool for bodies generally.
science consultants who really had a stake in In combining these two closely related but es-
promoting science’s legitimacy as a knowledge sentially different topics, the book is unusual. It
system. is more valuable for the latter material, its two
Additionally, many of his arguments about chapters on time scales (Chs. 7 and 8, pp. 236–
science’s impact on science fiction film fall flat, 286), of which overviews are much harder to
such as his discussion of marriage and science come by. These complications of calendaring
(pp. 143–144); he uses the phrase “discourse of that have arisen with the past century’s advances
science” too many times without actually defin- in metrology have an inherent interest for the
ing what he means by it; and he conflates the historian. Moreover, notwithstanding the au-
notion of “scientific accuracy” with special ef- thors’ intent to present “a snapshot,” it is hardly
fects. He also falls prey to the three C’s for much possible for an exposition of time scales to be
of the book’s first half, retreading arguments otherwise than historical. Indeed, the historian
made by Mark Jancovich, Cyndy Hendershot, can only regret that Guinot, who has in his fifty
Patrick Lucanio, and others. years in the field been at the center of the entire
Despite these problems, Screening Science is development, did not succumb still farther to his
an excellent introduction for those unfamiliar inclination to recount the changing desiderata
with scholarship on 1950s science fiction films. that drove what is, after all, as much institutional
For scholars in the field, Vieth’s discussion of as scientific change and write an entire book on
science’s role in science fiction films is enough this, his special subject.
to recommend the book, and I highly commend In nature and practice the two topics of The
him for including a study of science when ana- Measurement of Time are linked by the science
lyzing science fiction. and technology of synchronization, that is, the
DAVID A. KIRBY comparison of clocks sitting side by side and the
very different matter of comparison of clocks
Claude Audoin; Bernard Guinot. The Mea- that are not. Here Guinot provides a chapter
surement of Time: Time, Frequency, and the (Ch. 3) on the role of relativity, particularly gen-

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
eral relativity, Einstein’s theory of gravitation, our universe, for there are many cosmic pro-
in the rate and reading of clocks. In this the book cesses that emit the bulk of their energy at in-
is unusual, but, as the authors aptly note, “an visible wavelengths. In Revealing the Universe,
important consequence of progress in time mea- Wallace and Karen Tucker describe the efforts
surement for the history of science is that general of astronomers to extend their telescopic vision
relativity has become an essential tool in me- into the X-ray portion of the spectrum, with a
trology and in practical applications” (p. 61). In- focus on the decades-long struggle to design,
deed, today in this way general relativity impacts build, and launch the Chandra X-ray satellite.
every motorist with a GPS receiver on his dash- (X-rays cannot penetrate the earth’s atmosphere;
board. hence the need for a balloon-borne, rocket-
Common to all realizations of a “clock”—or, borne, or orbiting detector.) Targeting various
rather, the frequency standard beating “inside” cosmic “hot spots,” such as galaxy cores, super-
the “clock”—whether atomic, quartz, mechani- novas, neutron stars, and black holes, the Chan-
cal, or astronomical, is characterization by the dra observatory’s scientific yield is indisputable.
parameters’ accuracy (rate) and stability (unifor- Yet, given the many technical, political, admin-
mity of rate). Such characterizations are, again, istrative, and financial obstacles strewn across
necessarily based on comparison with other Chandra’s path, it’s a wonder the satellite ever
clocks. Here a lengthy chapter on “clock time” got off the ground.
(Ch. 5) develops these concepts, which them- The Tuckers were well positioned to compile
selves, and more particularly “stability,” were re- this episodic saga of science on the march. Wal-
fined and elaborated only in the past half century lace Tucker, a Ph.D. physicist, is spokesman for
in conjunction with the development of atomic the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s
clocks. The chapter concludes with a discussion Chandra X-ray Center, and his wife Karen is
of the physical means for comparing spatially staff science writer there. (Their previous book,
separated clocks and the uncertainties introduced The Cosmic Inquirers [iUniverse.com, 2000], re-
thereby. counts the hurdles faced by builders of large
Then follows the “snapshot” exposition of ground-based telescopes.) Revealing the Uni-
“atomic frequency standards” (Ch. 6, pp. 109– verse opens with a brief history of the telescope
236). The several types are touched upon, but and the subsequent extension of its capabilities
the focus is on cesium-beam standards, both the to nonoptical wavelengths. The authors chroni-
classical type employing magnetic state selec- cle X-ray astronomy’s arc of progress from
tion and those of the past decade’s “renaissance” 1960s-era balloon- and rocket-borne detectors,
employing lasers both to select atomic states which yielded only a few minutes of usable data
through optical pumping, leading to a significant per flight, to the first satellite-based detector—
decrease in bulk and increase in stability, and, Uhuru in 1970—which not only radioed to earth
especially, to increase accuracy tremendously by some fourteen hours of data each day but per-
greatly reducing the velocities of the cesium at- mitted long-term monitoring of individual celes-
oms through Doppler-shifted resonant scatter- tial objects. Uhuru revealed only the position,
ing. The book ends with a brief chapter on ap- size, and intensity of cosmic X-ray sources. Nev-
plications of ultraprecise time and frequency, ertheless, it provided the first compelling obser-
which touches on only a small sample of the vational evidence for the existence of black holes
many applications. and also demonstrated the ubiquity of X-ray-
PAUL FORMAN emitting objects in our galaxy. With Uhuru’s
lead, astronomers dreamed of launching a true
Wallace Tucker; Karen Tucker. Revealing the X-ray telescope that could image celestial ob-
Universe: The Making of the Chandra X-Ray jects. Quick success was achieved with the Ein-
Observatory. viii Ⳮ 295 pp., illus., figs., bibl., stein X-ray Observatory in 1978. The road to its
index. Cambridge, Mass./London: Harvard Uni- more capable successor, Chandra (after the noted
versity Press, 2001. $27.95. astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar),
was much longer, ending only in 1999 when the
Astronomers explore the universe by analyzing space shuttle released the huge satellite from its
the luminous emissions of celestial objects. Until cargo bay.
the middle of the twentieth century, however, the Revealing the Universe provides a behind-the-
only celestial emissions being studied at the tele- scenes glimpse at the underside of “big sci-
scope were those detectable by the human eye ence”—Chandra’s mirrors alone cost a few hun-
or the photographic plate. This “optical” repre- dred million dollars—where scientific merit
sentation is necessarily an incomplete view of comes hard up against fiscal and political reality.

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
Piloting an esoteric billion-dollar project to suc- systems—whole, integrated, naturally self-

cess is difficult under any circumstances, even regulating, resilient ecosystems. This was a
more so when that project offers no practical vision that struck a chord with its American
benefit to society. Chandra’s proponents had to readers from the very beginning and has had
maneuver as well through the political minefield some limited influence abroad as well. Craige
created by the Hubble Space Telescope’s bal- makes that point repeatedly. Odum’s was the
looning budget and flawed mirror. Here we main ecology textbook read by American envi-
learn, for example, how NASA administrators ronmentalists during the height of the environ-
promote pet projects, how a project’s viability mental movement, from the late 1960s through
can hinge on a single congressional voice, and the 1970s.
how years easily stretch into decades when ne- This textbook, strongly influenced by Eu-
gotiating the bureaucratic maze. The authors gene’s precocious younger brother Howard T.
delve into life stories and personalities, often re- Odum, a student of G. Eveleyn Hutchinson, was
casting their interviews into point-counterpoint not without its critics. Howard provided the em-
exchanges. Fascinating anecdotes abound (e.g., phasis on biogeochemical cycles and the eco-
the Einstein Observatory’s mirror assembly was system diagrams that looked like electrical cir-
nearly destroyed while being loaded onto a cuits. Eugene’s contribution, besides writing the
truck). The book’s dramatic elements make for bulk of the text, was to link the ecosystem con-
a rousing tale of impending deadlines, dashed cept to the older tradition in American ecol-
hopes, and shifting allegiances. In the end, Chan- ogy—associated with Frederic Clements and
dra made it to orbit and the astronomers drank with his own mentor, Victor Shelford—that em-
champagne as images of a once-invisible uni- phasized the succession of biotic communities
verse arrived. Revealing the Universe is more leading to the ultimate, and supposedly stable,
than a chronicle of one scientific achievement; it climax community. Although he modified his
is a tribute to human perseverance and chutzpah. teleological view slightly in the 1980s, in Eu-
ALAN W. HIRSHFELD gene Odum’s hands the ecosystem became a
broader and more complete version of the cli-
Betty Jean Craige. Eugene Odum: Ecosystem max. The climax concept had already come un-
Ecologist and Environmentalist. xxii Ⳮ 226 pp., der severe criticism by the time Odum published
apps., notes, bibl., index. Athens: University of the first edition of Fundamentals, in 1953, but
Georiga Press, 2001. $34.95 (cloth). one does not learn that from Craige’s book. Most
of the historical analysis and philosophical dis-
Betty Jean Craige, a friend and colleague at the cussion is based either on conversations with
University of Georgia, has written a sympathetic Odum or on a handful of secondary sources.
portrait of Eugene Odum, his family, his long These issues required a broader, deeper, and
and happy marriage to a talented landscape artist, more refined perspective.
and his many activities promoting ecological sci- The introduction is a jumble of historical
ence and environmentalism throughout the misconceptions, oversimplifications, and half-
United States. This is not a serious historical developed philosophical arguments regarding
study of the man and his influence. While the holism, reductionism, and their social implica-
author may not have set out to produce such a tions. This pattern of confusion is repeated in
study, she nevertheless calls attention to histori- various sections of the ensuing chapters, particu-
cal themes and philosophical issues that deserve larly toward the end of the book. The first three
fuller treatment than are offered here. Odum had chapters, dealing with Odum’s early life and his
been a major figure in American ecology and turn toward ecosystem ecology, are not without
environmentalism for half a century. Although problems but are by far the most interesting and
he established the Savannah River Ecological helpful for the historian. Craige makes clear the
Laboratory, founded and directed the Institute of enduring influence on both Odum brothers of
Ecology at the University of Georgia, helped set their famous sociologist father, the southern re-
up research facilities at various other sites, and gionalist Howard W. Odum. She also nicely ties
led a successful campaign to protect Georgia’s Eugene’s early interest in bird physiology to the
coastal wetlands, he will be remembered best for functional view of community ecology that he
the three editions of his textbook, Fundamentals developed later. The new ecosystem concept,
of Ecology (Saunders, 1953, 1959, 1971), argu- promoted by brother Howard and then encour-
ably the most influential ecology textbook ever aged by the Atomic Energy Commission, con-
published. The appeal of the book was its per- cerned as it was with fallout from bomb tests and
sistent vision of ecology as the science of eco- the disposal of nuclear waste, provided the per-

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fect conceptual framework for Eugene to de- Readers should not, however, look here for the
velop his top-down, holistic approach to ecol- scholar’s perspective on Goldberg, or even for
ogy, which was criticized by more rigorous, more than the most cursory biographical infor-
empirically oriented ecologists but embraced mation. For that, the best source is still probably
widely by environmentalists. Craige devotes the Peter C. Marzio’s thirty-year-old Rube Gold-
final three chapters of this short book (the main berg: His Life and Work (Harper & Row, 1973).
text runs to only 144 pages) to Odum’s influence Goldberg’s long career incorporated much
among environmentalists, his responses to crit- more than his inventions, as this book’s bio-
ics, and his many honors, often with unneeded graphical introduction notes. Indeed, Goldberg
repetition. While she makes clear Odum’s pas- helped to define many of the possibilities of the
sionate concern for environmental problems and cartoon in the twentieth century, both as art and
his persistent desire to see ecological science as statement. The current book is notable for be-
from the broadest possible perspective, Craige’s ing perhaps the best collection available of the
treatment of the underlying social and philo- “Inventions” cartoons for which Goldberg is best
sophical issues is incomplete and disappointing. known. Presented here are about 150 inventions,
She was perhaps too close to her subject. from about two thousand Goldberg drew be-
EUGENE CITTADINO tween 1914 and 1964. They are published here
unedited (this is obvious from the examples in
Maynard Frank Wolfe. Rube Goldberg: Inven- which the cartoon legend’s A-B-C system does
tions. 192 pp., illus., bibl. New York/London: not match the actual drawing’s notations) but in
Simon & Schuster, 2000. $25 (cloth). some cases graphically enhanced from their
original newspaper versions. The one glaring
How to publish an interesting but imperfect omission, particularly from the historian’s per-
book: Select famous cartoonist (A), write brief spective, is any reference to the dates or sources
but useful biographical introduction (B), which of the cartoons. This book cannot, therefore, be
leads to thematic selections of famous inven- used at all to get a sense of how Goldberg’s own
tions: (C ) eating and drinking, (D) sports and style or tastes changed over time, nor can it be
games, (E ) traveling, (F ) work and money, used as an entry point to the original publica-
(G) political life, (H ) et cetera; attach brief dis- tions.
cussion of collection of sketches (I ) and even For the historian of science and technology,
briefer bibliography (J ); and take to reputable
publisher (K ), which then reproduces cartoons
and text in attractively designed format (L) and
sends out review copies to respectable journals
(M—in your hands).
The fact that we instantly recognize this for-
mula (and no doubt instantly recognize that its
application here is a poor parody of the original)
is just one testament to the place that Reuben
Lucius Goldberg’s (1883–1970) astonishing
fifty-year outpouring of imaginary inventions
made for itself in twentieth-century American
culture. To describe something as “Rube Gold-
berg” is to conjure up images of needless com-
plexity, improbable construction, and relatively
trivial results, whether it is applied to a house-
hold gadget or a national tax code. While the
term and its associations may not have the same
force they had in the mid-twentieth century,
when Goldberg’s cartoons still poured out
weekly hilarity, there is nothing particularly
dated about the notion of complexity gone hay-
wire, and new generations will continue to en-
counter this special notion of invention. For Rube Goldberg’s fictional Professor Lucifer
them, and for those who would simply like to Gorgonzola Butts (1920) and one of his
linger over the sources of the Rube Goldberg inventions (from Wolfe, Rube Goldberg:
image of the world, this book will be welcome. Inventions, p. 17).

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Goldberg’s inventions invite a bit of reflection ory, central place theory, concentric zone theory,
about our notions of cause and effect, of tech- and systems analysis—to develop a richer un-
nological design and function, of the fine line derstanding of the city.
between sense and nonsense in the technological Indeed, Melosi’s signature subject—gar-
world. The “cognitive dissonance” that is the bage—remains central to this study as he ex-
basis of effective humor is, as Arthur Koestler plores the history of air, land, water, and noise
once pointed out, also the source of scientific and pollution and policy. In the final essay he ex-
technical creativity. Goldberg’s inventions amines environmental racism—those policies
“work” because they rely on certain shared no- that have left certain minorities and the poor to
tions about how things work in the world, and it live in toxic environments. He argues that efforts
is instructive to go through a collection of them to bring about environmental justice are not new,
to identify what these notions are. There is, of though modern advocates seek to empower their
course, basic mechanical linkage and force, in- movement by arguing that they are. Rather, peo-
cluding gravity (something usually drops on ple have sought environmental justice through-
something else, and levers, springs, pulleys, and out the past century, to various degrees and for
flowing fluids are basic elements of most ma- various reasons. Fear of disease and paternalism
chines). But there is more: many devices require drove urban environmental reform efforts during
a wonderful suspension of notions of time—wa- the Progressive Era.
ter is released, dropping on a plant, which then My only quibble with Melosi is that I would
must grow upward to force the next action. A argue that some of the themes that he traces to
great variety of machines depend on psycholog- the Progressive period in fact began earlier. In
ical responses: a block of ice descends before a particular, civil engineers began to profession-
penguin, which then generates a blast of air by alize and to influence sanitary policy in the
flapping its wings in delight; hunger, love, fright, 1850s, 1860s, and 1870s. This happened as cities
pain, annoyance, and excitement are other re- assumed new responsibilities to protect the pub-
quired responses, from either humans or ani- lic health. For example, New York City, Chi-
mals. Goldberg’s world—our world—is thus cago, and Brooklyn all began to build sewage
one that works by recognizable rules, but for un- systems in these decades, and their states hired
fathomable (or, at least, implausible) purposes. and empowered engineers to play pivotal roles
Perhaps there is, then, a closer resemblance here in infrastructure planning and construction.
to the world of science than first meets the eye. Though the threat of disease, rather than notions
ROBERT FRIEDEL of environmental racism, prompted these reform
efforts, engineers and sanitary reform advocates
Martin V. Melosi. Effluent America: Cities, created and implemented policies to improve the
Industry, Energy, and the Environment. xiii Ⳮ urban environment. Admittedly, their place in
344 pp., bibl., index. Pittsburgh: University of city government became significantly more se-
Pittsburgh Press, 2001. $50 (cloth); $19.95 cure and their influence more profound during
(paper). the Progressive Era.
It is noteworthy that this effort to consider is-
In Effluent America Martin Melosi revisits the sues of pollution and reform within the context
field of urban history and places it within the of urban ecology and environmental justice has
context of environmental history. In numerous evolved over time. Indeed, in Effluent America
essays he reviews the literature, including his Melosi takes us on his intellectual journey that
own past work, examining the city as an evolv- began with a graduate seminar some three de-
ing space that is continually shaped and reshaped cades ago and developed through the numerous
by nature, demographic change, and human ac- essays and monographs that he has since pro-
tion. He concludes that the field has become in- duced. The reader will see themes that Melosi,
creasingly specialized and thus its impact on and others, have explored: the role of the sanitary
urban policy increasingly limited. Suggesting engineer in progressive urban reform, changing
another direction for scholarship, he calls for a perceptions of pollution and waste disposal, and
holistic understanding of the city, one that places patterns of public liability, legislation, and regu-
urban history within the context of environmen- lation regarding environmental practices. How-
tal history. This conception continues to embrace ever, this book is not merely a review of the
the organic theory of the city that was developed relevant literature. Rather, in presenting Me-
some two hundred years ago. However, Melosi losi’s work collectively, with the urban environ-
suggests that historians might apply the tenets of ment as the contextual focus, this volume
social science theory—including location the- amounts to more than the simple sum of its parts.

