The State of Nature: Ecology, Community, and American Social Thought, 1900-1950

by Gregg Mitman

Overview

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

ISBN-13:	9780226532363
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	10/01/1992
Series:	Science and Its Conceptual Foundations series
Edition description:	1
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Gregg Mitman is assistant professor in the Department of History of Science at the University of Oklahoma.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Nature's Many Facets
2. Environmental Interactions
3. Biology as Gospel
4. Cooperationist Beginnings
5. Population Problems
6. The Integrity of the Group
7. From the Biological to the Social
8. Building a Cooperative World
9. Redefining the Economy of Nature
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Traces the history of the biological sciences in the United States during the first half of the 20th century, and how they interacted with the contemporary social theories. Notes that such fundamental questions as whether behavior within animal communities is better described by a hierarchical or a cooperative model, are guided by the political ideas of the scientists who create and use them. The paper edition (53237-2), $23.50. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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