The Evolution of American Ecology, 1890-2000

In the 1890s, several initiatives in American botany converged. The creation of new institutions, such as the New York Botanical Garden, coincided with radical reforms in taxonomic practice and the emergence of an experimental program of research on evolutionary problems. Sharon Kingsland explores how these changes gave impetus to the new field of ecology that was defined at exactly this time. She argues that the creation of institutions and research laboratories, coupled with new intellectual directions in science, were crucial to the development of ecology as a discipline in the United States.

The main concern of ecology—the relationship between organisms and environment—was central to scientific studies aimed at understanding and controlling the evolutionary process. Kingsland considers the evolutionary context in which ecology arose, especially neo-Lamarckian ideas and the new mutation theory, and explores the relationship between scientific research and broader theories about social progress and the evolution of human civilization.

By midcentury, American ecologists were leading the rapid development of ecosystem ecology. At the same time, scientists articulated a sharp critique of modern science and society in the postwar context, foreshadowing the environmental critiques of the 1960s. As the ecosystem concept evolved, so too did debates about how human ecology should be incorporated into the biological sciences. Kingsland concludes with an examination of ecology in the modern urban environment, reflecting on how scientists are now being challenged to overcome disciplinary constraints and produce innovative responses to pressing problems.

The Evolution of American Ecology, 1890–2000 offers an innovative study not only of the scientific landscape in turn-of-the-century America, but of current questions in ecological science.

The Johns Hopkins University Press

Kingsland (history of science, The Johns Hopkins U.) examines how such seemingly disparate elements as the creation of the New York Botanical Garden and the reform of taxonomic practice combined to create a new understanding of how botanical, geological, and zoological systems not only work together but are absolutely interdependent. She also finds that the entrepreneurial imperative of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, combined with a heightened sense of the value of science, helped to drive individuals and segments of both the public and academia to develop a better understanding of how nature worked. She addresses the possibility that some had an ulterior motive in the development of ecological studies, such as to thwart rampant development or return to the political thoughts of the past about who owned the land, but notes that a seemingly diverse set of motives and actions somehow melded to become a serious science. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Sharon Kingsland is a professor of the history of science at the Johns Hopkins University.