The State of Nature: Ecology, Community, and American Social Thought, 1900-1950

by Gregg Mitman

Although science may claim to be "objective," scientists cannot avoid the influence of their own values on their research. In The State of Nature , Gregg Mitman examines the relationship between issues in early twentieth-century American society and the sciences of evolution and ecology to reveal how explicit social and political concerns influenced the scientific agenda of biologists at the University of Chicago and throughout the United States during the first half of this century.

Reacting against the view of nature "red in tooth and claw," ecologists and behavioral biologists such as Warder Clyde Allee, Alfred Emerson, and their colleagues developed research programs they hoped would validate and promote an image of human society as essentially cooperative rather than competitive. Mitman argues that Allee's religious training and pacifist convictions shaped his pioneering studies of animal communities in a way that could be generalized to denounce the view that war is in our genes.

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[CL Chu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dense, academic work on the "Chicago School" ecology during the first half of 20th century. The wide-ranging topics it introduces may require better organization and introduction in each chapter to help readers trace the multiple intellectual trajectories of these ecologists-cum-social-thinkers.

For me, the book is particularly interesting in highlighting the role religion played in W.C. Allee's thought, the complex interaction between interwar population theorist and ecologists, and the works of Marjorie Hill Allee, whose significance possibly demands another book to analyze.