A tantalizing and ambitious study that places American biologists squarely in the middle of national, social political, and economic development ...Pauly has an elegant writing style that makes this book a pleasure to read... A remarkable vision of the place of science in American life that will be enjoyed by historians and scientists alike. -- Audra J. Wolfe Science Ambitious in its scope ... Pauly's book grafts the stories of local and regional communities of scientists onto a narrative stock of national improvement and progress... [A] valuable contribution to the local and regional history of biology in American culture. -- Gregg Mitman American Scientist This book is a significant contribution to the worthy task of integrating the history of science and American history. -- Christine Keiner Perspectives in Biology and Medicine An engaging, intelligent, and challenging study... It is a masterful narrative that raises fascinating and thought-provoking issues. -- Otniel E. Dror Journal of the History of Medicine Here, at last, is a book that skillfully narrates stories from the biological sciences in ways that demonstrate their connection to other aspects of American culture. An important book. -- Sally Gergory Kohlestedt The Journal of American History A wonderful book about biologists and their work on the American continent... Biologists and the Promise of American Life is an important and well-crafted contribution to American history. -- John L. Rudolph History of Education Quarterly Biologists and the Promise of American Life offers a fascinating overview of the development of American biology from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the second World War. -- Gerald J. Fitzgerald Environmental History Biologists and the Promise of American Life ... is extremely well researched, it is very well written, and it provides many interesting historical insights while, at the same time, it asks many provocative questions. Pauly's new work will become the standard text for overviews of American biology from the early nineteenth century until the Second World War. -- Keith R. Benson Bulletin of the History of Medicine An engaging history that will be valued by both specialists and general readers... The treatment of people is insightful and sympathetic. In a series of vignettes Pauly captures each person's essential qualities--and eccentricities--and shows how in diverse ways they expressed the many varieties of American experience... While covering vast ground, he engages the reader's attention by keeping the individuals in clear focus. -- Sharon Kingsland Isis In this thoughtful and gracefully written book, Pauly shows how American biologists in the first half of the twentieth century took on the project of developing the science of biology in the United States as a cultural project... He shows us a world of scientists deeply engaged in a project that they understand as simultaneously moral, social, political, and thoroughly scientific. -- Naomi Oreskes Journal of the History of Behavioral Science A useful and thought-provoking contribution to the understanding of the role of a natural science--biology--in shaping the culture of the modern world. -- Maciej Henneberg Journal of Biosocial Science
