|
|
|
Book Review
| All Creatures: Naturalists, Collectors, and Biodiversity, 1850–1950. By Robert E. Kohler. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. xiii + 363 pp. Illustrations, notes, selected bibliography, index. Cloth $35.00.
|
| Our changing understanding of the biogeography of the continent forms an important element in American environmental history, and this concise and well-researched account of American natural history surveys from 1880 to about 1930 fills an important gap in that story. Describing the rise and fall of the intensive field survey as a tool of field biology through this half-century and placing it in the context of American society and American science, it constitutes essential reading for environmental historians concerned with Americans' knowledge of the land and science's role in shaping their ideas about nature. |
1
|
|
To tell a story involving hundreds of people working around the country through half a century, united only by the goal of collecting specimens of vertebrate life, Kohler followed his subjects' practice, but rather than the scientific random sample he opted for the historically useful one of major institutions and important collectors. He presented the results in topical chapters. "Nature" toured the collectors' field: the "inner frontier" of wild areas left by the patchwork pattern of settlement, open to the collector because of the railroad and (toward the end of the period) the automobile. "Culture" tied survey work to middle-class ideas of outdoor recreation; "Patrons" looked at museums, agencies, and their supporters; and "Expedition" examines the details of this special form of work in nature, from trapping animals to communicating with home base through the season. "Work" discussed field collecting as a path to a scientific career (declining over the period), collectors' status (not-quite-respectable), and women's roles (from husband's helper to, in at least one case, primary collector). The final chapter, "Knowledge," placed the field survey in the context of evolving scientific ideas about species. |
2
|
|
A sample of the topics it covers would include the subspecies concept in American taxonomy, the relation of settlement patterns and the transportation network to this form of scientific work, the impact of disciplinary specialization and academic degrees on science and scientific careers, the relationships between patrons and museums, and the moral economy of outdoor recreation. Most environmental historians will find most valuable its account of the relations between scientific work and social expectations, but they should not overlook its discussions of the details of collecting, the development of systematics, or other aspects of the field survey. Giving a good account of the society's changing knowledge between the age of exploration and the environmental movement—and the ways science, the rest of the culture, and geography produced this knowledge—it ought to provoke thought and further research. |
3
|
|
Thomas R. Dunlap, professor of history at Texas A&M, has written several books in environmental history, most recently Faith in Nature (Washington, 2004). He is now working on a history of field guides to birds and birding. |
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|