Linnaeus Nature and Nation

About this book

Biography, drawing on poems, notebooks, and secret diaries.
`She skillfully mines archival and printed sources in many languages to recreate for modern readers the extraordinary, heroic, and poignant efforts of Linnaeus and his students to create useful biotechnologies. It was in the course of those labours that he invented the naming and filing system that still brings order to the world's flora and fauna. The Linnaeans gathered the folk names of plants - one student produced lists in 15 languages - because they thought these might reflect unknown uses for this or that specimen. They scoured the earth looking for exotic plants that might be useful to the Swedish economy.' Thomas W. Laqueur, Taxon.

Contents

Introduction. "To Apply Nature to Economics and Vice Versa" "A Geography of Nature": Natural Philosophy "A Clapper into a Bell": Floral Names "The Lapp Is Our Teacher": Medicine and Ethnography "God's Endless Larder": Theology "A New WorldPepper, Ginger, Cardamon": Economic Theory "Should Coconuts Chance to Come into My Hands": Acclimatization Experiments "The Lord of All of Sweden's Clams": A Local Life "His Farmers Dressed in Mourning": The Fate of Linnaeus' Ideas in Sweden Conclusion. "Without Science Our Herrings Would Still Be Caught by Foreigners": A Local Modernity Appendix: Chronology of Linnaeus and Linnaeana Appendix: Biographical References Abbreviations Notes Works Cited Acknowledgments Index

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Biography

Lisbet Koerner is an associate of the Department of the History of Science, Harvard University.