No comments about My Recollection of Chicago and the Doctrine of Laissez Faire.

No comments about Byron Cummings: Dean of Southwest Archaeology.

No comments about Alone: A Fascinating Study of Those Who Have Survived Long, Solitary Ordeals.

5 comments about Linnaeus: Nature and Nation.

1. It has become axiomatic that historians of science know little about either. This revisionist treatment of the foibles of 18th century Swedish life paints poor Linnaeus as a whacko. However, he really wasn't too far removed from the contemporary members of the Royal Society of London in credulity, self promotion and ignorance and was certainly typical of Swedish Professors of that and more recent times.
   This is really a silly book first produced under the tuterage of Simon Schama and reissued from HUP. The author does not acknowledge the intellectual ferment of the time when the Enlightenment was being crushed under the heels of van Herder and by the Romantic curse (that we still enjoy as political correctness). The greatest contribution of the Linne's systematics was the "taxonomic key" that allows some order out of biology, not his fatuous attempts to make booze out of lichens or grow pineapples in Bothnia.
   I suppose other historians of "science" will someday mock Aristotle for his ignorance of DNA and not knowing how many teeth women have, but really, this is a silly book.



2. Linnaeus : Nature and Nation
   by Lisbet Koerner
   Reviewed by Thomas Leo Ogren, author of Allergy-Free Gardening, Ten Speed Press.
   Honestly I have mixed feelings about this book. One, I love it and really did enjoy reading it. I learned quite a bit from it too.
   But I do wish it had been written in a more reader-friendly manner. It is a good bit too scholarly for my tastes, a trifle too text-bookishly written.
   One of the important things about Linnaeus himself is that he always tried to reach the common man, tried to make his work popular and easily understood. I feel this book could have emulated some of that flavor.
   But I don't mean to be too critical by any means because I did like this book very much. There is a real wealth of research here, many things about Linnaeus here that I'd never read before. Karl Linnaeus was THE botanist--of his time, and of our own time as well. His system of binomial nomenclature, Genus species, was pretty much right on the money. He was the first to realize that plants' sexual characteristics were what largely either grouped them together or set them apart. His system is often criticized today, but to me it still makes great sense.
   Linnaeus : Nature and Nation, is not for everyone, but serious gardeners will enjoy it, as will historians, especially those with an interest in botany, horticulture, science. Well worth reading.



3. ‘Gazing at a flower by the grass-roofed cottage where he was born [...] Linnaeus was quintessentially a local man.’ (187). But as Lisbet Koerner explains, he also linked the ‘universal with the local [...] nature with nation.’ In this fascinating account, Koerner demonstrates that the father of modern taxonomy was also a political economist. Unlike Adam Smith, his interest was no so much in international trade or colonial conquest, but the substitution of imports (a cameralist program).

   Although Linnaeus had travelled in Holland, France, and Engalnd (1735-48) there were nineteen ‘first-generation’ students who undertook ‘voyages of discover’ between 1745 and 1792. Koerner asserts that their travels ‘were part of their larger strategy to create a miniature mercantile empire within a European state’ (114). Linnaeus sensed that ‘explorers fostered strategies of national improvement based on ecological diversification rather than on territoral expansion.’ (114).

   Linnaeus, it is argued was essentially a civil servant who turned his students into an efffective and efficient support staff. Chapter 3 deals with the Lapland journey. In line with economic and political priorities the area was to be colonized as a kind of Scandinavian “West Indies”. As a committed Lutheran, its is fascinating to deconstruct the theology at work in Linnaeus’s thought. Nature was a prelapsarian Paradise, but it must be exploited within each country. Accordingly, Linnaesus was concerned by the luxury and excess of products that trade supplied from the cornucopia of the New World. As this book notes, ‘He even urged Scandinavians to return to the old “Gothic foods,” such as acorns, pork, and mead.’ (95) At the same time he was keen to cultivate at home (to acclimatize) what was normally cultivated abroad. We even find him thinking, theorizing, and cultivating ‘an art to Make Mussles bring forth pearls.’ (141) He professed an an axiety that the pearl plantaions ‘could not long remain secret before our neighbours in Norway, Russia, and Siberia, who own more stores of Pearl mussels, could thus intirely triumph over us in quantity.’ (143)

