Description |
xii, 166 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Contents |
Preface: "A moose more precious than you can imagine" -- "Dictatorial powers of the botanical gentlemen of Europe" -- The count's degenerate America -- "Noxious vapors and corrupt juices" -- "Not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting" -- "Geniuses which adorn the present age" -- Enter the moose -- Thirty-seven-pound frogs and Patagonian giants -- Extracting the "tapeworm of Europe" from our brain. |
Summary |
Capturing the essence of the origin and evolution of the so-called "degeneracy debates, " over whether the flora and fauna of America (including Native Americans) were naturally weaker and feebler than species elsewhere in the world, this book chronicles Thomas Jefferson's efforts to counter French conceptions of American degeneracy, culminating in his sending of a stuffed moose to Buffon. |
Subject |
Degeneration -- Environmental aspects -- America -- Historiography -- 18th century.
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Human beings -- Effect of environment on -- America.
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Life sciences -- History -- 18th century.
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Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826 -- Knowledge and learning.
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Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de, 1707-1788 -- Attitudes.
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Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826.
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Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de, 1707-1788.
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Natural History -- history -- United States.
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Ecology -- history -- United States.
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Evolution -- United States.
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History, 18th Century -- United States.
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Added Title |
Mister Jefferson and the giant moose |
ISBN |
9780226169149 cloth alkaline paper |
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0226169146 cloth alkaline paper |
Standard No. |
40017233751 |
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