Publications

Books and book chapters

[in progress]

A Place for Everything: how science and empire ordered the world (under contract with Atlantic Books UK, and Metropolitan Books US, for delivery in late 2011). This will be a study of science and imperialism, intended both as a textbook and for a general readership, that will use classification as a way of analysing the making of the Second Scientific Revolution (1753–1851).

Orchid. Part of Reaktion Books new botanical series, aimed at both general and academic audiences, which will explore both the cultural history and scientific importance of iconic plants. My volume will focus on Charles Darwin’s orchid work, situating it in the context of both Victorian “orchid mania”, but also in a long history of diverse understandings of the sexuality of flowers.

A German translation of A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology is in progress, to be published to accompany the exhibition in Linz; the final title and publication details have yet to be decided.

2009

New scholarly edition of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (May 2009, Cambridge University Press). The edition includes: a substantial introductory essay ; explanatory and biographical notes; a chronology of Darwin’s life and times; an appendix on textual variations over the six editions; and, a comprehensive bibliography.

‘A Gunn and two Hookers’, chapter in McCalman, Iain & Erskine, Nigel (eds) In the Wake of the Beagle: Science in the Southern Oceans from the Age of Darwin (University of New South Wales Press, May 2009: 74–87).

2008

Imperial Nature: Joseph Hooker and the practices of Victorian science. Published by the University of Chicago Press in 2008. The book uses the career of Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) to explore three of the major themes in the historiography of Victorian science: the reception of Darwinism; the consequences of empire; and, the emergence of a scientific profession. Each of its nine thematic chapters looks at a particular scientific practice – such as travelling, classifying or writing – and examines its role in Hooker’s work and its broader significance as a way of placing science within the rapidly developing social world of nineteenth-century Britain.

2007

A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology: the animals and plants who taught us the facts of life. An introduction to the history of biology, aimed at both undergraduate and general audiences, focussed on the experimental organisms which were central to the understanding of sexual reproduction, inheritance and genetics. This will cover a chronological range from the early nineteenth century to the present day, and will include current work on Arabidopsis, Zebra fish and OncoMouse. Published by William Heinemann, (hbk. 2007; pbk. 2008) and by Harvard University Press (hbk. 2007; pbk. 2008). Spanish translation published by Editorial Ariel, 2009.

2005

‘Classifying Sciences: Systematics and Status in mid-Victorian Natural History’, in Daunton, M. (ed.) The Organisation of Knowledge in Victorian Britain (British Academy/Oxford University Press): 61–85.

2003

‘Darwin on generation, pangenesis and sexual selection’. In J. Hodge & G. Radick (eds.) Cambridge Companion to Darwin (Cambridge University Press): 69–91.

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Articles in peer-reviewed journals

[In progress]

‘Mutant utopias: evening primroses and imagined futures in early-twentieth-century America’. This was submitted to the journal Isis, whose referees suggested revisions. I have presented several revised versions at conferences and workshops, have resubmitted the revised version to Isis (June 2011) am now making a final series of changes.

[In press]

‘A life more ordinary: The dull life but interesting times of Joseph Dalton Hooker’. Journal of the History of Biology. Part of a special issue on biography in history. This has been peer-reviewed and edited and published online [DOI: 10.1007/s10739-011-9270-z] in February 2011; it will appear in the journal’s print edition later in 2011.

2009

'Lumpers and Splitters: Darwin, Hooker, and the Search for Order'. Science 11 December 2009:
Vol. 326. no. 5959, pp. 1496–1499. [PDF file available online.]

'"The Vagaries of a Rafinesque": imagining and classifying American nature', Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Vol. 40, No. 3, September 2009: 168–178. [PDF file available online.]

‘Sympathetic science: Charles Darwin, Joseph Hooker and the passions of Victorian naturalists’. Victorian Studies, Darwin bicentenary (Winter 2009, Vol. 51, No. 2, Pages 299-320). [PDF file available online.]

2001

‘“From having no Herbarium”. Local knowledge vs. metropolitan expertise: Joseph Hooker’s Australasian correspondence with William Colenso and Ronald Gunn’. Pacific Science, Vol. 55, No. 4: 343–358. [PDF file available online.]

‘“The Realm of Hard Evidence”: novelty, persuasion and collaboration in botanical cladistics’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences. Vol. 32, No. 2 (June 2001): 343–360. [PDF file available online.]

2000

‘A Garden Enclosed: Botanical barter in Sydney, 1818–1839’ British Journal for the History of Science. Vol. 33, No. 118, September 2000: 313–334. [PDF file available online.]

1997

‘The Evolving Museum’, Public Understanding of Science, 6 (1997): 185–206.

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Other articles

2011

Feature article on Joseph Hooker to mark the centenary of his death, in the Spring issue of Kew, the magazine of the Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, which will be out on 9 March 2011.

2009

‘Too much of a good thing?’ Essay review on recent Darwin publications, History of Science  (Darwin special issue), Vol. 47, No, 158, Dec 2009: 475–484.

2008

‘Joseph Hooker: a philosophical botanist’. Journal of Biosciences (vol. 33, no. 2, June 2008): 163–169. [PDF file available online.]

2006

‘Wallace Redux’, essay review of Ross Slotten The Heretic in Darwin’s Court: The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace and Martin Fichman An Elusive Victorian: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace. In Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy, Volume 44, Number 2, June 2006: 209-218. [PDF file available online.]

2004

‘Joseph Dalton Hooker’, entry for the New Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press.

Lightman, B. (ed.) Dictionary of Nineteenth Century British Scientists, (Thoemmes Press). Entries on: Joseph Dalton Hooker, Charles Kingsley, William Colenso, Arthur Henfrey, Ronald Campbell Gunn, Edward Newman and Thomas Thomson.

2003

‘Escaping Darwin’s Shadow’. Essay review of books on Alfred Russel Wallace (Shermer In Darwin’s Shadow, Berry Infinite Tropics, Raby Alfred Russel Wallace, Wilson The Forgotten Naturalist, Camerini The Alfred Russel Wallace Reader and Quammen The Song of the Dodo). Reviewed in Journal of the History of Biology, Summer 2003, Volume 36, Issue 2: 385-403. [PDF file available online.]

2001

‘Joseph Hooker: the making of a botanist’. Endeavour. Vol. 25, No. 1, March 2001: 3–7. [PDF file available online.]

2000

‘What’s afoot at the Museum?’. Survey review, Metascience, Vol. 9, No. 1, March 2000: 76–85

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