Utopia's Garden: French Natural History from Old Regime to RevolutionUniversity of Chicago Press, 2010 M12 15 - 304 pages The royal Parisian botanical garden, the Jardin du Roi, was a jewel in the crown of the French Old Regime, praised by both rulers and scientific practitioners. Yet unlike many such institutions, the Jardin not only survived the French Revolution but by 1800 had become the world's leading public establishment of natural history: the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle. E. C. Spary traces the scientific, administrative, and political strategies that enabled the foundation of the Muséum, arguing that agriculture and animal breeding rank alongside classification and collections in explaining why natural history was important for French rulers. But the Muséum's success was also a consequence of its employees' Revolutionary rhetoric: by displaying the natural order, they suggested, the institution could assist in fashioning a self-educating, self-policing Republican people. Natural history was presented as an indispensable source of national prosperity and individual virtue. Spary's fascinating account opens a new chapter in the history of France, science, and the Enlightenment. |
Contents
1 | |
The Place of Histoire naturelle at the Jardin du Roi | 15 |
Acting at a Distance Andre Thouin and the Function of Botanical Networks | 49 |
Naturalizing the Tree of Liberty Generation Degeneration and Regeneration in the Jardin du Roi | 99 |
Patronage Community and Power Strategies of SelfPresentation in New Regimes | 155 |
The Spectacle of Nature The Museum dHistoire Naturelle and the Jacobins | 193 |
Other editions - View all
Utopia's Garden: French Natural History from Old Regime to Revolution E. C. Spary Limited preview - 2000 |
Utopia's Garden: French Natural History from Old Regime to Revolution E. C. Spary No preview available - 2000 |
Utopia's Garden: French Natural History from Old Regime to Revolution E. C. Spary No preview available - 2000 |
Common terms and phrases
Académie Royale agricultural André Thouin animals animaux Antoine-Laurent de Jussieu arts BCMHN Botanique botanists Buffon Cabinet d'Histoire naturelle Cambridge University Press centers century chapter claims climate collections Comité d'Instruction Publique Comité de Salut comte concerns correspondence Culture Cuvier d'Angiviller d'Histoire Naturelle Décade philosophique Denis Diderot deputies derniers jours Discours economy eighteenth eighteenth-century Encyclopédie Enlightenment establishment Fourcroy française France French Revolution Georges Cuvier Georges-Louis Leclerc Grégoire Hamy Harten Histoire HSRM individuals Jacobin Jardin des Plantes Jardin du Roi Jean Journal d'Histoire naturelle jours du Jardin l'an l'homme Lacepède Lamarck Letouzey letter Linnaeus Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton MARS Mémoire ment ministers moral Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle National d'Histoire Naturelle natural history naturalists Old Regime Outram Paris patron patronage political protégés Rapport reform Republican République Revolutionary Royale des Sciences Salut Public savants social Société d'Histoire Naturelle Société Royale d'Agriculture society species specimens tion trans travelers Vicq d'Azyr vols voyage