   Yet as Linnaeus’s stock rose in Europe among the Romantics, at home it fell as he failed to deliver economic adavantage and superiority through import substitution. Ernst Moritz Arndt attacked Linnaeus’s cameralist projects in 1783, wondering how ‘On e was supposed to believe that Sweden suddenly had become Asia Minor and Sicily.’ (168) His enterprising schemes turned out to be ‘fantastic and chimerical’; it was left to his taxonomic system to enrich the world. Nonetheless, in light of recent global protests and persistent underdevelopment, the larger issues which the book eloquently discusses, seem to me as relevant now as then. ‘Linnaeus: Nature and Nation’ concludes by stating that it ‘memorializes a local attempt at a local modernity, a now-forgotten future of the past’ (193), but the other issue it raises is timely:

   ‘Or can native subjects, using only local means of production, build a complex and complete local economy, incorporating contemporary technologies, and functioning as a microcosm of the global economy.’ (192)




4. A fascinating account of what a strange place the 18th century was. The age of confusion more than the age of reason. Who would have thought that Linnaeus had so much in common with today's new age cranks.



5. A biography filled with wonderful detail, even though centering on Linnaeus' economic program. At times the author appears to be making fun of Linnaeus' odder ideas rather than attempting serious historical analysis, but in all a good job and an interesting argument.

No comments about The Works of Jacques Lacan: An Introduction.

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4 comments about Goodbye Jumbo...Hello Cruel World.

1. Louie Anderson continues to battle the demons of his dysfunctional upbringing in this second of his three books. In his first book, Dear Dad, Louie focused on his abusive father's alcoholism and the impact it has had on the comedian's life and overall psychological well being. In this book, he tries to come to grips with his own obesity and the negative impact it has had on his life. He largely attributes it to his father's alcoholism and the lack of love he received as a child. Anderson's reflections are often laugh out loud funny. Yet, throughout the book, there is an overall sense of pain. As somebody who grew up battling obesity (I eventually lost 150 lbs), I can understand the psychological abuse that fat people receive on a daily basis. They are insulted, ridiculed, and treated like outcasts. This leaves the victim feeling angry, bitter, and very lonely. He or she turns to food to ease the pain, which only makes the problem worse. For anybody who has battled obesity, this book will be very therapeutic. If you've never had a weight problem, this book will no doubt give you more compassion for those who have. The 250 page book is an easy, quick read and is very inspiring.



2. Louie Anderson once again brings the struggles of his life to print, and opens up his heart and soul. I found this book even better than his first. I hope he decides to keep writing, he is very talented at bringing the reader into his situation.



3. Funny and poignant, from Anderson's heart and stomach are a guide to life, coping, eating, love, comedy, and performing. Also manages to be downright hilarious with straight-ahead stand-up comedy. Somehow it all works. And very nicely, too. Inspired and inspiring.



4. Louie Anderson does a wonderful job of revealing the true self. Especially the dialogue where he becomes Jumbo the elephant. He never mentioned a Love interest (human, not food) who could be support he so needed during these transitions he struggled with, the treadmill, death of his mom, selling the home, etc. Louie remains a real human, down to earth, complete with dysfunctional family. It was difficult to see him as the superstar wealthy comedian image we see. Whether it is food or some other controlling addiction, low self-esteem, children of alcoholics, pained school years, many can relate to his struggle. A good book by a funny man!

No comments about Interesting Times: An Encounter With the 20th Century 1924-.

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1 comments about From Dawn to Dusk: Autobiography of Judith Hubback.

1. This is an autobiography of an early and prominent analytical psychologist in the U.K. Her life spanned much of the 20th century, and she emerged through the various changes that women went through during that century to become a well known analytical psychologist, poet,wife, mother, grandmother, and writer.
   The autobiography is very well written, and will interest those interested in analytical psychology and the emergence of the feminist movement in England.