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Imperial Nature: Joseph Hooker and the Practices of Victorian Science
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.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2008
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About the author
Jim Endersby
11 books13 followersI am historian of science, based at the University of Sussex, in the UK.
I did my first degree at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia (where I lived for ten years), then a Master's degree and a PhD at the University of Cambridge.
I try to write for both general and academic audiences, trying to ensure that my supposedly popular books are scholarly enough not to disgrace me in front of my academic colleagues, and that my scholarly books are readable enough not to send people to sleep. (Whether or not I succeed, is up to you to decide.)
I did my first degree at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia (where I lived for ten years), then a Master's degree and a PhD at the University of Cambridge.
I try to write for both general and academic audiences, trying to ensure that my supposedly popular books are scholarly enough not to disgrace me in front of my academic colleagues, and that my scholarly books are readable enough not to send people to sleep. (Whether or not I succeed, is up to you to decide.)
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April 16, 2021
A bit thick and slow at times, but for me an important work- emergence of scientists as professionals, emergence of kew as a scientific organization and financial model, collections and field science, etc.
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