Imperial Nature
Joseph Hooker and the Practices of Victorian Science
448 pages
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49 halftones, 1 line drawing
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6 x 9
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© 2008
Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) was an internationally renowned botanist, a close friend and early supporter of Charles Darwin, and one of the first—and most successful—British men of science to become a full-time professional. He was also, Jim Endersby argues, the perfect embodiment of Victorian science. A vivid picture of the complex interrelationships of scientific work and scientific ideas, Imperial Nature gracefully uses one individual’s career to illustrate the changing world of science in the Victorian era.
By analyzing Hooker’s career, Endersby offers vivid insights into the everyday activities of nineteenth-century naturalists, considering matters as diverse as botanical illustration and microscopy, classification, and specimen transportation and storage, to reveal what they actually did, how they earned a living, and what drove their scientific theories. What emerges is a rare glimpse of Victorian scientific practices in action. By focusing on science’s material practices and one of its foremost practitioners, Endersby ably links concerns about empire, professionalism, and philosophical practices to the forging of a nineteenth-century scientific identity.
By analyzing Hooker’s career, Endersby offers vivid insights into the everyday activities of nineteenth-century naturalists, considering matters as diverse as botanical illustration and microscopy, classification, and specimen transportation and storage, to reveal what they actually did, how they earned a living, and what drove their scientific theories. What emerges is a rare glimpse of Victorian scientific practices in action. By focusing on science’s material practices and one of its foremost practitioners, Endersby ably links concerns about empire, professionalism, and philosophical practices to the forging of a nineteenth-century scientific identity.
History of Science Society: Suzanne J. Levinson Prize
Short Listed/Finalist
“Endersby’s Imperial Nature asks us to rethink the relationship between amateur and professional. He outlines the changing implications of being a professional and professing and emphasizes Hooker’s insistence on the importance of practicing philosophical botany—for which his broadly-drawn species were critical—in the whole process. This is a book to be read both by historians of science and by taxonomists, who may be unaware just how much Hooker controlled what he wanted to see and what he wanted others to see—and his legacy in this respect will repay close study as we contemplate an Encyclopedia of Life.”—Peter Stevens, Missouri Botanical Garden
“While many historians have called for a fine-scaled study of scientific skills, few have delivered; hardly any have succeeded in taking one historical actor and putting his workaday actions under the microscope. All this changes with Jim Endersby’s Imperial Nature. This book is a thoughtful contribution to a great historical desideratum.”—Adrian Desmond, University College, London
“This study of the great botanist Joseph Hooker is one of those rare books that are both a biography of a life and a portrait of an entire age. Friend and ally of Darwin, and manager of a global network of imperial collectors, Hooker was also one of the first scientists in Britain to make a salaried career respectable. With others of his generation, he ‘created the modern scientist.’ This is history of science at its contemporary best: broad-ranging, probing, and superbly well written. It is essential reading.”—Robert Kohler, University of Pennsylvania
"A refreshing record of how scientists worked....[Endersby's] contention, with which I agree, is that the practice of science provides the context necessary for understanding how theories advanced; without this background, scientific progress looks too simple, and leaps seem extraordinary."—Sandra Knapp, Nature
“[A] fascinating study….Through examining the activities of Hooker’s daily life and the practices of his science, Endersby reveals a world where abstract ideas do not collide with the idealized beauty of billiard balls on a frictionless surface, but are adopted or rejected as part of the business of making a living, building a career or maintaining an identity.”—Nigel Barley, Times Higher Education
"The book fills an important gap in the history of our subject, so deserves to find its way into the library of every institution where botany is taught."
"It is difficult to imagine that there is anything original to say about science in Victorian England. However, Endersby has done so in this study of the eminent botanist Joseph Hooker....Botanists will find this book of greatest interest. However, its approach and the light it sheds on the influence of daily practice on scientific concepts should make it mandatory reading for anyone interested in the history of science."—Brian Axsmith, Quarterly Review of Biology
"Imperial Nature is not a conventional scientific biography. The usual fare of birth, love, and death is largely absent. Instead, Endersby give us a detailed, scholarly account with a deeper point: that science is about more than the grand battles of competing ideas. In doing so, he provides a richly textured account of a period in which the status of natural science was far more precarious than it is today. And the book will hopefully stand as a reminder, during next year’s Darwin celebrations, of just how many unsung individuals contributed to the scientific progress of the age."—John C. Waller, Science
"This biography shows how science in the 19th century transformed from the activites of independently wealthy men to those of professionals paid by governments....Highly recommended."—Choice
"Endersby has done a wonderful job of thinking out and executing his charge, in good part through the aid of examples provided by personal letters that passed among the principal figures involved, and an extraordinary attention to setting out immediate contexts. These and his easy writing style give perfect shape to his main emphases: the influence of Darwinism on botanical science during this period, the characteristics of its professionalization, and the effects on its process and progress that the English colonial empire generated."—Charles H. Smith, Archives of Natural History
"One of the most satisfying performances of the last few years has got to be Jim Endersby’s remarkable new study of the practices and institutions of Victorian botany. . . . Endersby’s work is much more than mere biography. It greatly expands our notion of what it is to be science, to be imperial and to enroll nature in the modern period."—Gordon McOuat, British Journal for the History of Science
"Endersby has written a remarkable, deeply researched, multidimensional study of Joseph Dalton Hooker and Victorian botanical science. . . . With this book Endersby has established himself as a strong voice among historians of Victorian science. His views will invite controversy while at the same time requiring other historians of the culture and practice of Victorian science to reconsider many of their existing presupposiitons. This is a book to be read and pondered."—Frank M. Turner, Victorian Studies
Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Traveling
2. Collecting
3. Corresponding
4. Seeing
5. Classifying
6. Settling
7. Publishing
8. Charting
9. Associating
10. Governing
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Traveling
2. Collecting
3. Corresponding
4. Seeing
5. Classifying
6. Settling
7. Publishing
8. Charting
9. Associating
10. Governing
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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