Drawing on letters, poems, notebooks, and secret diaries, Lisbet Koemer tells the moving story of one of the most famous naturalists who ever lived, the Swedish-born botanist and systematizer, Carl Linnaeus. The first scholarly biography of this great Enlightenment scientist in almost one hundred years, this book also recounts for the first time Linnaeus' grand and bizarre economic project to "teach" tea, saffron, and rice to grow on the Arctic tundra and to domesticate buffaloes, guinea pigs, and elks as Swedish farm ...
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Drawing on letters, poems, notebooks, and secret diaries, Lisbet Koemer tells the moving story of one of the most famous naturalists who ever lived, the Swedish-born botanist and systematizer, Carl Linnaeus. The first scholarly biography of this great Enlightenment scientist in almost one hundred years, this book also recounts for the first time Linnaeus' grand and bizarre economic project to "teach" tea, saffron, and rice to grow on the Arctic tundra and to domesticate buffaloes, guinea pigs, and elks as Swedish farm animals. Linnaeus hoped to reproduce the economy of empire and colony within the borders of his family home by growing cash crops in northern Europe. The author shows us the often surprising ways he embarked on this project. Her narrative goes against the grain of Linnaean scholarship old and new by analyzing not how modern Linnaeus was, but how he understood science in his time. At the same time, his attempts to organize a state economy according to principles of science prefigured an idea that has become one of the defining features of modernity. This book should be of interest to historians of the Enlightenment, historians of science and by general readers as well.
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Seller's Description:
New. 0674097459. *** FREE UPGRADE to Courier/Priority Shipping Upon Request ***-*** IN STOCK AND IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE FOR SHIPMENT-BRAND NEW, FLAWLESS COPY, NEVER OPENED--298 pages." Drawing on letters, poems, notebooks, and secret diaries, Lisbet Koerner tells the moving story of one of the most famous naturalists who ever lived, the Swedish-born botanist and systematizer, Carl Linnaeus. The first scholarly biography of this great Enlightenment scientist in almost one hundred years, Linnaeus also recounts for the first time Linnaeus' grand and bizarre economic projects: to "teach" tea, saffron, and rice to grow on the Arctic tundra and to domesticate buffaloes, guinea pigs, and elks as Swedish farm animals. Koerner's narrative goes against the grain of Linnaean scholarship old and new by analyzing not how modern Linnaeus was, but how he understood science in his time. 'It is commonplace to celebrate [Linnaeus] as the inventor of binomial nomenclature and the founder of modern biological systematics … Lisbet Koerner's fine biography, however, reveals a very different man. Linnaeus attempted to defraud the Uppsala Science Society by doubling his expenses for field work in Lapland (he even drew a map with lengthy and fictive travel routes). He anonymously wrote glowing reviews of his own books for Stockholm newspapers … Finally, and poignantly, Koerner portrays Linnaeus as a man who failed at his lifelong goal of making Sweden economically self-sufficient through the science of natural history. ' " (from Science)--with a bonus offer--
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Very good in very good jacket. viii, 298 pages. Chronology. Map. Biographical References. Abbreviations. Notes. Works Cited; Index. Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707-10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linne, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who formalized the modern system of naming organisms called binomial nomenclature. He is known by the epithet "father of modern taxonomy." Drawing on letters, poems, notebooks, and secret diaries, Lisbet Koerner tells the moving story of one of the most famous naturalists who ever lived, the Swedish-born botanist and systematizer, Carl Linnaeus. The first scholarly biography of this great Enlightenment scientist in almost one hundred years, Koerner recounts for the first time her subject's grand and bizarre economic projects: to "teach" tea, saffron, and rice to grow on the Arctic tundra and to domesticate buffaloes, guinea pigs, and elks. This book evolved from the author's 1993 dissertation.