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The case for adopting this sophisticated concep- ume of materials managed, to be completed thus
tion of the environment—which encompasses far. It was the subject of a hard and long political
rural, urban, and suburban regions, virginal and battle from its birthing in the early 1970s, as the
improved spaces, and natural resources and their AEC tried to make do with small, localized
resulting waste products—is compelling. There- cleanup endeavors. It took two changes of fed-
fore, I enthusiastically recommend this book for eral agencies during the 1970s—from the AEC
scholars and students of environmental and ur- to the Energy Research and Development Ad-
ban history. ministration (ERDA) in 1973, and then from the
JOANNE ABEL GOLDMAN ERDA to the Department of Energy in 1977—
as well as stiff congressional will, for the
Eric W. Mogren. Warm Sands: Uranium Mill UMTRA Project to get under way. Even though
Tailings Policy in the American West. x Ⳮ the project performed herculean amounts of
241 pp., illus., notes, bibl., index. Albuquerque: work, Mogren concludes that its “most salient
University of New Mexico Press, 2002. $34.95 feature . . . was the lassitude with which it was
(cloth). carried out” (p. 175). The project slowed owing
to political pressures and in the end was funded
Warm Sands: Uranium Mill Tailings Policy in primarily by taxpayers instead of by the uranium
the American West tells the story of an important industry that had benefited from milling produc-
chapter in American nuclear history. It details tion over the years. “Given the level of political
the rush to find and exploit uranium deposits in and administrative hostility to [the UMTRA
Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona dur- Project], . . . it is perhaps surprising that it ever
ing the early Cold War years and the subsequent survived at all” (p. 176).
radiation spreads and cleanup work associated Although Mogren’s book has many excellent
with the huge residues of uranium mining and features and is a useful and needed addition to
milling. By researching and relating this here- the body of knowledge on American nuclear his-
tofore untold story, Eric Mogren adds a key link tory, it suffers from its own bluntness. The au-
to our historical understanding of the U.S. thor repeats his personal conclusions as to the
atomic legacy and the dominance of federal sup- AEC’s perfidy numerous times and speaks can-
port for atomic projects in the Cold War years. didly of America’s “Faustian bargain with the
Mogren is painstaking in recounting the boom atom” (p. 176). No doubt many historians and
in uranium exploration and the building of mills readers would agree with these conclusions.
and in describing the three major pathways by However, sometimes the more subtle approach
which radioactive contamination spread through of letting the massively marshaled facts speak
the environment. Stream- and river-borne con- for themselves has a more startling and lasting
tamination, air-borne contamination from tail- effect on the reader.
ings piles, and the use of tailings as construction MICHELE S. GERBER
materials in roads and buildings were discovered
slowly in the affected areas. According to Mo- Donald F. McLean. Restoring Baird’s Image.
gren, however, contamination of the environ- (IEE History of Technology Series, 27.) xx Ⳮ
ment, as well as direct worker exposure, could 295 pp., illus., table, bibl., index. London: Insti-
have been noted sooner had the Atomic Energy tute of Electrical Engineers, 2000. $55.
Commission (AEC) performed its safeguarding
duties more aggressively and openly. He strongly Russell Burns. John Logie Baird: Television
condemns the AEC throughout the book, stating Pioneer. (IEE History of Technology Series, 28.)
in the introduction, for example, that “it [the xxvi Ⳮ 417 pp., illus., tables, apps., index. Lon-
AEC] made little effort, in its position as the na- don: Institute of Electrical Engineers, 2000. $95.
tion’s leading authority on atomic matters, to ad-
vocate changes in federal laws and policies that Historians of science and technology in the
might have prevented or remediated mill tailings United States may not be familiar with John Lo-
contamination. Indeed, the agency did all it could gie Baird or the system of “mechanical” televi-
to downplay tailings hazards” (p. 6). sion that he developed in the early twentieth cen-
Likewise, Mogren thoroughly documents the tury. In Great Britain, however, Baird has for
eventual cleanup program, the massive Uranium many years been something of a cult figure—
Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Proj- particularly in Scotland, where he is a local hero.
ect, which took place from 1978 to 1998. Taken His rather romantic career has garnered consid-
as a whole, the UMTRA Project was the world’s erable attention from enthusiasts and amateur
largest nuclear cleanup project, in terms of vol- historians determined to establish what they see

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
as Baird’s rightful place in the history of tele- in today’s television) that a whole image was
vision. The Institute of Electrical Engineers in visible, rather that a single point of light.
Britain has published two works on Baird si- Baird’s most lasting contribution to the de-
multaneously, and each represents an admirable velopment of television is related to his steward-
achievement that elevates the quality of schol- ship of the development project to its completion
arship on the life and works of the inventor. and his ability to convince the British Broad-
Undoubtedly part of Baird’s allure stems from casting Corporation to begin experimental
the fact that he was somewhat of an outsider to broadcasts as early as 1929. In March 1930 the
the engineering community in Great Britain, not first “televisor” receivers went on sale to the
to mention the international radio establishment public; despite the cost, the tiny viewing screen,
as it developed in the 1920s and 1930s. Less a and the very crude quality of the images, a few
company man than a lone inventor, Baird owes of the sets were actually sold. Broadcasts contin-
his individuality in part to his humble back- ued sporadically until 1939, when the British en-
ground in a small town near Glasgow. After ob- try into World War II halted Baird’s progress.
taining a rather ordinary education at the local When television broadcasting resumed after
technical college, he set out to become an entre- World War II, the Baird system seemed less
preneur. His early business ventures in the first practical than its rivals using electronic CRT dis-
decade of the twentieth century all reflected his plays and a new form of electronic camera. In
considerable pluck, and accounts of these trifling the meantime, Baird’s experiments went on, and
enterprises reinforce the sense that here was an he introduced several innovations aimed at pub-
underdog with considerable ambition. The Baird lic “theater” television, color television, and
of these books is the determined and clever “talking” television (the earliest system did not
Scotsman, periodically destitute but always dis- include sound).
covering new ways to transform a shilling into The biography by Russell Burns is the broader
a pound. of the two works, presenting the life of the in-
In 1923 Baird turned to inventing and soon ventor in a well-written narrative style. The au-
patented a system of “mechanical” television. thor’s research is evidently quite thorough, and
There had been many proposals for television, when speculation is necessary he makes the lim-
dating back to the beginning of practical teleg- itations of the evidence quite clear. While he is
raphy in the mid-nineteenth century. Baird’s sys-
overtly sympathetic to Baird, Burn’s mild ro-
tem was not entirely novel, but it did work. Un-
manticization of his subject does not detract
fortunately, he committed nearly two decades to
from the work’s high quality. Donald McLean’s
developing a form of television that would ulti-
volume contains a much more limited biography
mately be rejected. While today the universal
but focuses on Baird’s “phonovision,” a system
form of the technology is “electronic” television,
which employs electron devices in the display for recording television on phonograph disks.
and camera, in the early twentieth century many While at the time phonovision was one of several
thought that the cathode-ray tube (CRT) would possible improvements suggested by Baird, it
never work well enough to present an acceptable has taken on a new significance owing to the
image, and there was no electronic camera to survival to the present day of several recorded
complement the CRT display. Therefore, several disks. Much of McLean’s work is concerned
early television inventors relied on mechanical with the story of these disks and with the docu-
imaging systems, which used large, rotating mentation of the processes he used to reproduce
disks perforated by a spiral of holes. In front of them using modern equipment. The Baird phono-
such a disk was placed the object to be televised, vision disks are certainly the earliest extant ex-
while behind the disk was a device (such as a amples of television content. Both these books
semiconductor photodetector) capable of trans- are quite well done, and they will be valuable
lating bursts of photons into an electric current. references for many years.
The disk acted to “break up” the image of the DAVID L. MORTON, JR.
televised object into small packets of light,
which could be detected serially and transmitted J. Krige; A. Russo; L. Sebesta. A History of the
to a television receiver as a stream of discrete European Space Agency, 1958–1987. Volume
pulses. The receiver would use another rotating 1: The Story of ESRO and ELDO, 1958–1973.
disk to interrupt light emitted by a small bulb, Volume 2: The Story of ESA, 1973–1987. Fore-
the brightness of which was controlled by the words by Reimar Lüst, Antonio Rodotà, and
incoming electric pulses. In the eye, persistence K.-E. Reuter. xv Ⳮ 462 Ⳮ xvi Ⳮ 703 pp., il-
of vision would make it appear (as it does also lus., tables, apps., bibls., indexes. Noordwijk,

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Netherlands: European Space Agency Publica- stitute in Florence. While ESA officially sup-
tions, 2000. €75. ported the project, the massive text (nearly
twelve hundred pages in large format) is note-
Although formally unconnected to the European worthy for its intellectual independence and
Union, the European Space Agency (ESA) has willingness to criticize the organization and its
had a parallel trajectory: a slow and unsteady predecessors. These two volumes are also nota-
rise, marked by difficult negotiations among di- ble for their smooth English prose, reflecting the
verse nations, to a position of considerable sig- contributions and editorial hand of Krige. Still,
nificance. At least in monetary terms, “Europe” these books really form a reference work, rather
(i.e., Western Europe) is now the second space than a single, readable narrative, as they are com-
power as a result of ESA’s success and the imposed of chapters written by different authors,
poverished condition of the Russian program. with considerable overlap and repetition. This is
The Ariane rocket currently captures half the often tedious but largely unavoidable, as the au-
market for commercial satellite launches. ESA thors must discuss complicated multinational ne-
itself was created only in 1975, however, as the gotiations that impacted on multiple satellite,
by-product of the troubled origins of the multi- launcher, and space programs. In addition, they
national space effort in two separate bodies: the must cover the all-important collaborative rela-
European Space Research Organization (ESRO) tionship with the United States and NASA, a
and the European Launcher Development Or- topic ably handled by Lorenza Sebesta.
ganization (ELDO), both officially founded in Historians of science will be most interested
1964. ESRO was an initiative of scientists who in the chapters on space science programs,
wanted to participate in the new research fields mostly written by Arturo Russo. But all histori-
opened up by the space race between the United ans interested in contemporary multinational,
States and the USSR. It derived its model from collaborative science and engineering programs
CERN, the European nuclear research center. will find much of interest in this ESA history,
ELDO, on the other hand, was essentially a po- and for historians of spaceflight, it is truly a pi-
litical organization, created by European govern- oneering effort. Little has been published on the
ments to bind Britain into a cooperative space history of joint European space programs, and
program by accepting its offer to use its un- these two volumes will set the standard and the
wanted ballistic missile, the Blue Streak, as the starting point for all future efforts.
first stage of an independent satellite launcher. MICHAEL J. NEUFELD
ELDO’s Europa vehicles were a miserable fail-
ure, a result of poorly coordinated national ef- James A. Pritchard. Preserving Yellowstone’s
forts. ESRO had its share of problems too, but it Natural Conditions: Science and the Perception
did build a number of successful space science of Nature. xii Ⳮ 370 pp., illus., notes, index.
and astronomy satellites that were launched by Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.
the United States. In the early 1970s ELDO was $45 (cloth).
closed down; ESRO was reoriented toward ap-
plication satellites and became the basis for the Barbara R. Stein. On Her Own Terms: Annie
new unitary organization. That rested on a Montague Alexander and the Rise of Science in
fundamental deal: there would be a French- the American West. xvii Ⳮ 435 pp., illus., figs.,
dominated launcher program (Ariane), a notes, index. Berkeley: University of California
German-dominated laboratory for the payload Press, 2001. $35.
bay of the American Space Shuttle (Spacelab),
and a British-dominated maritime communica- Creating scientific knowledge in the modern
tions satellite (Marecs). ESA continued a space world is a public activity, whether it involves the
science program of distinction, however, leading products of technology, the concepts that shape
to such triumphs as the Giotto probe to Halley’s our worldview, or the process itself. These two
Comet. books effectively place the doing of science
This official history is the collaborative proj- within public agencies, the National Park Ser-
ect of four historians, one of whom, Michelan- vice and the University of California.
gelo de Maria, dropped out after contributing to James Pritchard’s subtitle distinguishes his ac-
a few chapters in Volume 1. Led by the CERN count of Yellowstone from the many other works
historian John Krige (now at Georgia Tech), the on the park. He identifies two purposes: to trace
ESA History Project began in 1989/1990; its pri- the impulse to preserve natural conditions in the
mary documentary basis was the ESA archives park, and to illustrate the complexity of trying
then being set up at the European University In- to sustain this ideal in the public arena. He re-

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
frains from the philosophical murk of defining knowledge. She was an indefatigable collector,
“nature” and “natural,” showing instead how sci- starting with fossils, then adding mammals,
entific rationales were present at the park’s crea- birds, and plants, in locales between Prince Wil-
tion yet quickly came into conflict with the liam Sound, Alaska, and Baja California. She
park’s other mandates, such as visitor develop- collected with utmost rigor and skill in the tax-
ment. Even among people who agreed with the onomic paradigm of the era. Needing a place to
preservation ideal, two contradictory notions of put all her specimens, and wishing to develop a
management emerged: that keeping the park nat- West Coast counterweight to the prominent east-
ural required active intervention and that hands- ern scientific centers, in 1907 she proposed a
off management was preferable. research museum. The university’s regents ac-
These notions structure Pritchard’s well- cepted her terms, and Alexander had the presci-
researched (if at times slow) narrative, which is ence to insist on Joseph Grinnell as the first di-
divided into periods according to changes in rector. Those familiar with Grinnell’s scientific
management regimes. Disputes over the charis- accomplishments, and his sexism, will find in-
matic mammals—bison, elk, bears—dominate teresting his deference to his patron. Avid about
the story, with meddlesome politicians and ca- time afield on collecting expeditions, Alexander
reerist administrators forever complicating the let others use her results as evidence for theories
research agendas and management schemes pro- of speciation, biogeography, and ecology.
posed by biologists. Through it all, the book This story is necessarily one of gender, sci-
shows how the scientists’ ideas and plans helped ence, and society, and Stein elaborates these is-
define our current vision of the nature of national sues and tensions with a light touch. As a young
parks. woman Alexander needed mentors, all male at
The final chapter and epilogue are particularly the time, to enable the expeditions she funded.
satisfying, as ecological concepts finally pene- To avoid impropriety—Alexander was no social
trated into the vernacular and Yellowstone’s radical—she also needed a female companion
managers again reshaped their priorities. Issues while afield. On a 1908 Alaskan trip she took
and events that precipitated this included the en- Louise Kellogg, thirteen years her junior, and the
vironmental legislation of the 1970s, the devel- women became lifelong companions. Stein is
opment of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition careful to let the evidence speak for itself on the
that emphasized how wildlife issues spread far women’s life together; their diaries and letters
outside the park’s boundaries, the wildfires of provide scant personal insights. Yet the bond
1988, and the battle over the reintroduction of was unmistakable, and it is a poignant moment
wolves. Pritchard concludes that “scientists can- in the book when Stein guesses that part of Al-
not tell us what the national parks are about, and exander’s motivation to buy farmland on an iso-
ecologists cannot tell us to what ends the Park lated island near Oakland was “the opportunity
Service should manage Yellowstone” (p. 310). to live in a home of their own” (p. 121), far from
Yet he follows this with a defense of science wagging urban tongues. The mentorship came
against its populist naysayers and affirms that the full circle in the 1940s as Alexander sponsored
early scientists’ vision of Yellowstone’s purpose trips for the early women graduate students.
is, in the end, the enduring one. Preserving Yel- Stein provides ample evidence that Alexander
lowstone’s Natural Conditions is a fine contri- took pride in succeeding in all that she tried—
bution to national park studies. including hands-on dairy production and aspar-
Anyone buying a bag of C & H sugar partici- agus farming—yet continually shunned public
pates in the history of the remarkable Annie recognition for her efforts. As she was content
Montague Alexander (1867–1950). Barbara to be known as “A Friend of the University”
Stein’s excellent biography easily allows us to (p. 162), no buildings or monuments on the
share in her admiration for Alexander, a woman Berkeley campus bear her name. Her discoveries
of fierce independence, keen mind, and sustained led others to grace seventeen fossil, plant, and
advocacy for the advancement of scientific animal taxa with her name, yet she declined the
knowledge. Raised in Hawaii and California and honor if asked. With considerable skill, On Her
heiress to the family sugar fortune, Alexander Own Terms brings deserved recognition to Al-
founded and endowed the University of Califor- exander and adds an important chapter to the
nia’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and its Mu- story of science in western North America.
seum of Paleontology. TIMOTHY RAWSON
Alexander did not complete a college degree
but was nonetheless one of those “amateur” nat- Donald S. Fredrickson. The Recombinant DNA
ural historians who contributed so much to basic Controversy: A Memoir: Science, Politics, and

