Sex, Botany, and Empire: The Story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks (Revolutions in Science)

The title of this book is misleading. It should have been called Botany and Empire: The Story of Joseph Banks. Linnaeus didn't appear much, although his classification system was all throughout the book as Banks collected botanical specimens. The parts about sex totaled perhaps three pages when added up. Those bits were about how Linnaeus classified plants by their reproductive organs (which was very scandalous) and a little bit about Banks' adventures in Tahiti.

But! It was a decent book on how botany changed the British empire, and vice versa. It also covers contemporary attitudes towards the plants and people found in British explorations. It's a short book, and a good quick read if you're looking for info on the subject.

Quick read about imperial science and botany. I knew nothing of Joseph Banks before reading this. Had never heard of him, in fact. Shortcomings aside, he was a very important figure in the realm of science and discovery, and I plan on doing a bit more reading on him.Other reviews claim that this book does not go into enough detail on Banks's life. While this may be true, just looking at the length of the book, I don't see how one could expect otherwise. It's less than 200 pages long, after all, and a good portion of that deals with the research of Carl Linnaeus. If you're looking for a definitive biography of Sir Joseph Banks, this is not the book you're looking for. This seems no more than a primer on the man and British imperial show more science. Which is exactly what I needed. show less