Handbook of the Historiography of Biology

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.

Introduction:  Historiography and the History of Biology - Michael R. Dietrich and Mark Borrello.- Chapter 1.  Charles Darwin and the Darwinian Tradition; Janet Browne.- Chapter 2.  Modern Evolutionary Biology; Mark Borrello.- Chapter 3.  Ecology and Environmental History; Gena Rumore.- Chapter 4.  History of Natural History; Bruno Strasser.- Chapter 5.  Gregor Mendel and 19^th century Heredity; Staffan Mueller-Wille.- Chapter 6.  Eugenics; Paul Weindling.- Chapter 7.  Modern Genetics and Genomics; Michel R. Dietrich.- Chapter 8.  Molecular Biology; Michel Morange.- Chapter 9.  Biomedicine; Nick Rasmssen.-Chapter 10.  Developmental Biology; Jane Maeinschein.- Chapter 11.  Organisms and Traditions of Research; Rachel Ankeny and Sabine Leonelli.- Chapter 12.  Biotechnology; Nathan Crowe.- Chapter 13.  Biological Practice and Experimentation; Hannah Landecker.- Chapter 14.  Biography; Oren Harman.- Chapter 15.  Women in Biology; Marsha Richmond.- Chapter 16.  Race in Biology; Tracy Teslow.- Chapter 17.  Local, Global, and Transnational Perspectives on Biology; Ana Barahona. 

"How did we ever manage without this superb volume? ... For graduate students working in or around the history of biology, this is a must-have volume. But it will benefit anyone, from advanced undergraduates on up, who wants to get knowledgeable and serious about the topics covered. Even readers who reckon they know their way around a historiography will come away instructed and inspired by seeing it ... . upon reaching the end, one wishes it were longer." (Gregory Radick, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 97 (2), June, 2022)

“How did we ever manage without this superb volume? … For graduate students working in or around the history of biology, this is a must-have volume. But it will benefit anyone, from advanced undergraduates on up, who wants to get knowledgeable and serious about the topics covered. Even readers who reckon they know their way around a historiography will come away instructed and inspired by seeing it … . upon reaching the end, one wishes it were longer.” (Gregory Radick, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 97 (2), June, 2022)