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
the Public Interest, 1974–1981. 408 pp., illus., DNA science and as “the principal spokesman
notes, app., index. Washington, D.C.: ASM in Congress” (p. xviii) helped to ensure through
Press, 2001. $39.95 (paper). the administrative and fiscal power of the NIH
that the myriad bills introduced to regulate re-
A central issue of the recombinant DNA contro- combinant DNA died in Congress. A persistent
versy of the 1970s concerned the possible haz- motif is Fredrickson’s struggle to maintain his
ards arising from the laboratory procedures de- agency’s control of the recombinant DNA prob-
veloped in 1973–1974 for splicing and cloning lem. He paints a vivid picture of his central role
DNA. Attempting to keep control of the issue in surmounting challenges from other federal
within the science community, molecular biol- agencies, providing testimony in Congress, and
ogists invoked a temporary moratorium on cer- formulating federal policy on genetic engineer-
tain kinds of recombinant research and arranged ing. His account outlines a balancing act be-
for a conference whose primary purpose was to tween keeping the new science “moving cau-
develop voluntary guidelines so that recombi- tiously forward” (p. xviii) and honoring his
nant science could proceed. By July 1976 the obligation, as director of the NIH, to safeguard
National Institutes of Health (NIH) had issued the public. His depiction of the complex inter-
its Guidelines for Recombinant DNA Research actions within the federal bureaucracy to achieve
and established a research review committee (the these ends is unmatched in any other account.
Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee Fredrickson uses government sources widely
[RAC])—and Donald Fredrickson was newly in and well, most prominently Recombinant DNA
place as director of the NIH, the federal agency Research, the twenty-volume series published
charged with overseeing the guidelines. by NIH, as well as his own diaries and personal
It is at approximately this juncture that Fred- papers from these years (recently deposited in
rickson’s memoir of the recombinant DNA con- the National Library of Medicine). However, he
troversy begins, a topic, he tells us, that de- gives little evidence of broad utilization of the
manded his “every attention for six eventful extensive literature by historians on the recom-
years” (p. xvii), the very years in which the con- binant DNA controversy and the accelerating
troversy was at its raucous height. Although one commercialization of the science. Those op-
might argue that enough ink has already been posed to the unregulated pursuit of recombinant
spilled on this subject, this book provides new, DNA or concerned about the blurring boundaries
behind-the-scenes insight. Fredrickson recounts between academic and industrial laboratories are
his interactions, in formulating the NIH re- given scant voice. The epilogue addresses the
sponse, with most of the leading lights on all latter subject, but its placement and isolation
sides of the debate, among them several secre- give the impression that it was an afterthought.
taries of what was then the Department of The primary strength of this book rests in its de-
Health, Education, and Welfare, members of tailed portrayal of a leading federal policy-
RAC (who were advisors to the director), the maker’s activities at a critical juncture in the his-
U.S. Congress, and scientists of many persua- tory of molecular biology and biotechnology.
sions. The pressures from the governmental, sci- SALLY SMITH HUGHES
entific, industrial, and public interest constitu-
encies that had responsibilities for or interests in Daniel Charles. Lords of the Harvest: Biotech,
the way the new technology was to be developed Big Money, and the Future of Food. 368 pp.,
and applied are presented through accounts of illus., notes, index. Cambridge: Peseus Publish-
Fredrickson’s own experience and with refer- ing Group, 2001. $27 (cloth)
ence to personal and other documents. The focus
is on the United States, most particularly on Farming may well be one of the most funda-
Washington, D.C., with only occasional mention mental and yet underappreciated technologies of
of events abroad. the twenty-first century. Global society has
As a physician and former NIH researcher (al- formed, grown, and flourished precisely because
though not one initially familiar with recombi- farming has released individuals from the need
nant DNA), Fredrickson was sympathetic to the to devote most of their time to gathering food.
view that research should proceed unfettered by Technologies of crop improvement that derive
legislation and outside regulation. He cites as the from work through the twentieth century and led
central theme of the recombinant DNA contro- to the notable increases in productivity seen in
versy “the autonomy and right of internal regu- the Green Revolution have been essential in this.
lation of scientific investigation” (p. 2). He op- And the emerging molecular biotechnologies,
posed legislative interference with recombinant with their promise of breathtaking control over

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living systems, have promised even further argued that these were already addressed by Paul
gains. Raeburn in The Last Harvest (Simon & Schuster,
This is the story of people who believed that 1995). Charles moves discussions begun there to
promise—but forgot its foundations. How ironic the next stage of technology.
that the brilliant individuals who could discern In the end, genetically engineered crops may
the intricacies of crop genomes and tease from be accepted not because consumers understand
plants the secrets of development failed to un- and become comfortable with them but because
derstand that what the farmer does requires plan- they provide direct benefits to farmers and be-
ning, care, and skill. The story of agricultural cause—having seen none of the apocalyptic
biotech is, yet again, one where the practitioners consequences foretold in the early days—con-
and developers became so enamored of the po- sumers no longer respond to the warnings of ac-
tentials that they failed to see the pitfalls before tivists. The issues of science that pertain to ag-
them, pitfalls that are all too clear in hindsight. ricultural biotechnology have, unfortunately and
And often these difficulties were based not on too often, been characterized by overly simplis-
“scientific barriers” but on public perceptions. tic statements or hyperbole (on both sides). This
The central actor here is the chemical giant book helps navigate that sea of confusion.
Monsanto, but there are strong contributions MICHAEL STRAUSS
from a host of supporting actors. It can be argued
that in their drive to bring the crops developed Anne Fausto-Sterling. Sexing the Body: Gender
through genetic engineering and biotechnology Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. xiv
to market the company pushed blindly ahead Ⳮ 473 pp., illus., figs., tables, bibl., index. New
without regard to the realities about them. But York: Basic Books, 2000. $35.
they were not alone. The story of Calgene and
their long-lasting tomato is a study in the folly With its eye-catching title and provocative cover
of forgetting the complexity of the food produc- art, Sexing the Body is a compelling book. In
tion system, from farm to delivery. Or, to quote many ways it is an extension of Anne Fausto-
Bob Meyer, a tomato grower and packer re- Sterling’s earlier groundbreaking work, Myths of
cruited by Calgene to help bring their product to Gender (Basic, 1995); it might well have been
market: “I was talking to people who had MBAs called “Myths of Sex,” as it attempts to introduce
and molecular biologists and genetic engineers, the uninitiated to the problematic nature of the
and there wasn’t anybody who was very practi- biological categories of “sex.” Many of us have
cal in the whole outfit. . . . They were doing their come to view “gender” as the social complement
genetic engineering; they were all Ph.D.’s. But of sex—something that is malleable, socially
put a molecular biologist out on a farm, and he’d contingent, psychological. But what if there is
starve to death” (p. 132). no sex? Or, more precisely, what if the categories
Some companies, like Pioneer Hi-Bred, Inter- of male and female (not just masculine and fem-
national, understood the importance of the inine) are themselves social and intellectual con-
farmer. They recognized that they were part of a structs rather than biological givens? The inter-
symbiotic relationship in which Pioneer had al- esting question is this: What does “gender” mean
ways to be concerned with the health of their if we challenge the stability and naturalness of
partner. Farming is like business, but it’s also the categories of “sex”? If indeed biological sex
like a family. Ambitions for Microsoft-like con- is not a “natural” category, Fausto-Sterling asks,
trol over the business of selling seed to farmers how has and does modern biomedical science
needed to be tempered with that understanding. produce ostensibly clear-cut knowledge about
Lords of the Harvest offers the reader a wealth the sexed body?
of lessons about altruism and its conflicts with The book addresses three major thematic
business, the public understanding of science, dichotomies (male/female, “real”/constructed,
and the complexity of our food production sys- nature/nurture) by examining three examples of
tem. Lest we miss the points, Daniel Charles de- ways the body has been sexed (intersexuality,
votes an epilogue to elucidating what he sees as ostensible sex differences in the brain, and the
the main issues. so-called sex hormones). Each section has a dif-
The book is written in a journalistic style, as ferent angle and purpose, different strengths and
befits the author’s background as a science re- weaknesses. Each set of analyses can stand
porter, and is a quick, easy read. I would have alone, making them particularly useful for un-
liked to see a better treatment of the long- dergraduate teaching (students might also find
standing confrontations over control of the more purpose in the cartoons and illustrations
world’s crop genetic resources. But it could be than I did). The book is engaging and clearly

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written and provides an accessible and synthetic them “sex hormones”? This is the question
overview of some of the most recent work in Fausto-Sterling asks, but she does not adequately
both gender studies and history of science/ answer it.
science studies. It will be eye opening and mind Throughout the book Fausto-Sterling repeat-
bending for the novice in either field; readers edly claims that the social, institutional, per-
with background in either or both (especially his- sonal, and conceptual worlds of scientists inter-
torians of science), however, might find it meth- act to create gendered (or sexed) knowledge.
odologically unsatisfying. However, she does not use the methodological
The chapters on intersexuality are decidedly tools in her science-studies toolbox to good ef-
political. Faced with the myriad of combinations fect. Given the sophistication of the theorists she
of personality, genitals, reproductive organs, go- cites, she is remarkably naive about how she uses
nads, secondary sex characteristics, hormones, history. For Fausto-Sterling, it is almost as if the
chromosomes, how do we determine an individ- research and interpretation that historians do
ual’s “sex”? According to which criterion, or simply produces unproblematic public data or
combination of criteria, do we assign some bod- “facts.” In other words, historians provide back-
ies to the male basket and others to the female? ground for her story. But what is her story really
What do we do with the ones that don’t fit neatly about? In many ways, it is about the author her-
into either? Chapter 3, which examines and de- self. The last chapter of Sexing the Body begins
scribes the condition of “intersexuality” and its with a “portrait of the scientist as a young girl,”
current medical treatments, is primarily back- the doll-hating, frog-loving little girl who grew
ground for the medical manifesto of the next up to be a biologist, who married a man “for love
chapter. In alliance with the burgeoning inter- and lust,” and whose sexual inclinations later in
sexual activist movement, Fausto-Sterling calls life tended toward the lesbian. While this was
for an end to surgical intervention on intersexed surely not the author’s intention, the book as a
infants. whole might best be read as Fausto-Sterling’s
Chapter 5 (“Sexing the Brain”) is most similar attempt to understand the threads of her own life
to the kind of work that appears in Fausto- tapestry, as a woman, a lesbian, a biologist, and
Sterling’s first book. In an updated critique of a feminist critic of modern science.
sex difference research, she challenges contem- Despite its accessible appeal and riveting sub-
porary claims about the ostensible sex differ- ject matter, Sexing the Body will likely be dis-
ences found in the human brain. She adeptly appointing to the specialized audience that reads
shows how vague and mediated data on the cor- Isis. It is a popular book intended to introduce a
pus callosum have been fashioned into gendered nonscientific lay audience to the conceptual
facts about the sexed brain. This chapter has the messiness of contemporary sex difference re-
potential to be the strongest in the book concep- search. Fausto-Sterling takes on the tone of a
tually. However, the technical aspects are too de- good science journalist who can make complex
tailed, and her use of such science studies lu- scientific information understandable and syn-
minaries as Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway, and thesize a number of different fields in a way that
Michael Lynch to explain how laboratory life scientists working in a particular field often can-
produces hard facts out of soft observation is un- not. However, because Fausto-Sterling is a
fortunately a bit superficial. working scientist (albeit not in the field of human
The triptych of chapters on the so-called sex sex differences), she puts herself in the middle
hormones provide a clear and accessible over- of this synthesis, continually repeating her man-
view of the history of sex hormones. This in it- ifesto for an interdisciplinary approach to the
self is quite a feat, as the story of the conceptual understanding of human sexuality (although in-
discovery of sex endocrinology is extremely terdisciplinarity here seems to include only bio-
complicated. Fausto-Sterling does a nice job of medical and psychological sciences). As she puts
showing how these multipurpose chemical sub- it herself, Fausto-Sterling does “not naively be-
stances have maintained their gendered conno- lieve that tomorrow everyone will rush out and
tations despite decades of research that shows join interdisciplinary research teams while re-
how misleading and limiting the label “sex hor- vising their belief systems about the nature of
mones” is for understanding their function in the scientific knowledge. But public controversies
body. What have been called “androgens” and about sex differences and sexuality will continue
“estrogens” for decades are actually closely re- to break out. . . . Whenever these or related quan-
lated steroid hormones that perform a variety of daries boil to the surface, I hope that readers can
similar functions in genetically male and female return to this book to find new and better ways
bodies. Why, then, do we still insist on calling to conceptualize the problems at hand” (p. 255).

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I do not know if this book will change anyone’s clear in his assessment of Nazi eugenics. In dis-
mind about how to go about his or her research; cussing Hitler’s racial hygiene laws and their
I suspect it is preaching to the already converted. connection to the Holocaust, Lynn asserts, “It is
STEPHANIE H. KENEN doubtful whether eugenics had anything to do
with the extermination of the Jews” (p. 30). As
Richard Lynn. Eugenics: A Reassessment. (Hu- Lynn received support for the book from the Pio-
man Evolution, Behavior, and Intelligence.) ix neer Fund, a notorious sponsor of research into
Ⳮ 366 pp., bibl., index. Westport, Conn.: Prae- race betterment for more than sixty years, these
ger, 2001. $89.95. political positions come as no surprise.
All this should give Isis readers pause and re-
Readers of Isis will not find much of use in Rich- mind them why serious, well-documented, and
ard Lynn’s book. It does provide a rather stark carefully considered historical scholarship must
reminder, however, of the need for historians and play a vital role in maintaining the health of the
philosophers of science to remain actively en- social body. As Diane Paul has demonstrated in
gaged in conveying the fruits of our scholarship her immeasurably superior analyses of the his-
to the public in a manner that is both compre- tory and politics of eugenics, programs for “race
hensible and appealing. Failing to do so would betterment” have always been and will always
leave important political and social discussions be fundamentally based on social and political
in the hands of those like Lynn who are more agendas. Lynn’s book more than adequately
than willing to offer their views to a public that demonstrates the continued livelihood of the vir-
may not be equipped to judge them and find ulent political and social aspirations that drove
them wanting. Lynn, a professor emeritus of psy- eugenics throughout the twentieth century. The
chology at the University of Ulster, has for the increasingly powerful scientific tools of biotech-
past decade been promulgating his vision of the nology and genetic engineering make the need
West in decline thanks to such “dysgenic” social for watchfulness and engagement among the ac-
and political principles as individual rights and ademic community all the more imperative.
political freedom. Lynn sees himself as carrying Only those scholars who are in need of inspira-
on the tradition of Francis Galton, whom he ob- tion in this pursuit would benefit from consulting
viously reveres not only as a hereditary genius Lynn’s book.
but also as a visionary thinker. Indeed, Lynn DAVID A. VALONE
ends the book by asserting that China will take
over the world and institute what he calls “a Deirdre McCloskey. Crossing: A Memoir. xvi
world eugenic state,” a claim based largely on Ⳮ 266 pp., illus. Chicago: University of Chicago
Galton’s 1909 prediction that “the nation which Press, 1999. $25.
first subjects itself to a rational eugenical disci-
pline is bound to inherit the earth” (p. 320). Donald McCloskey was a renowned economist
Lynn’s reassessment of eugenics is really little on the faculty of the University of Iowa when,
more than a rehashing of the eugenic ideology at the age of fifty-two, it dawned on him/her that
of a century ago, including its overt racism and he/she was really a woman in a man’s body.
xenophobia. As was the case during the heyday Once the idea exploded into consciousness,
of eugenics in the early twentieth century, McCloskey sought out surgeries intended to
Lynn’s pronouncements are at best loosely jus- make his physical body conform to his gender
tified through an uncritical use of intelligence identity. Crossing is a memoir of Donald’s trans-
testing. Lynn tries to show a progressive side by formation into Deirdre (referred to ironically in
averring that eugenic intelligence screening one chapter heading as “Professional Girl Econ-
should be expanded to include personality traits omist”) (p. 132). McCloskey’s journey was both
such as agreeableness and conscientiousness that expensive and instructive.
might also be selected for eugenically. He argues Donald McCloskey was over six feet tall and
at length for negative eugenic programs to raise had a heavy bone structure. In addition to the
intelligence, eliminate genetic and mental dis- specific genital surgery, therefore, he also ob-
eases, and reduce criminality. He also asserts the tained other forms of feminizing surgery. This
need for positive eugenic programs that would included work on his facial bones (literally
pay “elites” to have children and restrict immi- grinding them to a more feminine conformation)
gration to those deemed eugenically worthy. All and his prominent Adam’s apple and the removal
of these measures are possible, he suggests, of facial and body hair. The dollar cost fell in
given the political will. Should there be any the tens of thousands, and there was also pain
doubt as to Lynn’s political agenda, he makes it and a great deal of physical trauma involved. But

