The leading American botanist of the nineteenth century, Asa Gray helped organize the main generalizations of the science of plant geography. The manual of botany that carries his name is still in use today. Friend and confidant of Charles Darwin, Gray became the most persistent and effective American protagonist of Darwin's views. Yet at the same time, he believed that religion and Darwin's theory of natural selection could coexist. A. Hunter Dupree's authoritative biography offers the first full-length interpretation of one of America's most important men of science.
The leading American botanist of the nineteenth century, Asa Gray helped organize the main generalizations of the science of plant geography. The manual of botany that carries his name is still in use today. Friend and confidant of Charles Darwin, Gray became the most persistent and effective American protagonist of Darwin's views. Yet at the same time, he believed that religion and Darwin's theory of natural selection could coexist. A. Hunter Dupree's authoritative biography offers the first full-length interpretation of one of America's most important men of science.
Chapter 1. Early Years
Chapter 2. From Medicine to Science
Chapter 3. Government as a Patron
Chapter 4. Envoy to Europe
Chapter 5. Last Years of Uncertainty
Chapter 6. The Professor at Cambridge
Chapter 7. The Pattern of a Young Man's Thoughts and Deeds
Chapter 8. "Where Plants Have No Latin Names"
Chapter 9. The Personal Revolution of 1848
Chapter 10. An American in World Botany
Chapter 11. The Waking Hours of an Overloaded Botanist
Chapter 12. Gray's Mind and "The Threat of Agassiz"
Chapter 13. Darwin and Japan—The Summit of Gray's Career
Chapter 14. The Immediate Impact of the Origin of Species
Chapter 15. The Crest of the Darwinian Debate
Chapter 16. Years of War
Chapter 17. Transition from Professor to Patriarch
Chapter 18. A Theist in the Age of Darwin
Chapter 19. The Patriarch of New Plant Sciences
Chapter 20. Last Days, 1886–1888
Note on the Sources
Notes
Index
A. Hunter Dupree is George L. Littlefield Porfessor of History Emeritus at Brown University and research associate at the Gray Herbarium of Harvard University. He is also author of Science in the Federal Government: A History of Policies and Activities and the editor of several other works.
Dupree's treatment transcends Gray as an individual and depicts, in fascinating detail, the alarms and excursions of 19th-century biology... This biography of Asa Gray is definitive. Science, reviewing the first edition
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