The State of Nature: Ecology, Community, and American Social Thought, 1900-1950
Gregg Mitman
(Author)
Description
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.
Product Details
Price
$147.60
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Publish Date
October 01, 1992
Pages
304
Dimensions
6.28 X 0.97 X 9.3 inches | 1.14 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780226532363
BISAC Categories:
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Become an affiliateAbout the Author
Gregg Mitman is assistant professor in the Department of History of Science at the University of Oklahoma.