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skin wounds heal, while the psychic injuries in- shares with the reader her lived experience with
flicted by others will remain with Deirdre for a both.
long time to come. Her sister, for example, was ANNE FAUSTO-STERLING
so offended that she twice had Donald involun-
tarily committed to a mental institution. This part Carl Djerassi. This Man’s Pill: Reflections on
of the story is especially harrowing. Donald had the Fiftieth Birthday of the Pill. 240 pp., index.
the legal resources to get himself released fairly Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. $22.50
quickly, but one can easily imagine a different (cloth).
outcome had he been poor and without social
resources. But it gets worse. McCloskey’s wife Measured by widespread societal impact, surely
and children could not accept his transformation; one of the most important inventions of the
they cut off all ties with Deirdre, who mourns twentieth century was the development of oral
the loss of these important loved ones and her contraception for women in a form that has come
inability ever to meet her grandchildren. The to be known almost universally simply as “The
price she has paid for insisting on the emergence Pill.” Used by 80 percent of U.S. women at some
of the woman within has been great indeed. point in their lives, the Pill has made it possible
The above events, however, are not the most for women to separate coitus from reproduction.
interesting part of the book. More fascinating is In this small, attractive volume, Carl Djerassi, a
Deirdre’s narrative of change. She did not al- chemist who played a key role in the Pill’s in-
ways believe she was a woman trapped in a vention, offers a series of very personal rumi-
man’s body. Rather, that feeling grew gradually nations; his book is as much about the impact of
within Donald, emerging as an overwhelming the Pill on Djerassi as it is about the Pill itself.
psychological force only when he was in his fif- Djerassi has already published an autobiogra-
ties. Even then, Donald had to learn how to be a phy: The Pill, Pygmy Chimps, and Degas’ Horse
woman—how, in fact, to do gender. Deirdre’s (Basic, 1992). This Man’s Pill, coming almost a
descriptions of learning how to socialize like a decade later, covers a more diverse set of issues.
woman, how to accept the lower status of a As a result, there is not enough of a sustained
woman—both in the general public and within thread to bind the various reflections together
academia—how to talk like a woman, walk like into a unified whole; this is, instead, a series of
a woman, and dress like a woman, make up a musings on related topics. Some chapters are
kind of instruction manual for mainstream defi- quite fun to read; all are intensely personal; and
nitions of femininity. It is a special irony for most are interesting and reasonably well written.
feminists sympathetic to individual gender vari- Isis readers are likely to find most interesting
ability that transsexual men must often seek this (and potentially useful as a primary source) Djer-
middle place of femininity even though femi- assi’s discussion of the Pill’s “birth,” which he
nists themselves insist on a wider range of gen- dates to 15 October 1951, when his lab com-
der expression. pleted the first synthesis of a steroid that could
There are many lessons to take home from this be used for oral contraception. Contraception
book, but here I focus on two of them. First, in was not the original research goal—rather, the
Deirdre’s case, it does not appear that her trans- new compound was intended to help in the treat-
sexuality was inborn. Rather, it emerged in ment of menstrual disorders, infertility, and cer-
stages over several decades. Nevertheless, once vical cancer. One mission of the book is to keep
it emerged, it was a psychological force to be alive the memory of the pharmaceutical com-
reckoned with. In terms of the never-ending na- pany with which Djerassi worked, Syntex, and
ture/nurture debate, nature is not unchanging and the fact that this pathbreaking research was done
the results of nurture can sometimes be unmove- in Mexico City, “possibly the only significant
able. Second, obtaining a new gender identity in example of important research in such a highly
adulthood highlights how very few of the behav- competitive field being conducted in a develop-
ioral traits we associate with gender are actually ing country” (pp. 57–58). Another lesson is the
inborn. McCloskey came to realize that she was importance of an entrepreneurial champion for
female but did not know how to make such a an invention’s success. The story of the Pill’s
claim believable in the eyes of those around her. invention is told with flair, and the organic
She had to learn to speak, walk, and behave like chemistry is very well integrated into a narrative
Venus and to suppress all that she had accumu- suitable for a general audience, such that we
lated during her fifty-two-year sojourn on Mars. learn, for example, not only about the structure
Her insights into the socialization of male and of the steroid molecules but also how the altitude
female behaviors are unusual because she in Mexico City made the chemists alter their

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
usual laboratory practices. Djerassi admits that the singularity of its focus on doctors and its con-
he is “preoccupied with priority” (p. 51), and his ventional—indeed, for Africanist historiogra-
unfortunate tendency to try to parse credit for phy, rather old-fashioned—definition of health
events may irritate historians. The lack of cita- and medicine. Iliffe calls his book a work in
tions makes it difficult for readers to track down “collective biography.” Many individual biog-
the sources for his assertions. raphies—some fascinating and richly detailed—
The Pill changed Djerassi from a narrow, enrich it. Iliffe asks where African doctors came
hard-core chemist into a “softer” human being, from and traces a trajectory that begins with the
someone with an interest in the public policy im- mission apprenticeships of young men like
plications of his work, a novelist, and a poet. James Ainsworth (an ex-slave and “Bombay Af-
Many parts of the book reflect this broader ap- rican” who began work near Mombasa in 1875)
proach to the Pill. Chapters deal with Djerassi’s and passes through a period of colonial tribal
take on overpopulation and on birth control in dressers before turning to medical training at
Japan. He defends the Pill as liberating for Makerere College from 1923. The result is intri-
women, noting that one ironic consequence that cate and textured history, drawing on some won-
followed a backlash of concern about the drug’s derful, previously unexploited sources, includ-
side effects was a marked decrease in research ing Swahili-language colonial newspapers, to
interest in developing other methods of hor- reconstruct the experiences of doctoring for East
monal contraception. He bemoans the fact that Africa’s first medical students.
the pharmaceutical industry has nearly stopped “The argument,” clearly laid out in a first
looking for better alternatives for contraception, chapter bearing this title, is about how to define
although possibilities on the horizon, some of professionalism. Iliffe argues for a definition
them derived from research not directly focused open to ambiguity in order to trace the contra-
on contraception, may soon make it easy for dictions and ambivalences of being a clinician
women to control their fertility without needing (or clinical auxiliary). This argument shelters the
to take a Pill each day. controversial assumption that with the spread of
JOEL D. HOWELL “modern medicine” within Africa, “traditional
medicine” became a “residual activity.” Iliffe
John Iliffe. East African Doctors: A History of works with two distilled categories—“modern
the Modern Profession. (African Studies, 95.) xii medicine” and “traditional medicine,” one West-
Ⳮ 338 pp., fig., bibl., index. Cambridge/New ern and literate, the other African and illiterate—
York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. and suggests that the former progressively dis-
$64.95. placed the latter. Thus the trajectory seems to
culminate with a few individual doctors who
East African Doctors reads modern African his- emerge as East African heroes in the era of
tory through the aspirations, disappointments, AIDS, while the possibility of an AIDS vaccine
and flaws of African biomedical doctors and seems to imply the final demise of “traditional
their predecessors who served in auxiliary roles medicine.”
to European doctors. The result is a political his- Iliffe argues that innovation and entrepreneur-
tory of relations among states, professional so- ial acumen were key to the talents of modern
cieties, hospital-based clinical institutions, and African doctors. By reducing “traditional medi-
public health systems, largely traced through the cine” to the practices of healers and diviners who
conventions of education and research and the intervene in bodily illness with plants and herbs,
development of primary health care. One of thus as a counterpart to the externalizing diag-
the book’s major contributions is to embrace the nostic tradition of biomedicine, Iliffe excludes
colonial and the postcolonial. Indeed, it is the public healing and antisorcery movements from
first comparative history of how doctors and bio- his problematic. Another effect is to omit the
medical care were part of the histories of nation- many syncretisms that crossed and complicated
alism and decolonization in Africa, and it is one the diagnostic approaches, technologies, and
of the only histories of public health and medi- persons of these two converging and conflicting
cine in postcolonial Africa. It is set in three for- fields.
mer British colonies whose postcolonial histo- If the book is disengaged from the thrust of
ries have embraced, in John Iliffe’s words, “a new social and cultural histories of medicine in
disintegrating state” (Uganda), “a capitalist tran- Africa, the narrow focus on doctors makes pos-
sition” (Kenya), and “a socialist experiment” sible an important contribution to the history of
(Tanzania). the internationalization of biomedicine and pub-
The book’s originality lies, paradoxically, in lic health in the post–World War II period—and

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
in a powerfully comparative way. East African the history of medicine, technology, and busi-
Doctors brings to life the aspirations of an ness, structuring his narrative, for instance,
emerging elite of colonial subjects in a racist so- around the concept of cycles of innovation: each
ciety, the historical depth of the “corrupt doctor” new technology, from vacuum tubes to inte-
dilemma that has been much critiqued in post- grated circuits, triggered new pacemakers, new
colonial Africa, and the historical tensions be- powers of intervention, and even new diagnostic
tween public health as willed by colonial and categories. Machines in Our Hearts sustains a
development authorities and a profession of series of arguments. Pacemaker technology
clinical specialists trained within an ethos of ex- evolved more quickly than physicians’ perceived
pertise. need for it. Only gradually did the existence of
NANCY ROSE HUNT therapeutic potential lead to the recognition of
therapeutic need. Doctors, once innovators, be-
Kirk Jeffrey. Machines in Our Hearts: The came a conservative force, often underutilizing
Cardiac Pacemaker, the Implantable Defibril- technological capacity. Competition underwent
lator, and American Health Care. 370 pp., figs., a similar transformation. Although it initially fu-
tables, bibl., index. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins eled innovation, industrial competition gener-
University Press, 2001. $48 (cloth). ated barriers to entry that restricted the pace-
The history of cardiac pacemakers reveals the maker industry to a few entrenched corporations.
symbiotic growth of medical technology and The book does have limitations. Although
medical theory and practice. Kirk Jeffrey’s Ma- telling a story of medical innovation, Jeffrey
chines in Our Hearts uses this opportunity well. pays scant attention to questions of efficacy.
The book initially focuses on physicians, from Only rarely does he discuss clinical trials, more
their first electrical recordings of cardiac activity often simply asserting that pacemakers, which
in the 1880s to evolving theories of rhythm dis- provided treatments for previously untreated
orders and efforts to manage them with external conditions, had self-evident efficacy. Relying on
shocks and implantable pacemakers. As Jef- intuitive assessments of whether pacemakers im-
frey’s story enters the 1960s, however, the medi- proved life expectancy and quality of life, he ig-
cal device industry displaces doctors as the driv- nores what has become an active area of histori-
ing force behind pacemakers. Competition in a cal research. He also provides little sense of the
rapidly growing industry fueled innovation: in- patients. Although Jeffrey does tell the stories of
stead of doctors designing new devices to solve several early clinical successes, patient perspec-
patient problems, companies designed new de- tives are few and far between. When they do
vices to capture market share. Innovation soon appear, patients have only simplistic cameo
faced regulation, with the Food and Drug Ad- roles—for instance, being reassured by one early
ministration asserting its right to regulate medi- pacemaker because its blinking light kept pace
cal devices and with managed care companies with the heart. Their suffering and deaths are de-
seeking ways to control the costs of medical pro- scribed as the inevitable cost of medical prog-
gress. ress, “part of the price society paid for the
Although based on technical studies of medi- growth of knowledge” (p. 192). This ignores the
cal practice and industrial research, Machines in risk, fear, and sacrifice accepted by patients who
Our Hearts is richly contextualized. Initial skep- participated in pacemaker development.
ticism about pacemakers grew out of associa- Despite these concerns, Machines in Our
tions of medical electricity with quackery and Hearts provides an extremely helpful and infor-
Frankenstein monsters. The proliferation of
mative history. It reviews the history of cardi-
consumer electronics in the 1950s set a prece-
ology, focusing on electrophysiology. It tells a
dent for the acceptance of medical electronics.
Jeffrey uncovers colorful, if forgotten, innova- story of research and innovation, with a product
tions, such as the brief history of implantable marketed to doctors, patients, insurers, and the
nuclear-powered pacemakers. Scandals occa- FDA. It demonstrates the reciprocal exchange
sionally shook the pacemaker industry, as with between medical theory and medical technology.
exposés of marketing boondoggles that offered Even with its detailed narratives, it will appeal
physicians free trips to hunting lodges or parties to a wide range of historians and practitioners of
with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. medicine and technology.
Jeffrey grounds his history in extensive study DAVID JONES
of published medical sources, supplemented
with oral histories and corporate annual reports. Francis Duncan. Rickover: The Struggle for Ex-
He makes good use of secondary sources from cellence. xviii Ⳮ 364 pp., illus., notes, bibl.,

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index. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, to acquire expertise in the new area. Rickover
2001. $37.50 (cloth). soon took command over the Navy group and
acquired his introduction to nuclear power. Two
The central role of technology in forging and years later, in July 1948, he was chosen to head
reshaping the social and political institutions of the joint Navy/Atomic Energy Commission pro-
postwar American society is by now almost a gram on nuclear propulsion. Rickover never
commonplace among scholars of science and looked back. He tirelessly pushed for nuclear
technology. Big science and large technological propulsion in naval submarines and then in the
systems—and the interrelationships between fleet at large. The Nautilus went to sea in January
them—have been the subject of numerous stud- 1955, spearheading what became the nuclear
ies. However, the dynamics that have propelled Navy. Rickover would administer the program
and empowered specific technological systems is with an iron fist for almost thirty-five years.
still a subject area where more scholarly research Rickover’s tireless insistence on exacting
is welcome. Rickover: The Struggle for Excel- standards from both his Navy subordinates and
lence is therefore a very useful study that shows contractors won him followers and detractors
the role of a specific individual in promoting and within the Navy and its contractor community
directing a critical technology within a large so- alike. His fiercely independent administration of
cial system, the U.S. Navy. naval propulsion and his championing of it out-
This study is a follow-on to Francis Duncan’s side of naval channels, with both Congress and
earlier work, which traced the adoption of nu- the press, created undying resentment within the
clear power by the Navy and Admiral Rickover’s officer ranks of much of the naval hierarchy,
central role in that adoption. The current study forcing repeated congressional intervention to
expands the purview of the earlier work through ensure that Rickover wasn’t forced out of naval
a careful biographical analysis of Rickover’s up- service. His career serves to illustrate, almost in
bringing, education, and Navy career, which counterpoint, just how technologically conser-
eventually led him to assume the institutional vative institutions—such as the U.S. Navy—
and public roles that he did in advocating and can be, even when they are at core technology
managing nuclear propulsion systems for the dependent. It further demonstrates that techno-
Navy and nuclear power for the nation. logical innovation and application frequently do
Hyman Rickover was born in 1900 in Russian not advance on their own momentum but require
Poland. The second child of Abraham and Ra- forceful entrepreneurs, such as Rickover, to act
chel Rickover, he joined his father in the United as their proponents and enablers.
States in 1906. After a few years in New York, Duncan’s biography is, in short, an eminently
Hyman moved to Chicago at the age of eleven; well-researched and well-written study of a crit-
there he finished his secondary education while ically important naval officer and technology
working full time for Western Union. Having se- manager. It will be valuable for historians of
cured a nomination to the Naval Academy, he technology and the military alike.
moved to Annapolis in 1918, where he tutored DAVID VAN KEUREN
himself in the topics covered by the mandatory
academy entrance exam. Rickover’s self- Davis Dyer; Daniel Gross. The Generations of
discipline and work ethic would serve him well Corning: The Life and Times of a Global Cor-
at the academy and within the competitive offi- poration. Foreword by James R. Houghton. xx
cer corps of the Navy. Assigned to the destroyer Ⳮ 508 pp., illus., index. Oxford/New York: Ox-
USS La Vallette after graduation, Rickover was ford University Press, 2001. $25.
soon promoted into the engineer’s billet. He
proved himself particularly adept in working The Generations of Corning traces the history of
with mechanical and electrical systems and in the firm for 150 years from its origins to the pres-
1926 was approved for postgraduate education ent. The book is organized into six parts: the first
in electrical engineering. Rickover’s subsequent five examine Corning’s evolution under the lead-
career would be spent on the engineering side of ership of successive generations of the founding
the Navy. family, while the last part describes the most re-
At the conclusion of World War II Rickover cent era of corporate leadership under an unre-
was sent to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory lated chairman/CEO. Within each part, Davis
as part of an eight-man Navy contingent tasked Dyer and Daniel Gross examine Corning’s re-
with learning the details of reactor technology. markable long-term focus on the science and
The Navy had been effectively shut out of the technology of glass and related product devel-
Army-run Manhattan Project, and it was eager opment and manufacture.

