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Handbook of the Historiography of Biology

  • Living reference work
  • © 2020

Overview

Editors:
  1. Michael Dietrich

    1. HPS Dept, 1017 Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh HPS Dept, 1017 Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh, USA

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  2. Mark Borrello

    1. University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, USA

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  3. Oren Harman

    1. Tel Aviv, Israel

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  • Is the only historiographic analysis of the history of biology available
  • Offers an informed introduction to major issues that will foster new, original research in the history of biology
  • Provides an essential tool for any scholar wanting to make an informed contribution to the scholarship in the history of biology
  • Offers an assessment of the state of the field from a set of distinguished international experts

Part of the book series: Historiographies of Science (HISTSC, volume 1)

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Table of contents (22 entries)

  1. The Matter of Practice in the Historiography of the Experimental Life Sciences

    • Hannah Landecker

  2. Women in the Historiography of Biology

    • Marsha L. Richmond
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Keywords

About this book

This handbook offers original, critical perspectives on different approaches to the history of biology. This collection is intended to start a new conversation among historians of biology regarding their work, its history, and its future. Historical scholarship does not take place in isolation: As historians create their narratives describing the past, they are in dialogue not only with their sources but with other historians and other narratives. One important task for the historian is to place her narrative in a historiographic lineage. Each author in this collection offers their particular perspective on the historiography of a range of topics from Model Organisms to Eugenics, Molecular Biology to Biotechnology, Women, Race, Scientific Biography, Genetics, Darwin and more. Rather than comprehensive literature reviews, the essays critically reflect upon important historiographic trends, offering pointed appraisals of the field by leading scholars. Other authorswill surely have different perspectives, and this is the beauty and challenge of history-making. The Handbook of the Historiography of Biology presents an opportunity to engage with each other about how the history of biology has been and will be written.

Editors and Affiliations

  • HPS Dept, 1017 Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh HPS Dept, 1017 Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh, USA

    Michael Dietrich

  • University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, USA

    Mark Borrello

  • Tel Aviv, Israel

    Oren Harman

About the editors

Michael R. Dietrich, Professor of Biological Sciences, studied Philosophy and Biology at Virginia Tech before earning a doctorate in Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego.  Before coming to Dartmouth in 1998, he was an Associate Professor at the University of California, Davis.   He is currently also an Adjunct Professor at Arizona State University.  As a historian and philosopher of biology, his primary interests are in the nature of scientific controversy.  In numerous scholarly articles and chapters, he has explored controversies in evolutionary genetics and molecular evolution, as well as controversial figures, such as the émigré geneticist Richard Goldschmidt.  He is currently engaged with a large-scale project to document the diversity and distribution of developmental biology research on a global scale in the post-war period.  He has edited three books; Rebels, Mavericks, and Heretics in Biology with Oren Harman (2007),The Educated Eye: Visual Culture and Pedagogy in the Life Sciences with Nancy Anderson (2012), and Biology Outside the Box: Boundary Crossers and Innovation in the Life Sciences with Oren Harman (2013).  He is currently writing a book on genetic drift with Roberta Millstein and Robert Skipper entitled Survival of the Luckiest: Perspectives on the History and Philosophy of Random Drift in Evolutionary Biology, as well as a biography of Richard Goldschmidt.  His work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, and the American Philosophical Society.  He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the History of Biology, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Mark E. Borrello, Associate Professor of History of Science in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, studied History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University earning a doctorate in 2002.  Before coming to the Univerity of Minnesota, he was a visiting assistant professor at the Lyman Briggs School at Michigan State University.  As a historian and philosopher of biology, his primary interests are in the development of evolutionary theory in the 19th and 20th centuries.  In numerous scholarly articles and chapters, he has explored the debate over the levels of selection idea from Darwin to the present. His 2010 book on this topic, Evolutionary Restraints: the contentious history of group selection, was published by the University of Chicago Press.  He is currently engaged in an investigation of the nature of individuality in developmental and evolutionary contexts. He has published on this topic with his colleagues Michael Travisano, William Ratcliff and Ford Denison (PNAS 2012). His work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation.  He is the book reviews editor of the Journal of the Historyof Biology. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Handbook of the Historiography of Biology

  • Editors: Michael Dietrich, Mark Borrello, Oren Harman

  • Series Title: Historiographies of Science

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74456-8

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and Philosophy, Reference Module Humanities and Social Sciences, Reference Module Humanities

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-74456-8Due: 27 June 2018

  • Series ISSN: 2523-7748

  • Series E-ISSN: 2523-7756

  • Number of Pages: X, 490

  • Topics: History of Biology, Human Genetics, Biotechnology, Developmental Biology, Evolutionary Biology

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