Book ID: CBB421498717

All Things Harmless, Useful, and Ornamental: Environmental Transformation Through Species Acclimatization, from Colonial Australia to the World (2019)

unapi

Minard, Peter (Author)


University of North Carolina Press


Publication Date: 2019
Physical Details: 208
Language: English

Species acclimatization--the organized introduction of organisms to a new region--is much maligned in the present day. However, colonization depended on moving people, plants, and animals from place to place, and in centuries past, scientists, landowners, and philanthropists formed acclimatization societies to study local species and conditions, form networks of supporters, and exchange supposedly useful local and exotic organisms across the globe. Pete Minard tells the story of this movement, arguing that the colonies, not the imperial centers, led the movement for species acclimatization. Far from attempting to re-create London or Paris, settlers sought to combine plants and animals to correct earlier environmental damage and to populate forests, farms, and streams to make them healthier and more productive. By focusing particularly on the Australian colony of Victoria, Minard reveals a global network of would-be acclimatizers, from Britain and France to Russia and the United States. Although the movement was short-lived, the long reach of nineteenth-century acclimatization societies continues to be felt today, from choked waterways to the uncontrollable expansion of European pests in former colonies.

...More
Reviewed By

Review Benjamin Wilkie (2020) Review of "All Things Harmless, Useful, and Ornamental: Environmental Transformation Through Species Acclimatization, from Colonial Australia to the World". Environmental History (pp. 428-430). unapi

Review Tom Brooking (2020) Review of "All Things Harmless, Useful, and Ornamental: Environmental Transformation Through Species Acclimatization, from Colonial Australia to the World". Historical Records of Australian Science (pp. 172-173). unapi

Review Michael A. Osborne (2020) Review of "All Things Harmless, Useful, and Ornamental: Environmental Transformation Through Species Acclimatization, from Colonial Australia to the World". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 675-677). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB421498717/

Similar Citations

Article Osborne, Michael A.; (2000)
Acclimatizing the World: A History of the Paradigmatic Colonial Science (/isis/citation/CBB000671219/)

Book Lewis, Cherry; Knell, Simon J.; (2009)
The Making of the Geological Society of London (/isis/citation/CBB001031472/)

Book McDougall, Russell; (2008)
Roth Family, Anthropology, and Colonial Administration (/isis/citation/CBB000951971/)

Article MacLeod, Roy; (2010)
The Royal Society and the Commonwealth: Old Friendships, New Frontiers (/isis/citation/CBB001022760/)

Book Hughes, David McDermott; (2006)
From Enslavement to Environmentalism: Politics on a South African Frontier (/isis/citation/CBB000930062/)

Book Beinart, William; Hughes, Lotte; (2007)
Environment and Empire (/isis/citation/CBB000774280/)

Book Axelby, Richard; Nair, Savithri Preetha; (2008)
Science and the Changing Environment in India 1780--1920: A Guide to Sources in the India Office Records (/isis/citation/CBB000820136/)

Book Blanchard, Pascal; (2008)
Human Zoos: Science and Spectacle in the Age of Colonial Empires (/isis/citation/CBB001033417/)

Article Rowse, Tim; Shellam, Tiffany; (2013)
The Colonial Emergence of a Statistical Imaginary (/isis/citation/CBB001201830/)

Article Chakrabarti, Pratik; (2010)
Beasts of Burden: Animals and Laboratory Research in Colonial India (/isis/citation/CBB000953653/)

Book Pascoe, Gwen; (2012)
Long Views and Short Vistas: Victoria's Nineteenth-Century Public Botanic Gardens (/isis/citation/CBB001201478/)

Book Foxhall, Katherine; (2012)
Health, Medicine, and the Sea: Australian Voyages, c. 1815--1860 (/isis/citation/CBB001200673/)

Article Davis, Frederick R.; (2012)
“Like a Keen North Wind”: How Charles Elton Influenced Silent Spring (/isis/citation/CBB001251548/)

Authors & Contributors
MacLeod, Roy M.
Beattie, James
Shellam, Tiffany
Rowse, Tim
Pascoe, Gwen
Osborne, Michael A.
Concepts
Great Britain, colonies
Colonialism
Environmentalism
Science and politics
Environmental sciences
Science and government
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
18th century
20th century, late
17th century
Places
Australia
Great Britain
France
India
United States
England
Institutions
Royal Society of London
Geological Society of London
British East India Company
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment