Sex, Botany and Empire (ISBN 1840465735)

Read this for a science project:
Carl Linnaeus was responsible for revolutionizing the way modern science classifies and organizes all living organisms. His simple system based on the sexual characteristics of plants shocked society and inspired other scientists including Joseph Banks, whose voyages around the world to find and classify new organisms included an interesting array of sexual exploits with the natives he came across. In her novel, Patricia Fara presents a solid and well supported thesis on how botany contributed and was inexplicably tied into the imperialism of European society, most especially the British Empire. This book is a quick read and not overly bogged down with the intricacies of scientific classification. It presents the story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks's enormous contributions to the beginnings of modern classification while discussing the political, social, and economic incentives behind their science. Patricia Fara has written several other books concerning Enlightenment era science and this book is a prime example of her ability and specialty in tying in the role of science as a part of society and government in the 18th and 19th centuries. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in biology or botany as well as anyone interested in the workings of early modern science and their place in the development of modern English society.

Linnaeus' tercentenary:
May 23rd will be the 300th anniversary of Carl Linnaeus' birth so I purchased this little book to become familiar with him and to honor his memory. However this book is more about Banks than Linnaeus, altho' Banks did much to promote Linnaeus' system of classification not only in England but thru-out the world. In some ways, Banks was to Linnaeus what Huxley was to Darwin and Bateson was to Mendel. Not only did Linnaeus and Banks promote science (and themselves), but they promoted their respective country's agricultural economy before the Industrial Revolution. Yet both men were largely forgotten soon after their deaths. In large part the successful promotion of Linnaeus' system was due to his use of animal genitalia (in an uptight society) as an analogy to describe the reproductive organs of plants and as the basis for naming and classifying them. Add to that, Banks' well-known promiscuity while in Tahiti on Captain Cook's first voyage there (to record the Transit of Venus) and you have a sure-fire salacious combination (sex sells!). Fara also describes how the English used scientific exploration as a cover for colonization which they justified in the belief that Europeans were a superior race and must help the other races. Both Linnaeus and Banks brought in non-native plants and tried to adapt them to their countries but Banks was far more successful. Indeed Banks had plants and animals transplanted from one colony to another fairly successfully. So eventho' I bought the book for Linnaeus, the inclusion of Banks rounds out the story. While Wikipedia has more facts on Linnaeus it has less of the personal. I gave the book only four stars because Fara doesn't include an index, tho' Amazon's `Search Inside' feature provided an alternative.