Review by Choice Review
In this imaginatively conceived book, Maienschein examines those crucial years at the turn of the 20th century when, in many ways, modern experimental biology was born, and when, for the first time, the US became a major force on the world's biological stage. She concentrates on the careers of four Americans, Edmund Beecher Wilson, Edwin Grant Conklin, Thomas Hunt Morgan, and Ross Granville Harrison, all of whom were educated at Johns Hopkins University where they were exposed to a real bi-ology: the long established but diverse morphological tradition on one hand and the very different physiological program on the other. As a result, the author argues, in their hands the old morphological tradition went through a major yet continuous epistemological transformation and not, as is often argued, a major "revolt" from the morphological traditions of the past. But, in another way, this book is a revolt a revolt from the modern tendency to believe that scientific details are not particularly relevant for those writing about the history of science. Advanced undergraduates and up.-J. Farley, Dalhousie University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
