Author : E. C. Spary
Release : 2010-12-15
Genre : Science
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Book Rating : 708/5 ( reviews)

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Utopia's Garden - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Utopia's Garden write by E. C. Spary. This book was released on 2010-12-15. Utopia's Garden available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. 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.