Cultures of Natural History

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Hardcover. Good Condition. 26 x 18.4 x 3.2 cm. Dust jacket is complete but rubbed and worn at edges and corners. All pages unmarked and uncreased. Spine intact, bindings solid and secure. A presentable used copy with no significant flaws. Publisher's note: This copiously illustrated volume is the first systematic general work to do justice to the fruits of recent scholarship in the history of natural history. Public interest in this lively field has been stimulated by environmental concerns and through links with the histories of art, collecting and gardening. The centrality of the development of natural history for other branches of history - medical, colonial, gender, economic, ecological - is increasingly recognized. Twenty-four specially commissioned essays cover the period from the sixteenth century, when the first institutions of natural history were created, to its late nineteenth-century transformation by practitioners of the new biological sciences. An introduction discusses novel approaches that have made this a major focus for research in cultural history. The essays, which include suggestions for further reading, offer a coherent and accessible overview of a fascinating subject. An epilogue highlights the relevance of this wide-ranging survey for current debates on museum practice, the display of ecological diversity and concerns about the environment Size: 26 x 18.4 x 3.2 cm. xxi, 501 pp.. Shipped Weight: 1-2 kilos. Category: History; Natural history; Civilization; Nature; ISBN: 0521453941. ISBN/EAN: 9780521453943. Add. Inventory No: 230302ROSL001050. . 9780521453943