From the Publisher
"This book is a masterpiece. Step-by-step, Morange charts a history of how countless great ideas developed and how we came to understand life and ourselves in the way we do. This is a book to treasure and one that I will refer to again and again."—Daniel M. Davis, author of The Beautiful Cure and The Secret Body"Hurrah—what a pleasure to see this remarkable history available in English! Michel Morange provides a much-needed and compelling account of the history of biology."—Janet Browne, editor of The Quotable Darwin"Brilliant, insightful, and challenging, Michel Morange's masterpiece reveals the continuities and profound changes in the history of biology. Spanning millennia and roaming across the planet, this book takes us on one of humanity's most significant and exciting journeys—the quest to understand life itself. Few scholars could have written this stimulating mixture of the historical, the philosophical, and the scientific—Morange is a global treasure, unique in his ability to make the reader think in completely new ways."—Matthew Cobb, author of The Idea of the Brain: The Past and Future of Neuroscience"This is an astonishing book, breathtaking in its range across time and subjects, from the ancient era of Hippocrates and Galen to the modern age of genetics, molecular biology, and neuroscience. Morange's compelling account of the past brightly illuminates issues confronting biology in the present."—Daniel J. Kevles, author of In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity"Concise and clearly written. A History of Biology takes readers from the earliest times to the present day, covering the important developments in a wide range of fields."—Brian Charlesworth, coauthor of Evolution: A Very Short Introduction