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Corning’s history began in 1851 when Amory color television picture tubes and color televi-
Houghton, Sr., purchased an interest in a small sion screens. In more recent years, Corning en-
glass firm. After several corporate permutations, tered the fiber optics business and became a ma-
Houghton agreed in 1868 to move what was then jor supplier of cable and related products.
the Brooklyn Flint Glass Works to Corning, New The Generations of Corning is one volume in
York, where the company became the Corning a three-part commemoration of Corning’s 150th
Flint Glass Works and established corporate anniversary. The Winthrop Group organized a
headquarters. team to produce this book as well as Corning
The young firm confronted bankruptcy and and the Craft of Innovation (Oxford, 2001) and
poorly constructed facilities, but it prevailed and a pictorial history. The Generations of Corning
a second-generation Houghton took command. provides a corporate overview and historical re-
Corning thereafter focused on specialty glass- view of the company’s major products, product
ware such as lantern globes, railway signal lines, and family leadership. It is a well-done
glasses, semaphore lenses, thermometer tubes, corporate history of a firm responsible for many
and pharmaceutical tubing. glass-related innovations and products.
Corning worked with Thomas Edison in the CHRISTOPHER J. CASTANEDA
development of a suitable glass “envelope” for
the incandescent light. After Edison established Lawrence S. Wittner. The Struggle Against the
his Pearl Street electric power generating station Bomb. Volume 2: Resisting the Bomb: A History
in Manhattan, Corning became his primary sup- of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement,
plier of glass bulbs; Edison’s demand for bulbs 1954–1970. (Stanford Nuclear Age Series.) xvi
ensured the company’s continued growth. At Ⳮ 641 pp., illus., bibl., index. Stanford, Calif.:
that time bulbs were made partly by hand. A Stanford University Press, 1997. $66.
master blower skillfully blew a molten glass gob
into a paste mold that formed the bulb. Blowers In this second volume of a trilogy, Lawrence
continued to make bulbs until the second decade Wittner covers a transitional period, from the fe-
of the twentieth century, when automatic ma- verish time when the superpowers sought to en-
chines began producing them. Eventually, Corn- large and enhance their nuclear arsenals to the
ing developed the ribbon machine used to make first set of arms control treaties. He poses some
bulbs throughout most of the twentieth century. obvious but important questions: How has the
In an attempt to enter the domestic cooking world avoided nuclear war? Why did the United
market in the early twentieth century, Corning’s States accept defeat in Vietnam and the Soviet
scientists developed a heat-tolerant glass that Union accept one in Afghanistan without em-
could be used in the home. Experimenting with ploying nuclear weapons against enemies that
a lead-free borosilicate composition, G 702, they could not respond in kind? If such weapons were
found a material, later renamed Pyrex, suitable claimed to ensure national security, why did
for use in home cooking. Corning then engaged some nations foreswear acquiring them, and why
in a wide-scale marketing campaign to persuade did members of the nuclear club and others sign
homemakers that using glass dishes for cooking the Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963), the Non-
was both safe and convenient. Proliferation Treaty (1968), the Anti-Ballistic
Corning also participated in less profitable but Missile Treaty (1972), and the Strategic Arms
scientifically important pursuits. Renowned for Limitation Treaty I (1972)?
its glass-making skills, the firm produced mirror For much of this (partial) success, Wittner, the
blanks for reflecting telescopes. In perhaps its preeminent scholar of arms control efforts by in-
most spectacular if not painstaking effort in this dividuals and nongovernmental organizations
area, Corning produced the 200-inch mirror disk (other historians focus on formal steps toward
for the Mt. Palomar Observatory in southern treaties), credits “the largest grassroots struggle
California. in modern history, one that mobilized millions
During the second half of the twentieth cen- of people in nations around the globe: the world
tury, Corning continued to develop new glass nuclear disarmament movement” (p. ix). Strug-
and related products. In one instance of innova- gling for what it perceived to be human survival,
tion, an apparent furnace malfunction resulted in the movement failed to ban the bomb, its stated
an unexpected discovery of crystalline properties goal, yet was crucial in convincing populations
of glass and the production of a material, soon as well as political and military leaders that de-
to be known as Corning Ware, that could with- terrence was the only realistic use for these
stand stovetop heat. Corning also invested weapons.
heavily in the production of black-and-white and With the development of the hydrogen bomb

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in the 1950s, and recognition of the worldwide David Cesarani. Arthur Koestler: The Home-
spread of radioactive fallout, grassroot efforts less Mind. x Ⳮ 646 pp., illus., bibl., index. New
against testing became common. Bertrand Rus- York: Free Press, 1999. $30.
sell, Albert Einstein, Andrei Sakharov, Linus
Pauling, Albert Schweitzer, the Pugwash move- Arthur Koestler (1905–1983) is perhaps best
ment of scientific conferences, the Federation of known to historians of science for his 1959 study
American Scientists, religious bodies, and newly of early modern astronomy, The Sleepwalkers
founded organizations such as the Campaign for (Macmillan). Yet science and its history caught
Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in Great Britain Koestler’s interest only relatively late in his ca-
and the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear reer—a career that cast him variously as a jour-
Policy (SANE) in the United States created a cli- nalist, novelist, political philosopher, public in-
mate of opinion that enabled politicians in 1963 tellectual, and activist. Koestler grew up in an
to stop testing in all realms except underground. assimilationist Jewish household in turn-of-the-
Despite official characterization of “peace- century Hungary, thereby sharing a similar up-
niks” as “fuzzy minded” and emotional, and de- bringing with such thinkers as Georg Lukacs,
spite suppression by the Kremlin of any real pol- Karl Mannheim, John Von Neumann, Edward
icy challenges, lying by the U.S. Atomic Energy Teller, Leo Szilard, and Eugene Wigner. David
Commission, and spying by the FBI and CIA, Cesarani sees Koestler’s early Jewish back-
political leaders were increasingly influenced by ground as the key to understanding his wide-
the protesters. The physicist Leo Szilard defied ranging and at times volatile life course.
the U.S. State Department and had long conver- Beginning soon after World War II, Koestler
sations with Nikita Khrushchev. John Kennedy became fond of noting that his own life and work
used the Saturday Review editor and SANE co- mirrored the larger ideas, struggles, and move-
leader Norman Cousins as a confidential emis- ments of the twentieth century as a whole. He
sary to the Soviet leader. The superpowers, of had been an ardent Zionist in the 1920s, only to
course, did not abandon nuclear weapons but turn in later years to a virulently anti-Zionist po-
learned to curb their appetites for them. Arms sition. He had likewise been a steadfast Com-
control replaced disarmament as a more attain- munist in the 1930s, only to transform himself
able goal. by the end of that decade into an even more fer-
The variety of grassroot labors in these years vent anti-Communist. His personal transforma-
is impressive, as is Wittner’s worldwide cover- tion was capped by his greatest literary success,
age of them (by the early 1960s, there were some the 1940 novel Darkness at Noon (Modern Li-
one hundred peace organizations in forty-four brary), based on Stalin’s show trials of the late
countries). His story is not limited to the nuclear 1930s. The novel and the author were heralded
powers but includes important Third World ac- instantly as major players in the ideological war
tivities, such as those by the nonaligned group against Communism. Koestler was no mere side-
of nations led by Tito, Nehru, Nkrumah, Nasser, line commentator: he was sentenced to death in
and Sukarno. Also treated are such themes as Franco’s Spain in 1938 because of his Commu-
Communist-led peace groups, the marginal func- nist Party activities and narrowly escaped thanks
tion of mainline churches, the role of women, to direct intervention by the British government
students, and scientists, and the movement’s (his front during his Spanish travels was working
near-disappearance by the mid 1960s. This is no as a journalist for a British newspaper), only to
catalogue, however, for Wittner presents de- land in a camp for political prisoners in southern
tailed information and analyses about many France within the following year. The most chill-
efforts, including interactions with political leading jail-cell scenes in Darkness at Noon came
ers, polling data, and intraorganizational con- directly from Koestler’s own prison diaries.
flicts. By the immediate postwar period, Koestler,
Wittner challenges as unprovable the argu- then living in Britain, had emerged as one of the
ment that nuclear weapons prevented World West’s most famous, outspoken, and dedicated
War III. In this magisterial volume, he makes a Cold Warriors. His journalism and novel-writing
powerful case for an alternative view that “even activities continued, though he now added the
in the midst of a murderous system of interna- roles of public intellectual and political activist
tional relations, humane considerations can have to his roster. He helped to organize the Congress
an impact—indeed, that they helped to curb the for Cultural Freedom series in the early 1950s,
nuclear arms race and to avert its most disastrous relaxed on the French Riviera with like-minded
consequences” (p. 473). British M.P.’s, and had bitter, public fallings-out
LAWRENCE BADASH with former friends in the Paris Left, such as

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Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean- lowing the biography of an influential person to
Paul Sartre. Beginning in the mid 1950s. Koest- slip into hagiography. On balance, though, care-
ler became fascinated with modern science; he ful discussion and analysis of Koestler’s work
spent the rest of his life probing for ways to com- often gets buried beneath a monotonous trail of
bine a scientistic worldview with a more em- the mundane and the seedy.
pathic attitude derived from the humanities. This It is ironic that Koestler does emerge from this
quest took him first to his study of early modern biography as a kind of “Everyman” for the twen-
astronomy and thence (perhaps inspired by Jo- tieth century, though not of the sort he himself
hannes Kepler’s example) to the realm of the had worked so hard to craft. Koestler’s life and
paranormal. In these works Koestler anticipated work illustrate a number of themes of interest to
both C. P. Snow’s famous declaration concern- historians: how the Cold War emerged as a do-
ing the “two cultures” and the fascination during mestic, cultural struggle within the United States
the 1970s with supposed parallels between quan- and Britain; how and why certain intellectuals in
tum physics and various forms of Eastern mys- the postwar period sought to combine science
ticism. and the humanities; the short-lived cultural role
Koestler turned to autobiographical writing of the public intellectual, rising to a crest in the
soon after the war. Cesarani, drawing on a wealth 1950s before fading away by the end of the
of previously unavailable correspondence, dia- 1960s; and the emergent differences between
ries, and interviews, is at his best when he en- “journalists,” “writers,” “authors,” and “think-
gages directly with Koestler’s carefully con- ers” over the course of the twentieth century.
structed life story. In his effort to cast himself as Cesarani devotes most of his attention to the
a marker for the twentieth century as a whole, “Jewish question” with regard to Koestler, but
Koestler consistently downplayed his Jewish historians of the modern period can find ample
background and identity, imagining that this mi- source material throughout this study to examine
nority status would obscure the affinities be- these other themes as well.
tween his life and the various “isms” he hoped DAVID KAISER
to illustrate. Cesarani advances a different hy-
pothesis: that it was precisely Koestler’s cultural 䡲 Sociology & Philosophy of Science
Jewish heritage that drove his many comings and
goings. Rather than living the life of “Every- Richard Padovan. Proportion: Science, Philos-
man,” in other words, Koestler was the canonical ophy, Architecture. xii Ⳮ 388 pp., illus., figs.,
“Wandering Jew,” always in search of a home, tables, bibl., index. London/New York: E & FN
always in search of acceptance from the non- Spon, 1999. $39.99 (paper).
Jewish majority, yet never fully comfortable in
his adopted homelands. Koestler’s relentless In this generally engaging book the architect
travels, hopping back and forth between Pales- Richard Padovan is concerned with architectural
tine, Germany, Austria, France, Britain, and the proportion as an expression of epistemology. He
United States, much like his ideological travels argues that proportions in architecture are not de-
between Zionism, Communism, and their rivals, rived from the inherent order of nature but are
were all expressions, Cesarani argues, of his pro- autonomous productions of the mind itself.
tracted, deep-seated struggles with his own Jew- Padovan regards these systems as reflecting
ishness. two time-honored and seemingly contradictory
On this question, Cesarani presents a strong stances. One school of thought, deriving from
case. An unfortunate by-product of Cesarani’s the ancient Greeks, Padovan characterizes as
extremely well-documented reconstruction, governed by “empathy.” It assumes that humans
however, is the amount of detail lavished on understand an inherently mathematical and or-
Koestler’s personal shortcomings. He was dered nature because we are one with it. Math-
known even in his own day as a notorious ematics, then, unlocks the door to nature’s reg-
drinker and womanizer; Cesarani has uncovered ularities. A second viewpoint, articulated in its
many more details, including episodes of physi- postclassical form by David Hume and, more re-
cal abuse and alleged rape. The incessant ac- cently, by Karl Popper, Padovan calls “abstract.”
counts of Koestler’s boozing, brawling, and sex- Here mathematics is to be regarded as man-
ual proclivities, filling most of the latter made, the by-product of pure thought and de-
two-thirds of the book, simply grow tedious. rived not from an immeasurably amorphous na-
Cesarani has obviously worked hard to resist ture but from the expectation of finding order.
falling into the twin traps of taking Koestler’s Our perceptions are artifacts as much as are the
autobiographical writings at face value and al- buildings to which they give rise. Padovan sup-

