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Reviews
For those with an interest in the history of natural history.
A very readable account of the long-lived naturalist/entomologist Karl Jordan (1861-1959).
Any college-level natural history holding will find this enlightening.
Karl Jordan’s innovative methods of classifying insect species are highlighted in this biography of the early 20th century entomologist.
Ordering Life, by Kristin Johnson, is one part biography to three parts history and philosophy of science. 'Jordan serves as a useful guide', Johnson writes, 'not only to understanding how knowledge about biodiversity is obtained but how the answer to that question has changed over time and why'.
There are layers of richness in Johnson's book and readers will doubtless draw their own conclusions for Johnson's pleasong style leads the reader by means of historical narrtive rather than proselytization.
Johnson’s far-reaching and insightful account not only sheds new light on the many internal and external challenges that naturalists faced in the later part of the nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries, it also reveals the power of scientific biography in making sense of the complex, multifaceted transformations that the naturalist tradition experienced during this period.
About
Book Details
Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6
x 9
Pages
392
ISBN
9781421406008
Illustration Description
11 halftones
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Joining the Naturalist Tradition
"Beetles. Beautiful beetles"
Becoming a Zoologist
The Cosmopolitan Naturalists
The "nice berth": Curating a Zoological Museum
Mobilizing the Naturalist
Introduction
1. Joining the Naturalist Tradition
"Beetles. Beautiful beetles"
Becoming a Zoologist
The Cosmopolitan Naturalists
The "nice berth": Curating a Zoological Museum
Mobilizing the Naturalist Tradition
2. Reforming Entomology
The "strange mixture" of Entomologists
How to Do Entomology
The "making" of Species
A New Type of Collection
Retraining the Natural History Network
3. Ordering Beetles, Butterflies, and Moths
"The great desideratum"
Revising the Swallowtails
Making Systematics Scientific
Crossing over to Biology
Amassing the Concreta
4. Ordering Naturalists
Men of Two Classes
Organizing Entomologists
The End of Tring's Heyday
"Science knows no country"
A "nation of Entomologists"
5. A Descent into Disorder
Telling "which way the wind blows"
The Balance of Europe Is Upset
The Standstill
Recovering Friends, Committees, and Congresses I
"The requirements for a thorough investigation"
Taxonomy in a Changed World
The Rise of Applied Entomology
The Rise of Applied Entomology
Various Utopias I: The Ithaca Congress
Various Utopias II: The International Entomological Institute
A Lad's Last Marble
7. The Ruin of War and the Synthesis of Biology
The Edges of Empire
Where Subspecies Meet
"The end of Tring as we have known and cherished it"
"Provided Europe does not get quite mad"
"Without the collection I am hopeless"
8. Naturalists in a New Landscape
Recovering Friends, Committees, and Congresses II
The Quest to "clear up the chaos" in Weevils and Fleas
Avoiding the Snake in the Grass
Glorified Office Boys
Late for a Knighthood
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
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