Evolution Made to Order: Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth-Century America

Abstract

In this excellent and timely first book, Helen Anne Curry explores the efforts of both amateur and professional plant breeders to accelerate the appearance of variations in plants by using new technologies. In the history of biology and genetics, this topic has received scant attention despite its obvious importance to our understanding of inheritance and evolution. Drawing on a rich set of untapped primary source materials, she also brings together scholars in history of technology and history of biology, most of whom have never been considered in tandem. With her intellectual curiosity and analytical agility, Curry tells a story that is surprising, provocative and generative.