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ports (and identifies himself as a disciple of ) the architects, will be stimulated by this book, es-
Dutch architect and theoretician Dom Hans van pecially by the final chapter, “The House as a
der Laan, whose theories articulate an abstractly Frame for Living and a Discipline for Thought.”
derived proportional relationship of “body : By embedding historically significant systems of
house : world.” This relationship gives all that proportionate relationships into a broad philo-
surrounds us predictable measure, something sophical matrix and arguing passionately for his
missing in nature. point of view, Padovan will provoke healthy dis-
While Padovan maintains that his work is not cussion of and increased sensitivity to a complex
a handbook devoted to the history of proportion, and perennially fascinating subject.
he makes a good effort at recapitulating for his JANE ANDREWS AIKEN
readers the most historically important theories
and well-known scholarly assessments of pro- James Brown. Who Rules in Science? An Opin-
portion. He lays out the basic differences, for ionated Guide to the Wars. xi Ⳮ 256 pp., illus.,
instance, between numerical and geometrical notes, bibl., index. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
principles of proportional relationship (famously University Press, 2001. $26 (cloth).
delineated in the writings of Rudolf Wittkower)
in the requisite chapter on the many anomalies James Brown’s guide to the “science wars” be-
found in the proportions of the Parthenon. In the gins with the “Sokal affair” (in which Alan Sokal
three chapters devoted to Plato, Aristotle, and submitted a parody of social constructivism to
Euclid Padovan considers how these thinkers Social Text, which took it seriously and pub-
tried to resolve the conflict between Being and lished it in 1996) and ends with a call for a more
Becoming, the One and the Many, the discrete democratic science. Left-wing politics guides
unit and the continuum, all problems related to and even motivates the book; right-wing (in the
proportion and the disposition of parts in a sense of “traditional”) epistemology of science
whole. While he ultimately dismisses Plato’s ap- provides the argumentative voice. Those who are
proach to proportions as essentially poetic and interested in a readable introduction to the sci-
mythic, he admires Aristotle for reducing math- ence wars from the standpoint of a logical em-
ematical objects to constructions of the human piricist will find this book useful. Brown’s epis-
mind. Perhaps Padovan also prefers Aristotle be- temology is similar to that of Carl Hempel,
cause he famously argued that art completes na- Ernest Nagel, and other heirs of the logical pos-
ture. Euclid’s Elements, of course, is deemed itivist tradition in endorsing an unambiguous
fundamental to the history of architectural pro- distinction between the context of discovery
portions, particularly the discussion of the and the context of justification and “rational”
golden section, the five regular solids, and square methods for theory evaluation (such as the
roots, all producing ratios still used by twentieth- hypothetico-deductive method). The examples
century architects, most notably Le Corbusier. are almost all taken from the physical sciences.
After a brief rundown of non-Euclidean geom- Brown is right to claim that the “science wars”
etries, Padovan, as expected, concludes that the are about objectivity rather than realism. Real-
main lesson to be learned from all of these iter- ism and antirealism each cohere with both ob-
ations of geometrical rigor is that none is found jectivist and subjectivist epistemologies (giving
in nature, but all are creations of the mind. This four possible combinations). Brown is also right
position may eventually be seriously under- to claim that an attack on the objectivity of sci-
mined by continuing investigation into fractals ence is readily perceived as an attack on the au-
and chaos mathematics. thority of science. He supports a critical respect
As Padovan proceeds through chapters on Vi- for science and a science accountable to public
truvius and proportions in Gothic and Renais- interests. The model is representative democracy
sance architecture, his general reliance on influ- rather than direct democracy. Doing science re-
ential scholarship of the 1960s and 1970s or quires expertise, and scientists are the experts
earlier suggests a fundamental weakness of the who pursue public interests. It is unusual, and
book. The author seems unfamiliar with newer laudable, to find this much liberal political en-
translations of Vitruvius, for instance, and the gagement in an epistemologically conservative
clarity these have brought to the study of a dif- position.
ficult text. Indeed, there is little evidence Pa- Brown’s arguments are conceptual in nature,
dovan has consulted specialized studies that rather than empirical or historical. This is the
might have added to the rigor of his observations greatest weakness of the book. For example, he
and conclusions. Despite these shortcomings, asserts (p. 165) that while there may not be ra-
students, particularly those who wish to become tional reasons to choose between every possible

160.9.56.55 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 09:01:05 UTC
competing theory, there will “almost always” be cultural independence, while a variety of philo-
rational reasons to choose between the few the- sophical critiques deconstructed science’s erst-
ories that are available at any one time. Surely, while status as a model of rational inquiry and a
however, this is an empirical question, to be standard of open, democratic debate. Can one
addressed by looking at historical cases. In a give heed to these critical writings and still at-
number of such cases—for example, the late tempt a grand account of science, a transcenden-
nineteenth-century debate between different the- tal analysis of its subject matter and its relations
ories of species change, the 1920s debate over to this subject matter?
continental drift, and the 1920s and 1930s debate J. E. McGuire and Barbara Tuchańska, both
on the proper interpretation of quantum mechan- historians by profession, are not only well versed
ics—there was more than one “reasonable” in the once-revisionist, now-mainstream study of
choice, and scientists’ decisions were also influ- science but can claim credit for some of the most
enced by factors not traditionally considered to original contributions to it—in 1966 McGuire
be “rational.” Decisions can, of course, have (together with P. M. Rattansi) taught historians
multiple causes. Brown considers only those ex- of science how to weave the hermetic and mag-
tremes where all causes are “reasons” or all ical into the interpretation of the epitome of the
causes are “irrational social factors.” In my view, old scientific myth with “Newton and the ‘Pipes
the interesting normative questions come in the of Pan’” (Notes and Records of the Royal Society
typical situation where causes are mixed be- of London, 1966, 21:108–143). Yet McGuire
tween “traditionally rational” and “traditionally and Tuchańska’s answer to the metaphilosophi-
irrational.” cal question is a very ambitious “yes.” Science
Naturalist philosophy of science is a good deal Unfettered is an attempt at something we have
more developed, and more coherent, than Brown become used to thinking impossible: an episte-
makes out. The views of well-known naturalistic mology to ground science, developed on the ba-
philosophers of science such as Ronald Giere, sis of a full-fledged ontology.
David Hull, and Paul Thagard are not discussed. The quest for middle ground between the sci-
Brown is most generous to feminist critics of entistic realism of analytic philosophy and the
science, but even here he flattens their claims, antiscientific skepticism of Continental thought
not realizing that feminist objectivity (as dis- is not new. McGuire and Tuchańska, however,
cussed by Donna Haraway, Sandra Harding, He- aim much higher than a conception of science as
len Longino, and others) is different from the both a cognitive endeavor and a culturally situ-
traditional objectivity he defends. I hope that his- ated practice. Their hope is not simply to explain
torians of science will not take Who Rules in how it is that a human activity—science—suc-
Science? as representative of contemporary phi- ceeds in reaching out to the world outside—na-
losophy of science. After all, 2001—just to take ture. It is, rather, to provide an ontology that will
the year of publication of Brown’s book—saw transcend, problematize, and then recapture the
the publication of several books in naturalistic very distinction between the human and nature,
and feminist philosophy of science, all sensitive between subject and object.
to empirical and historical studies of science as McGuire and Tuchańska seek to conduct a
well as to political issues: John Dupre’s Human “hermeneutical-ontological reconstitution of the
Nature and the Limits of Science (Oxford), epistemological dimension of science” (p. 155).
Philip Kitcher’s Science, Truth, and Democracy It is “hermeneutical” because, following Gada-
(Oxford), Helen Longino’s The Fate of Knowl- mer, they refuse to see man as the independent
edge (Princeton), and my own Social Empiricism creator of meanings facing an estranged world
(MIT). and perceive practice as an arena of the mutual
MIRIAM SOLOMON creation of humans and nature: “the world of sci-
ence manifests itself to us through the web of
J. E. McGuire; Barbara Tuchańska. Science cognitive meanings in the dialectic of intelligi-
Unfettered: A Philosophical Study in Sociohis- bility, evidentiality, and manipulability, on the
torical Ontology. (Continental Thought, 28.) x one hand, and incomprehensibility, empirical
Ⳮ 420 pp., bibl., index. Athens: University of and manipulative inaccessibility, on the other”
Ohio Press, 2000. $65 (cloth); $29.95 (paper). (p. 323). It is “ontological” because, following
Heidegger, they distinguish their project from
Is it still possible to write a philosophy of sci- the merely “ontic” inquiries, common in philos-
ence? For decades now, the history, sociology, ophy, that take the subject/object dichotomy for
and anthropology of science have been eroding granted. Their work, in contrast, commences
science’s claims to epistemic uniqueness and with the realization that “neither the world nor

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ourselves can be given to us as an ultimate un- [and] we can also appreciate the variety of
conditioned existence; both are given simulta- ‘knowings’ in play at any given time” and how
neously as mutually conditioned; our existence these are related to “ways of making” (p. xi; ital-
is our being-in-the-world and the existence of the ics and inverted commas as in the original here
world is the being-of-our-world” (pp. 327–328). and throughout this review). The first chapter of
Finally, it is “epistemological” because, tran- thirty-two pages (15 percent of the book) is an
scending their Continental mentors and critically elaboration of the author’s method, sprinkled
gesturing toward their analytic adversaries, they with the personal pronoun: “This book is in-
do not suppress the essential cognitive character tended to help pull all these different histories
of scientific practice. Even if “scientific objec- together, to allow them to illuminate each other,
tivity results from the fact that science is a so- and so to effect a synthesis that may work across
cially constituted enterprise” (p. 233), it is still most of STM. Indeed, my synthesis extends be-
objectivity, and hermeneutics can become on- yond our current definitions of STM, for I follow
tological only if it can properly account for that. where my ways of knowing lead” (p. 7). After
For all its remarkable richness of insight, Sci- ten pages of this methodology the reader is of-
ence Unfettered is not an easy book. Its authors fered a parachute (or is it a Hovercraft?): “But if
seem compelled to answer all imaginable you are growing tired of ‘method,’ skim forward
counterarguments and argue against all possible towards Chapter 2.”
alternatives to their novel image of science and Ways of Knowing is also troubled by an irri-
its place within nature and human experience. tating and excessive use of inverted single com-
One might even wonder whether they are not mas and italicization of common words to give
doing some disservice to their cause: grand new the impression of significance: “The ‘world-
metaphors are perhaps better advanced by ele- readings’ . . . were mostly about order and eter-
gantly ignoring their predecessors and rivals, nal truths, but this book is mostly about science
suggesting new questions rather than attempting and doing” (p. 16). A more objectionable style
to resolve the old ones. But by taking their long of argument is the citation of whole books—
without page references—to support a state-
and uncompromising route McGuire and Tuch-
ment. At one point (p. 100), to lend authority to
ańska fashion an overwhelmingly wide and thor-
a statement about mechanization, three whole
ough presentation of the current panoply of epis-
books are cited, including the first volume of
temologies of science and their embedded Marx’s Capital! Only occasionally are direct
ontologies. Thus, without ever assuming a text- quotations with specific citations provided. And
book’s detachment, Science Unfettered is also an the constant use of the expressions “as we have
extremely important resource even for the less seen” and “as we shall see” shifts to the reader
philosophically inclined historian of science. much of the burden of providing the coherence
OFER GAL and analytical power that the book basically
lacks.
John V. Pickstone. Ways of Knowing: A New The intended “audiences” for the book are as
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine. sweeping as its method: historians “and other an-
xii Ⳮ 271 pp., bibl., index. Chicago/London: alysts of social and intellectual change,” scien-
University of Chicago Press, 2001. tists, engineers, doctors, “all the other women
and men who are professionally concerned with
Along with this book’s serious deficiencies, John
the increase and use of expert knowledges and
Pickstone displays a wide knowledge of the his- techniques,” and the general reader “or perhaps
tories of science, technology, and medicine the general reader in all of us” (p. 22). Have any
(STM). But his learning is used not in the service audiences been overlooked?
of the historian’s traditional curiosity about de- Beyond the discussion of method, the book
velopment and change but, rather, as the subject takes up the author’s several “ways of knowing”
matter of a “method” that he has originated for in a series of chapters devoted to each. Although
understanding STM. The significance and con- these chapters are often informative and occa-
nections of his historical insights are ostensibly sionally provocative and enlightening, they take
clarified by this method, which outlines the mul- the reader’s previous knowledge of the history
tiple histories of STM “not in a single chrono- of STM too much for granted. This “new” his-
logical sequence, nor discipline by discipline, tory of STM needs a transfusion from the old.
but as different ways of knowing.” These, in turn, HAROLD DORN
are called “world-readings (or hermeneutics),
natural history, analysis, experimentalism and John Ziman. Real Science: What It Is and What
technoscience.” “Thus the picture builds up . . . It Means. xii Ⳮ 399 pp., bibl., index. Cam-

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bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. as much concerned with profit as truth and less
$39.95 (cloth). structured by ancient disciplines than by flexible
networks of experts not restricted to universi-
On page 317 of Real Science, the author throws ties). Solution: a set of epistemological norms
up his hands in desperation and asks: “What is has grown up alongside CUDOS as a kind of
bugging those pettifogging philosophers and functional necessity. So, the injunction to com-
their anti-science allies?” Plainly, we know who municate claims publicly translates into equally
has been bugging John Ziman. Those philoso- institutionalized “cognitive” preferences among
phers and antiscience types have misled the edu- scientists for putting their findings in a rational
cated public (for whom this book was written) and logical form, generalizing the particular, for-
by proffering unreal images of science that malizing the implicit, reaching collective objec-
threaten the believability of scientific knowledge tivity via incessant open debate. But remember:
(which the author intends to rescue). scientists are not as rational and logical as the
Not all philosophers are all bad, and neither Legend would have them, nor are they as illog-
are some sociologists who might appear to be ical or irrational as some relativists might say.
antiscience. The problem rests with those “sci- With Ziman safely staked out in the middle,
entistic” philosophers wedded to the Legend, a Real Science is frustrating to read and argue
familiar epistemology that traces the believabil- with. His mantra is “not only, but also”:
ity of science back to a transcendent Method— real science is not just CUDOS or logic or cog-
grounded in reason, logic, and objectivity, thus nitive neurophysiology or blind-variation-and-
ensuring privileged access to Truth. Unfortu- selective-retention, but all of these and lots more.
nately, in challenging the Legend, some sociol- So many escape hatches are built into the book
ogists (he calls them relativists, radical construc- that it becomes impossible to pin down Ziman
tivists, postmodernists) go too far in their or what science really is: science is always
antiscience deconstructions and leave no good changing, it is profoundly heterogeneous, and
grounds for anyone to believe its claims. “the intrinsic interconnectedness of the whole
Why should anyone believe science? Ziman system can only be grasped by leaving its com-
finds a justification in the safe middle, with just ponent elements somewhat vague” (p. 328). One
enough sociology to slay the Legend and just wishes that the author had instead practiced what
enough epistemology to prevent science from he preaches: “Our naturalistic approach requires
becoming merely a power-and-rhetoric game. us, rather, to take a worm’s eye view . . . inside
He calls this space a “naturalistic” perspective academic science and study the way in which
on science, which ends up being a meld of Mer- knowledge originates and . . . becomes estab-
tonian functionalism and evolutionary episte- lished” (p. 233). The book is written from afar,
mology. Rather than deriving the social orga- too far from the steamy controversies or routine
nization of science from epistemological bench practices that give science its reality.
necessities, Ziman works in the other direction: THOMAS F. GIERYN
given institutionalized social practices, what
epistemology is needed to make it all work? His 䡲 Reference Tools
sociological model of science is a slightly
tweaked form of Robert Merton’s CUDOS Richard S. Brooks; David K. Himrod. Science
norms: communalism, universalism, disinterest- and Religion in the English-Speaking World,
edness, originality, and (organized) skepticism. 1600–1727: A Bibliographic Guide to the Sec-
So long as scientists conform to these injunc- ondary Literature. (American Theological Li-
tions (which really add up to the insistence that brary Association Bibliography Series, 46.)
they publicly scrutinize all potential claims), the xxxiv Ⳮ 656 pp., bibl., indexes. Lanham, Md.:
knowledge thus produced will be believable— Scarecrow Press, 2001. $85 (cloth).
to scientists and to the rest of us.
But scientists don’t always conform: the Mer- When Richard Brooks and David Himrod un-
tonian norms are ideals, not descriptions of real dertook this project a decade ago it was massive,
science. Scientists do get passionate about pet but in the intervening years it became unman-
theories; they do rely on reputation in judging a ageable—so much so that, as the authors ac-
scientist’s work; they do pursue fame and gain knowledge, their original goal proved unreach-
via research. Moreover, the CUDOS norms are able. As a consequence they made a number of
no longer even widely endorsed ideals for the concessions, which, though understandable,
kind of science on the horizon—which Ziman have rendered the book less valuable to scholars.
labels “postacademic” (think of biotechnology, First, they were forced to make some radical

