by Sharon E. Kingsland

 

This is an innovative study not only of the scientific landscape in turn-of-the-century America, but of current questions in ecological science. In the 1890s, several initiatives in American botany converged. The creation of new institutions, such as The New York Botanical Garden, coincided with radical reforms in taxonomic practice and the emergence of an experimental program of research on evolutionary problems. Sharon Kingsland explores how these changes gave impetus to the new field of ecology. The main concern of ecology—the relationship between organisms and environment—was central to scientific studies aimed at understanding and controlling the evolutionary process. Kingsland considers the evolutionary context in which ecology arose, especially neo-Lamarckian ideas and the new mutation theory, and explores the relationship between scientific research and broader theories about social progress and the evolution of human civilization.