Sex, Botany and Empire (Icon Science) (Paperback)
The Story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks
Patricia Fara
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When the imperial explorer James Cook returned from his first voyage to Australia, scandal writers mercilessly satirised the amorous exploits of his botanist, Joseph Banks. Was the pursuit of scientific truth really what drove Enlightenment science? Patricia Fara reveals the existence, barely concealed under Banks' and Linnaeus' camouflage of noble Enlightenment, of the altogether more seedy drives to conquer, subdue and deflower in the name of the British Imperial state.
Absorbing'
Enticing… with a sharp eye for 18th-century mores, this is an engrossing exploration of the growth of the British Empire.'
Delectable'
An entertaining account of the appliance of science to the needs of empire'
The book's lively prose combines historical detail with humorous anecdotes.'