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changes to their planned format, including the haps annual or biannual) bibliographical series,
presentation of a limited number of titles (two the researcher could look forward to more com-
thousand), a reduction in the years incorporated plete bibliographic coverage.
(the study ends at 1727 rather than 1750), and, Admittedly, the authors themselves recognize
most damaging, a publication cutoff date of how problematic some of their “judgment calls”
1994. Second, because their project is restricted (p. xiv) may be and encourage their readers to
to the islands of Great Britain and Ireland as well help them improve this “work in progress”
as the English colonies in America, the authors (p. xv). To date, however, I can find no evidence
chose to exclude many individuals whose works of a supplementary website or plans for a volume
are relevant to the topic of science and religion, covering post-1994 material. In this age of lim-
such as Descartes, Galileo, and Leibniz. The ex- ited budgets and improved methods for the ac-
ception is when their influence and debates pen- quisition of bibliographical information, this
etrated the English-speaking areas covered, a volume’s various weaknesses and relatively
qualification that the interested scholar might steep price suggest that it will appeal to a very
reasonably argue makes the initial exclusion im- limited number of libraries and very few, if any,
practical and illogical. Furthermore, Brooks and individual readers.
Himrod exclude works that in their judgment are KATHRYN M. BRAMMALL
“not significant for the study of both science and
religion in the period” (p. xiii). Given that they Christopher Hoolihan. An Annotated Cata-
“are convinced of the validity and of the impor- logue of the Edward C. Atwater Collection of
tance of a profound historical interplay between American Popular Medicine and Health Reform.
science and religion” (p. xv), how is it possible Volume 1: A–L. xx Ⳮ 669 pp., illus., index.
to suggest that a religious subject is irrelevant to Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2001.
science, and vice versa, even if that significance
$125 (cloth).
is not explicit?
Despite the numerous exclusions, this project For scholars in the field of American popular
has demanded an enormous amount of time and medicine, this first volume (A–L entries) of a
effort from Brooks and Himrod. Each of the two two-volume set by Christopher Hoolihan, head
thousand alphabetically arranged entries is an- of rare books and manuscripts in the Edward G.
notated and then categorized according to one Miner Library at the University of Rochester,
(or more) of twelve “Topics”: Historiography; will provide an unending source of useful infor-
Magical, Alchemical, and Prisca Traditions; mation. Not only does he open a window to the
Protestantism and the Rise of Modern Science; rich historical materials of the Edward C. At-
Christianity, Social Ideals, Ideology, and Sci- water Collection, but he gives the reader useful
ence; Social Institutions, Science, and Christian- insight into the complex relationship between
ity; Religion, Technology, Architecture, and the American medicine and the broader culture.
Environment; Theology, Philosophy, and Sci- The strength of the Atwater Collection is its
ence; Natural Theology and Natural Philosophy; popular literature, written mostly by medical
Heretical Christianity, Deism, and Atheism; Sci-
professionals and intended for a nonprofessional
ence, the Bible, and Literature; Religion and
audience. This literature is rich and colorful,
Medicine; and Newtonian Studies. The book
touching on all aspects of health and disease—
also provides three separate indexes: topics, per-
sons from the period, and author/editor. Yet even from anatomy, diet, epidemics, exercise, hy-
here it is possible to think of more manageable giene, nursing, and physiology to reproduction,
ways to handle the organization. The authors sanitation, sex, and temperance. As Hoolihan ex-
provide a lengthy description of their chosen top- plains, the popular literature compiled and an-
ics, and yet, as they admit, there is tremendous notated in the collection accounts for what the
overlap among them. Moreover, the topical in- self-treating layman knew and how he learned
dex (arguably the most valuable to researchers) about it—which was probably not from his fam-
is particularly cramped and hard to read. Perhaps ily doctor. While mainstream physicians contrib-
had the bibliographical entries themselves been uted to this literature, the majority of authors
organized and cross-referenced by topic the re- were sectarians of the botanic, eclectic, homeo-
source as a whole would have been more utili- pathic, hydropathic, physiomedical, and Thom-
tarian, especially since, according to the pub- sonian medical systems. Unlike regulars, who
lisher, this book was designed with students responded to disease with aggressive therapeutic
in mind. Furthermore, had the volume been regimens, these popular writers were sometimes
planned as the foundation for an ongoing (per- “strong voices of moderation, who emphasized

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the importance of preventive medicine and of Joseph W. Dauben. The History of Mathemat-
healthful regimen” (p. xiii). ics from Antiquity to the Present: A Selective An-
The collection is rich in the multiple editions notated Bibliography. Edited by Albert C.
of this advice literature, including such favorites Lewis, in cooperation with the International
as Aristotle’s Master-Piece, William Buchan’s Commission on the History of Mathematics. Re-
Domestic Medicine, John Gunn’s Domestic vised edition on CD-ROM. Providence, R.I.:
Medicine, Edward Bliss Foote’s Medical Com- American Mathematical Society, 2000. $49.
mon Sense, and the publications of Orson Squier
Fowler and John Harvey Kellogg. Hoolihan cap- This bibliography will be of immense use to re-
tures the individual character of these editions searchers. It fulfills its promise “to make the se-
and uses the most current scholarship to provide creta secretorum of the history of mathematics
historical context. much less of a secret history” (p. xxvii). It is easy
Evident in the citations are differences be- to navigate through the CD-ROM via standard
tween Boston writers, typically more conserva- search techniques. Helpful too are the frequent
tive in their therapeutic regimens, and those from citations of reviews of the works listed. Editorial
other regions of the country; the rudimentary and comments on the works vary in frequency and
often erroneous nature of medical information; length from section to section.
the generally accepted belief that, to be effective, The word “selective” in the title should, how-
doctors had to be aggressive in their use of med- ever, be taken seriously. Following George Sar-
icines; the emphasis even among botanics on ton’s warning that “bibliographic extravagance
herbs that produced sweating and vomiting; and is a sin rather than a virtue” (p. xvi), the editor
the bias in favor of indigenous plants. Equally remarks that his aim has been “to combine a
striking is the overall impact that sectarian doc- sample of the best scholarship with the best in-
tors had on popular culture. Although their medi- troductions and the most important initial points
cal systems failed to weather the transition to for a given topic” (p. xiv). While a book as sus-
rational medicine, they nonetheless found a pect as E. T. Bell’s Men of Mathematics (Simon
niche in the popular advice literature, infusing & Schuster, 1937) is included, with an appro-
elements of their sectarian theories and healing priate warning, you will not find here John Still-
regimens into the mainstream of American cul- well’s thoughtful Mathematics and Its History
ture. (Springer, 1989) nor the more specialized Ori-
The collection is uniformly strong, providing gins of Modern Algebra (Noordhoff, 1973) by
a treasure trove of information on botanic med- Lubos Nový.
icine, child care, consumption, contraception, Editors have their own criteria of importance,
diet, eclectic medicine, exercise, homeopathy, but a sample of omissions that will surprise spe-
hydropathy, hygiene, juvenile literature, mid-
cialists includes David Eugene Smith and Louis
wifery, physiology, proprietary medicines and
Charles Karpinski’s The Hindu-Arabic Numer-
therapies, sex and sexual disorders, and
women’s health. One brief correction should be als (Ginn, 1911); G. F. Hill’s The Development
noted. In the report on Constantine Hering’s Do- of the Arabic Numerals in Europe (Oxford,
mestic Physician (Rademacher, 1848), reference 1915), Walter E. Clark’s The Aryabatiya of Ar-
is made to the American Institute of Homeopa- yabhata (Chicago, 1930), and G. Vacca’s “Mau-
thy (1844) as the first national medical organi- rolico, the First Discoverer of the Principle of
zation in the United States; in fact, the first na- Mathematical Induction” (AMS Bulletin, 1909–
tional organization was Samuel Thomson’s 1910, 16:70–73). Omitted too are studies of
Friendly Botanic Society of the United States, mathematics from a more literary standpoint,
whose constitution was approved in 1833 and such as Bryan Rotman’s Signifying Nothing
which met annually until 1838. (Stanford, 1987).
Edward C. Atwater’s superb collection of ROBERT KAPLAN
American popular medicine, which rivals that of
the National Library of Medicine, became part Gary B. Ferngren (Editor). The History of Sci-
of the Edward G. Miner Library in 1994. This ence and Religion in the Western Tradition: An
annotated catalogue is much more than simply a Encyclopedia. xxii Ⳮ 586 pp., index. New York/
guide to the collection. The commentary alone London: Garland Publishing, 2000. $95, Can
will serve librarians, booksellers, collectors, and $143.
scholars for years to come with up-to-date in-
formation and interpretations of American pop- This collection of articles covers people, con-
ular medicine. cepts, and -isms connected with the history of
JOHN S. HALLER, JR. science and religion in Europe and America over

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the last two millennia. Most of the 103 articles ume. I am ambivalent about the effect of this
are less than six pages long, so they make good variety. On the one hand, as an academic spe-
introductions for students. The appended reading cializing in history of science and religion, I find
lists helpfully contain both primary and second- it incredibly fascinating to see different histo-
ary references, although few have any works riographical commitments appearing side by
post-1995. In fact, given the preponderance of side. I can imagine choosing specific groups of
suggested reading from earlier decades, one articles and asking advanced undergraduate stu-
wonders whether this volume has taken longer dents to spot the differences between them.
in production than originally anticipated. The On the other hand, I worry about how students
end result is a good introduction to the state of just beginning to be interested in the history of
the history of science and religion ten years ago, science and religion will cope. These are surely
but it does not mention the approaches that have the students who are most likely to be using this
been developed more recently, particularly in the volume, and I fear that the variety I find stimu-
areas of popular religion and popular science. lating might actually be confusing to beginners.
The articles are grouped into ten parts, the last It is not just that different contributors have dif-
six of which, predictably, concern scientific dis- ferent emphases, depending on their academic
ciplines (“Astronomy and Cosmology,” “Earth training (philosopher, historian of science, his-
Sciences,” “Occult Sciences,” etc.). Of the re- torian of religion) or their personal religious
mainder, Part 3 is called “Intellectual Founda- commitments. Imagine that you are wondering
tions and Philosophical Backgrounds” and is ba- about the intrinsic nature of science and of reli-
sically a rough guide to -isms, from Platonism, gion—do these two entities overlap or are they
Stoicism, Skepticism, and Deism right up to completely and utterly separate and incommen-
Postmodernism—although Augustine and Aqui- surable? You will find the first argument on
nas also appear here. Galileo, Pascal, Newton, pages 15–19, the latter on page 51. The alert
and Darwin get a tiny section to themselves student who reads both articles, and has previ-
(Pt. 2). Part 4 attempts to live up to the promise ously read David Wilson’s helpful historio-
of the title and deal with the different religions graphical introduction to changing trends in the
that are encompassed in “the Western tradition.” literature over the last century (which also situ-
Here we find Judaism, Islam, Orthodoxy, Roman ates the contributor involved at page 51), will
Catholicism, and Protestantism, although the find this stimulating. Other students will either
shortness of the articles means that these are very come away confused or, if they read only one of
brief overviews of complex topics. Yet even the articles, will have a one-sided view of the
here, as in the remainder of the volume, the em- issue without realizing it.
phasis is clearly on Christianity, particularly More advanced students will quickly move
Protestantism and, by the nineteenth century, beyond this volume, but it will be an excellent
particularly Protestantism in America. This is, of starting point for those just beginning to inves-
course, partly a reflection of the existing litera- tigate science and religion. In either case, in-
ture, but it is a shame that we could not have had structors may wish to alert their students to the
more than ten pages on Islam and eight on Ju- historiographical variations.
daism. AILEEN FYFE
I particularly liked the very first section,
which attempts to address some of the big issues 䡲 Collections
in science and religion from both historical and
philosophical points of view. (I would recom- Helen Deutsch; Felicity Nussbaum (Editors).
mend Stephen Meyer’s article to anyone teach- “Defects”: Engendering the Modern Body. xii
ing introductory history of science classes, as it Ⳮ 332 pp., illus., app., index. Ann Arbor: Uni-
is an easily readable overview that completely versity of Michigan Press, 2000. $52.50 (cloth);
problematizes the whole concept of “science.”) $19.95 (paper).
However, this section also illustrates one of the
problematic features of this volume. Gary Fern- Felicity Nussbaum: Dumb Virgins, Blind Ladies, and
gren comments in his editor’s introduction that Eunuchs: Fictions of Defect. Lennard J. Davis: Dr.
Johnson, Amelia, and the Discourse of Disability in
the contributors are “drawn from a variety of the Eighteenth Century. Nicholas Mirzoeff: Paper,
backgrounds. No single point of view—in re- Picture, Sign: Conversations between the Deaf, the
spect to either religion or historical interpreta- Hard of Hearing, and Others. Stephen Pender: In the
tion—can be said to monopolize these pages” Bodyshop: Human Exhibition in Early Modern En-
(p. xiv). This is particularly obvious in these gland. Barbara M. Benedict: Making a Monster: So-
more philosophical articles at the start of the vol- cializing Sexuality and the Monster of 1790. Joel

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Reed: Monstrous Knowledge: Representing the Na- Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu; Feza Günergun (Edi-
tional Body in Eighteenth-Century Ireland. Helen tors). Science in Islamic Civilization. vi Ⳮ 289
Deutsch: The Author as Monster: The Case of Dr. pp., figs. Istanbul: IRCICA, 2000.
Johnson. Jill Campbell: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
and the “Glass Revers’d” of Female Old Age. Eliza- George Makdisi: The reception of the model of the
beth Heckendorn Cook: “Perfect” Flowers, Mon- Islamic scholastic culture in the Christian West. Gert
strous Women: Eighteenth-Century Botany and the Schubring: Recent research on institutional history of
Modern Gendered Subject. Robert W. Jones: Obe- science and its application to Islamic civilization. M.
dient Faces: The Virtue of Deformity in Sarah Scott’s Hulusi Lekesiz: Ottoman scientific mentality: an es-
Fiction. Cora Kaplan: Afterword: Liberalism, Femi- say on its formation, development and decline. Nesimi
nism, and Defect. Yazici: Some considerations on the teaching of sci-
ences in the late Ottoman medreses. Sevtap Ishako-
ğlu-Kadioğlu: The teaching of mathematical and nat-
Marco Bresadola; Guiliano Pancaldi (Edi- ural science at the Darülfünûn and Istanbul University
Faculty of Science. Ghulan M. Haniff: Scientific
tors). Luigi Galvani International Workshop.
knowledge and the contemporary muslims. Edward S.
Bologna: Università di Bologna, 1999. Kennedy: The heritage of Ulugh Beg. David A. King:
J. L. Heilbron: Galvani, Volta, and the uses of cen- Islamic world-maps centered on Mecca: The rediscov-
tennials. Raffaella Simili: Luigi Galvani. Marco Bre- ery of a remarkable tradition of medieval cartography.
sadola: Exploring Galvani’s room for experiments. Mercè Comes: Islamic geographical coordinates: al-
Frederic L. Holmes: Galvani on respiration and in- Andalus’ contribution to the correct measurement of
flammation. Maria Trumpler: From tabletops to tri- the size of the Mediterranean. T. S. Yuldashbaev:
angles: increasing abstraction in the depiction of ex- Mirza Ulugh Beg and modern astronomy in Uzbeki-
periments in animal electricity from Galvani to Ritter. stan. Ashraf Ahmedov and Boris A. Rosenfeld: The
mathematical treatise of Ulugh Beg. Roshdi Rashed:
Paola Bertucci: Medical and animal electricity in the
histoire de l’analyse combinatoire. Ahmed Salin Sai-
work of Tiberius Cavallo, 1780–1795. L. S. Jacyna:
dan: Al-Biruni on trigonometry. Boris A. Rosenfeld:
Galvanic influences: themes in the early history of
Tashkent manuscripts on mathematical atomism. A.
British animal electricity. Christine Blondel: Animal
Göksel Ağargün: Kamal-al-Din al-Farisi and the fun-
electricity in Paris: from initial support, to its discredit
damental theorem of arithmetic. Moustrafa Mawaldi:
and eventual rehabilitation.
Méthode de l’analyse et de la synthèse de Kamal al-
Din al-Farisi. Ali Akyildiz: The Modernizing impact
of a technological transfer: The case of the Constanta
Railway. Doğan Uçar: Turkish cartography in the 16th
Miriam R. Levin (Editor). Cultures of Control. century. Frédéric Hitzèl: François Kauffer (1751?–
(Studies in the History of Science, Technology, 1801): Ingénieur-cartographe Français au service de
and Medicine, 9.) xx Ⳮ 274 pp., illus., index. Selim III. A. H. Helmy Mohammad: Notes on the
Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers, reception of Darwinism in some Islamic countries. S.
2000. $56, €51. Irfan Habib: Delhi Tibbiya College and Hakim Ajmal
Khan’s crusade for indigenous medicine systems in
Thomas P. Hughes: Introduction. Miriam R. Levin: late 19th and early 20th century India. Nuran Yildirim:
Contexts of Control. Rosalind Williams: Nature Out Disinfecting stations in Ottoman Empire. Serge Ja-
of Control: Cultural Origins and Environmental Im- gailloux: Paraléllisme dans le développement de la
plications of Large Technological Systems. Daryl M. nouvelle médecine occidentale en Turquie et en
Hafter: Measuring Cloth by the Elbow and a Thumb: Egypte dans la première moitié du 19ème siècle.
Resistance to Numbers in France of the 1780s. Boel
Berner: The Meaning of Cleaning: Producing Har-
mony and Hygiene in the Home. Catherine Bertho Nancy G. Siraisi (Editor). Medicine in the Ital-
Lavenir: How the Motor Car Conquered the Road. ian Universities, 1250–1600. ix Ⳮ 400 pp., in-
Robert H. Kargon and Arthur P. Molella: Culture, dex. New York: Brill Academic Publishing,
Technology and Constructed Memory in Disney’s 2001. $122 (cloth).
New Town: Techno-nostalgia in Historical Perspec-
tive. Denis Bayart: How To Make Chance Manage- Introduction. The Medical Learning of Albertus Mag-
able: Statistical Thinking and Cognitive Devices in nus. How to Write a Latin Book on Surgery: Organiz-
Manufacturing Control. Michael Thad Allen: Ideol- ing Principles and Authorial Devices in Guglielmo da
ogy Counts: Controlling the Bodies of Concentration Saliceto and Dino del Garbo. Avicenna and the Teach-
Camp Prisoners. David A. Mindell: Beasts and Sys- ing of Practical Medicine. Two Models of Medical
tems: Taming and Stability in the History of Control. Culture, Pietro d’Abano and Taddeo Alderotti. The li-
Mark D. Bowles: Liquifying Information: Controlling bri morales in the Faculty of Arts and Medicine at
the Flood in the Cold War and Beyond. Slava Ger- Bologna: Bartolomeo da Varignana and the pseudo-
ovitch: Striving for “Optimal Control”: Soviet Cyber- Aristotelian Economics. The Music of Pulse. Medical
netics as a “Science of Government.” Scholasticism and the Historian. The Physician’s Task:

