Louis Agassiz: Creator of American Science

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Synopsis
&“This book is not just about a man of science but also about a scientific culture in the making—warts and all.&” —The New York Times Book Review Charismatic and controversial Swiss immigrant Louis Agassiz took America by storm in the early nineteenth century, becoming a defining force in American science. Yet today, many don&’t know the complex story behind this revolutionary figure. At a young age, Agassiz—zoologist, glaciologist, and paleontologist—was invited to deliver a series of lectures in Boston, and he never left. An obsessive pioneer in field research, Agassiz enlisted the American public in a vast campaign to send him natural specimens, dead or alive, for his ingeniously conceived museum of comparative zoology. As an educator of enduring impact, he trained a generation of American scientists and science teachers, men and women alike—and entered into collaboration with his brilliant wife, Elizabeth, a science writer in her own right and first president of Radcliffe College. But there was a dark side to his reputation as well. Biographer Christoph Irmscher reveals unflinching evidence of Agassiz&’s racist impulses and shows how avidly Americans at the time looked to men of science to mediate race policy. He also explores Agassiz&’s stubborn resistance to evolution, his battles with a student—renowned naturalist Henry James Clark—and how he became a source of endless bemusement for Charles Darwin and esteemed botanist Asa Gray. &“A wonderful . . . biography,&” both inspiring and cautionary, it is for anyone interested in the history of American ideas (The Christian Science Monitor). &“A model of what a talented and erudite literary scholar can do with a scientific subject.&” —Los Angeles Review of Books
Copyright:
2012

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
496 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780547568928
Related ISBNs:
9780547577678
Publisher:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
status in your country.
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Science, Biographies and Memoirs, Technology
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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