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This book presents a revised history of early biogeography and investigates the split in taxonomic practice, between the classification of taxa and the classification of vegetation. It moves beyond the traditional belief that biogeography is born from a synthesis of Darwin and Wallace and focuses on the important pioneering work of earlier practitioners such as Zimmermann, Stromeyer, de Candolle and Humboldt.
Tracing the academic history of biogeography over the decades and centuries, Origins of Biogeography recounts the early schisms in phyto and zoogeography, the shedding of its bonds to taxonomy, its adoption of an ecological framework and its beginnings at the dawn of the 20th century. This book assesses the contributions of key figures such as Zimmermann, Humboldt and Wallace and reminds us of the forgotten influence of plant and animal geographers including Stromeyer, Prichard and de Candolle, whose early attempts at classifying animal and plant geography would inform later progress.
The Origins of Biogeography is a science historiography aimed at biogeographers, who have little access to a detailed history of the practices of early plant and animal geographers. This book will also reveal how biological classification has shaped 18th and 19th century plant and animal geography and why it is relevant to the 21st bio geographer.
Prologue
Chapter 1. A History of Biogeography for the 21st century Biogeographer
Chapter 2 Origins, Race & Distribution
Chapter 3. Humboldt, Stromeyer and Candolle
Chapter 4. Classification Divided
Chapter 5. Plant and Animal Geography in Practise: Maps, Regions and Regionalisation
Chapter 6. The Legacy of 19th Century Plant and Animal Geography
Epilogue
Biosketches
Appendix. Translation of the Introduction to Commentatio Inauguralis Sistens Historiae Vegetablium Geographiae Specimen by Friedrich Stromeyer (1800)(Translation by Mark Garland).
"This is quite a remarkable little book, covering the early history of the research field now known as biogeography. [...] This book is indeed a very useful new addition to any collection of books on biogeography, and it is quite unlike any other book on biogeography that I have had the pleasure to read. [...] This book is a must-read for anybody interested in the history of biogeography. However, I strongly recommend that all biogeographers should read it."
– H. Peter Linder, Systematic Biology, April, 2016
"Malte Christian Ebach's new book focuses on the origins of biogeography as it developed between 1777 and 1900. [...] Origins of Biogeography is a richly-written book that critically traces the genesis of several scientific practices that paved the way to biogeography in its current state. It should be recommended to both graduate students and scholars in the history of the life sciences."
– Marco Tamborini, HPLS, Vol. 38, 2016