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Medical Reputations in Humanist Collective Biogra- German-American Archaeologist. Alice B. Kehoe:

phies. Renaissance Critiques of Medicine, Physiology, Europe’s Prehistoric Dawn Reproduced: Daniel Wil-
and Anatomy. Renaissance Readers and Avicenna’s son’s Magisterial Archaeology. Bruce J. Bourque:
Organization of Medical Knowledge. ‘Remarkable’ Maine Shell Midden Archaeology (1860–1910) and
Diseases, “Remarkable’ Cures, and Personal Experi- the Influence of Adolphe von Morlot. Hilary Lynn
ence in Renaissance Medical Texts. Vesalius and the Chester: Frances Eliza Babbitt and the Growth of Pro-
Reading of Galen’s Teleology. Vesalius and Human fessionalism of Women in Archaeology. David L.
Diversity in De humani corporis fabrica. Giovanni Ar- Browman: Henry Chapman Mercer: Archaeologist
genterio: Medical Innovation, Princely Patronage and and Cultural Historian. David L. Browman: Frederic
Academic Controversy. Signs and Evidence: Autopsy Ward Putman: Contributions to the Development of
and Sanctity in Late Sixteenth-Century Italy. Archaeological Institutions and Encouragement of
Women Practitioners. David L. Browman: Origins
of Stratigraphic Excavation in North America: The
Patricia J. Durana; Anne B. Effland; Douglas Peabody Museum Method and the Chicago Method.
Helms (Editors). Profiles in the History of the Harvey M. Bricker: George Grant MacCurdy: An
American Pioneer of Palaeoanthropology.
U.S. Soil Survey. xvi Ⳮ 331 pp., illus., tables,
apps., index. Ames: Iowa State Press, 2002.
$49.99 (cloth).
John Parham (Editor). The Environmental Tra-
Douglas Helms, Anne B. W. Effland, and Steven E. dition in English Literature. xvi Ⳮ 238 pp.,
Phillips: Founding the USDA’s Division of Agricul- bibl., index. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate Publish-
tural Soils: Charles Dabney, Milton Whitney, and the ing, 2002. $79.95 (cloth).
State Experiment Stations. Douglas Helms: Early
Leaders of the Soil Survey. Klaus W. Flach and C. Louise Westling: Introduction. Martin Ryle: After
Steven Holzhey: History of the Soil Survey Labora- “Organic Community”: Ecocriticism, Nature, and Hu-
tories. Joe D. Nichols: Memoirs of a Soil Correlator. man Nature. Dominic Head: Beyond 2000: Raymond
Maxine J. Levin: Opening Opportunities: Women in Williams and the Ecocritic’s Task. Naomi Guttman:
Soil Science and the Soil Survey. M. Dewayne Mays, Ecofeminism in Literary Studies. Terry Gifford: To-
Horace Smith, and Douglas Helms: Contributions of wards a Post-Pastoral View of British Poetry. Bennett
African-Americans and the 1890 Land-Grant Univer- Huffman: Postmodern Ecocriticism in the Science
sities to Soil Science and the Soil Survey. Dennis Fiction Novel: J. G. Ballard and Ken Kesey. Paul Da-
Roth: Soil Survey and the U.S. Forest Service. James vies: Cosmos as Metaphor: Eco-Spiritual Poetics.
Muhn: A History of Soil Surveys and Soil Science in Richard Kerridge: Narratives of Resignation: Envi-
the Bureau of Land Management. Vance T. Holliday, ronmentalism in Recent Fiction. Lisa Garforth: Eco-
Leslie D. McFadden, E. Arthur Bettis, and Peter W. topian Fiction and the Sustainable Society. Gillian
Birkeland: Soil Survey and Soil-Geomorphology. Pa- Rudd: Making the Rocks Disappear: Refocusing
tricia J. Durana and Douglas Helms: Soil Survey Chaucer’s Knight’s and Franklin’s Tales. Diane
Interpretations: Past, Present, and Looking to the McColley: The Commodious Ark: Nature’s Voice in
Future. Horace Smith and Berman D. Hudson: The Early Modern Poetry. Ralph Pite: ‘Founded on the
American Soil Survey in the Twenty-First Century. Affections’: A Romantic Ecology. John Parham:
Patricia J. Durana: Chronology of the U.S. Soil Sur- Was there a Victorian Ecology? Charlotte Zoë
vey. John P. Tandarich: History of the U.S. Soil Walker: Letting in the Sky: An Ecofeminist Reading
Survey: A Bibliography. of Virginia Woolf’s Short Fiction. Gavin Murray:
Reversing the Fall: The Sense of Place in D. H. Law-
rence. Andy Jurgis: Twentieth-Century Rural Poets
David L. Browman; Stephen Williams (Edi- of Britain and Ireland: Ecological Voices from the
tors). New Perspectives on the Origins of Amer- Geographical and Cultural Margins.
icanist Archaeology. x Ⳮ 378 pp., illus., bibl.,
index. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press,
2002. $32.95 (paper).
David N. Livingstone (Editor). Science, Space,
David L. Browman and Stephen Williams: Intro- and Hermeneutics. 116 pp., illus. Heidelberg:
duction. Stephen Williams: The Strait of Anian: A University of Heidelberg Press, 2002.
Pathway to the New World. Stephen Williams: “From
Whence Came Those Aboriginal Inhabitants of Amer- Peter Meusburger and Hans Gebhardt: Introduc-
ica?” A.D. 1500–1800. David M. Oestreicher: Roots tion: Hettner-Lecture 2001 in Heidelberg. David N.
of the Walam Olum: Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Livingstone: Knowledge, space and the geographies
and the Intellectual Heritage of the Early Nineteenth of science. David N. Livingstone: Tropical herme-
Century. Terry A. Barnhart: Toward a Science of neutics and the climatic imagination. Michael Hoyler,
Man: European Influences on the Archaeology of Tim Freytag and Heike Jöns: Geographical tradi-
Ephraim George Squier. John E. Kelly: Charles Rau: tions, science studies, and biography: a conversation
Developments in the Career of a Nineteenth-Century with David N. Livingstone.

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Ekkehard Höxtermann; Joachim Kaasch; Science. v Ⳮ 347 pp., index. Malden: Blackwell
Michael Kaasch; Ragnar K. Kinzelbach Publishing, 2002. $34.95 (paper).
(Editors). Berichte zur Geschichte der Hydro-
Peter Machamer: A Brief Historical Introduction to
und Meeresbiologie: Und weitere Beiträge zur
the Philosophy of Science. John Worrall: Philosophy
8. Jahrestagung der DGGTB in Rostock 1999. of Science: Classic Debates, Standard Problems, Fu-
404 pp., illus., figs., tables, index. Berlin: Verlag ture Prospects. Jim Woodward: Explanation. Carl F.
für Wissenschaft und Bildung, 2000. DM 68 Craver: Structures of Scientific Theories. Michael
(paper). Silberstein: Reduction, Emergence and Explanation.
Daniela M. Bailer-Jones: Models, Metaphors and
Uwe Hossfeld: Von statistischen Untersuchungen an Analogies. James Bogen: Experiment and Observa-
Pleuronectes platessa L. (Scholle) zum Kleinhirn der tion. Alan Hájek and Ned Hall: Induction and Prob-
Knochenfische (Osteichthyes). Ekkehard Höxter- ability. Craig Callender and Carl Hoefer: Philoso-
mann: Natur- und Gewässerschutz in der Deutschen phy of Space-Time Physics. Laura Ruetsche:
Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin—Verhält- Interpreting Quantum Theories. Roberta L. Millstein:
nisse und Visionen der 1950er Jahre. Ilse Jahn: Die Evolution. Paul Griffiths: Molecular and Develop-
Humboldt-Stipendien für Planktonforschung und die mental Biology. Rick Grush: Cognitive Science. Har-
Haeckel-Hensen-Kontroverse (1881–1893). Julia A. old Kincaid: Social Sciences. Lynn Hankinson Nel-
Lajus: Zwischen Wissenschaft und Fischerei: Meer- son: Feminist Philosophy of Science.
esforschungen im Russischen Norden am Ende des 19.
und im ersten Viertel des 20. Jahrhunderts. Hannelore
Landsberg: “Die Wissenschaft wird streng und nü- Social Learning Group (Editors). Learning to
chtern richten . . .” (Carl Chun 1900)—100 Jahre Manage Global Environmental Risks. Volume 1:
Deutsche Tiefsee-Expedition “Valdivia”. Harald Lor-
enzen: Max Schultze (1825–1874), Zoologe und Zell-
A Comparative History of Social Responses to
biologe-Freuden und Leiden am Mittelmeerstrand. Climate Change, Ozone Depletion, and Acid
Isolde Schmidt: Die Rolle des Gustav Fisher Verlages Rain; Volume 2: A Functional Analysis of Social
bei der Herausgabe von Ergebnissen der Deutschen Responses to Climate Change, Ozone Depletion,
Tiefsee-Expedition und anderer bahnbrechender na- and Acid Rain. Foreword by Bert Bolin. 376 Ⳮ
turwissenschaftlicher Werke. Erki Tammiksaar: Karl 226 pp. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2001.
Ernst von Baer als meeresbiologe. Brigitte Hoppe: $30 (cloth); $24 (paper).
Empirie und Geometrie als Grundlagen der Botanik
von Joachim Jungius (1587–1657). Thomas Junker: Volume 1
Adolf Remane und die Synthetische Theorie. Ragnar William C. Clark, Jill Jäger, and Josee van
K. Kinzelbach: Die Zoologie an der Universität Ros- Eijndhoven: Managing Global Environmental
tock: Von der Wunderkammer zu Biodiversitätsfor- Change: An Introduction to the Volume. William C.
schung und Biotechnologie-Eine historische Über- Clark, Jill Jäger, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, and
sicht. Reinhard Mocek: Adolf Friedrich Nolde Nancy M. Dickson: Acid Rain, Ozone Depletion, and
(1764–1813)-ein Rostocker Kreis-physicus als Stadt- Climate Change: An Historical Overview. Jeannine
soziologe. Brigitte Steyer: Der Entwicklungsbiologe Cavender-Bares and Jill Jäger with Renate Ell: De-
und Ornithologe Horst Wachs (1888 bis 1956) und veloping a Precautionary Approach: Global Environ-
seine besonderen Leistungen im Vogelschutz an der mental Risk Management in Germany. Brian Wynne
Ostsee. Erhard Geissler: Kartoffelkäfer als dual-treat and Peter Simmons with Claire Waterton, Peter
agents. Michael Kaasch: Botaniker und Zoologen als Hughes, and Simon Shackley: Institutional Cultures
Mitgestalter der Deutschen Akademie der Natur- and the Management of Global Environmental Risks
forscher Leopoldina. Kai Torsten Kanz: Zur Früh- in the United Kingdom. Josee van Eijndhoven with
geschichte des Begriffs “Biologie”. Die botanische Gerda Dinkelman, Jeroen van de Sluijs, Ruud
Biologie (1771) von Johann Jakob Planer (1743– Pleune, and Cor Worrell: Finding Your Place: A His-
1789). Margarete Maurer: Sexualdimorphismus, tory of the Management of Global Environmental
Geschelechtskonstruktion und Hirn-forschung. Vı́tĕz- Risks in the Netherlands. Vassily Sokolov and Jill
slav Orel und Gerhard Czihak: Der Unterricht in Jäger with Vladimir Pisarev, Elena Nikitina, Al-
Naturgeschichte und Landwirtschaftslehre im Hinter- exandre Ginzburg, Elena Goncharova, Jeannine
Cavender-Bares, and Edward A. Parson: Turning
grund der Forschungsfrage Mendels. Henri Reiling:
Points: The Management of Global Environmental
Václav Friĉ (1839–1916): Traces in Archives and
Risks in the former Soviet Union. Ferenc L. Tóth
Museums. Werner Sohn: Zum Verhältnis von Wis-
with Éva Hizsnyik: Catching up with the International
senschaftssubjekt und—objekt bei der Genese der
Bandwagon: The Management of Global Environmen-
Bakteriologie um 1880. Son̂a Ŝtrbáôová: Two Im-
tal Risks in Hungary. Miranda A. Schreurs: Shifting
munologists Coming from Bohemia.
Priorities and the Internationalization of Environmen-
tal Risk Management in Japan. Diana Liverman and
Karen O’Brien: Southern Skies: The Perception and
Peter Machamer; Michael Silberstein (Edi- Management of Global Environmental Risks in Mex-
tors): The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of ico. Edward A. Parson with Rodney Dobell, Adam

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Fenech, Donald Munton, and Heather Smith: Lead- in the Management of Global Environmental Risks.
ing While Keeping in Step: Management of Global Rodney Dobell with Justin Longo, Jeannine
Atmospheric Issues in Canada. William C. Clark and Cavender-Bares, William C. Clark, Nancy M. Dick-
Nancy M. Dickson: Civic Science: America’s En- son, Gerda Dinkelman, Adam Fenech, Peter M.
counter with Global Environmental Risks. Michael Haas, Jill Jäger, Angela Liberatore, Diana Liver-
Huber and Angela Liberatore: A Regional Approach man, Miranda A. Schreurs, Vassily Sokolov, and
to the Management of Global Environmental Risks: Ferenc L. Tóth: Evaluation in the Management of
The Case of the European Community. Peter M. Haas Global Environmental Risks. Jill Jäger, Josee van
and David McCabe: Amplifiers or Dampeners: Inter- Eijndhoven, and William C. Clark: Knowledge and
national Institutions and Social Learning in the Man- Action: An Analysis of Linkages Among Management
agement of Global Environmental Risks. Miranda A. Functions for Global Environmental Risks. Josee van
Schreurs, William C. Clark, Nancy M. Dickson, Eijndhoven, William C. Clark, and Jill Jäger: The
and Jill Jäger: Issue Attention, Framing, and Actors: Long-term Development of Global Environmental
An Analysis of Patterns Across Arenas. Risk Management: Conclusions and Implications for
Volume 2 the Future.
Jill Jäger with Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Nancy
M. Dickson, Adam Fenech, Edward A. Parson, Vas-
sily Sokolov, Ferenc L. Tóth, Claire Waterton, Jer-
oen van der Sluijs, and Josee van Eijndhoven: Risk Hans Achterhuis (Editor). American Philoso-
Assessment in the Management of Global Environ- phy of Technology: The Empirical Turn. Trans-
mental Risks. Jill Jäger with Nancy M. Dickson, lated by Robert P. Crease. (Indiana Series in
Adam Fenech, Peter M. Haas, Edward A. Parson, the Philosophy of Technology.) 187 pp., index.
Vassily Sokolov, Ferenc L. Tóth, Jeroen van der Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.
Sluijs, and Claire Waterton: Monitoring in the Man-
$49.95 (cloth).
agement of Global Environmental Risks. William C.
Clark, Josee van Eijndhoven, and Nancy M. Dick- Hans Achterhuis: Introduction: American Philoso-
son with Gerda Dinkelman, Peter M. Haas, Michael phers of Technology. Pieter Tijmes: Albert Borg-
Huber, Angela Liberatore, Diana Liverman, Ed- mann: Technology and the Character of Everyday
ward A. Parson, Miranda A. Schreurs, Heather Life. Philip Brey: Hubert Dreyfus: Humans versus
Smith, Vassily Sokolov, Ferenc L. Tóth, and Brian Computers. Hans Achterhuis: Andrew Feenberg:
Wynne: Option Assessment in the Management of Farewell to Dystopia. René Munnik: Donna Haraway:
Global Environmental Risks. Marc A. Levy, Jean- Cyborgs for Earthly Survival? Peter-Paul Verbeek:
nine Cavender-Bares, and William C. Clark with Don Ihde: The Technological Lifeworld. Martijntje
Gerda Dinkelman, Elena Nikitina, Ruud Pleune, Smits: Langdon Winner: Technology as a Shadow
and Heather Smith: Goal and Strategy Formulation Constitution.

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the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the Royal

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standardized brain diagrams effectively deprived sought an overview of nineteenth-century Ger-

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Lucy Hartley. Physiognomy and the Meaning

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