Christoph Irmscher, professor of English at Indiana University, is editor of the Library of America John James Audubon and author of Longfellow Redux, called one of the most important books on Longfellow ever written (Matthew Pearl, author of The Dante Club and editor of Dante's Inferno: The Longfellow Translation).
Evocative new biography....Irmscher is a richly descriptive writer
with an eye for detail, the compexities and contradictions of
character, and the workings of institutional and familial power
structures....This book is not just about a man of science but also
about a scientific culture in the making--warts and all.
--The New York Times Book ReviewCompelling biography...A masterful
portrait illuminating the tangled human dynamics of science.
--Booklist, STARREDIn Irmscher's hands, Agassiz's life and passions
are embedded in the major intellectual ideas of his time.... The
relationship between Agassiz and his second wife, Elizabeth Cary
Agassiz, the first president of Radcliffe College, is also
fascinating.
--Publishers Weekly Christoph Irmscher's elegant, beautifully
written account does the essential task of setting the mysterious
Agassiz in his full social and historical context, where we can
both appreciate his gifts and see his flaws clearly. His portrayal
of Elizabeth Agassiz and her contributions is brilliant, and his
exploration of Agassiz's stagnation, as the world turned without
him, is both rigorous and poignant. Through the prism of Agassiz's
life, much of 19th-century culture gleams freshly.
--Andrea Barrett, author of Ship Fever and The Voyage of the
NarwhalA biography as exuberant as its brilliant but wrong-headed
subject, the unforgettable forgotten celebrity scientist Louis
Agassiz. Christoph Irmscher is in his element detailing the
exploits of this larger-than-life anti-hero of the Age of Darwin,
whose feats of discovery took him from the Swiss Alps to the Amazon
jungle and made him Harvard's reigning eminence for decades.
--Megan Marshall, author of The Peabody Sisters and Margaret
FullerChristoph Irmscher has brought to life an essential figure in
the history of American science and culture. Irmscher's expertise
and talent for vivid prose open a fascinating window onto the
origins of American science as we know it.
--Matthew Pearl, author of The Dante ClubA thoroughly satisfying
biography...Irmscher makes a convincing case that this egotistical,
often wrongheaded figure deserves his reputation as a founder and
first great popularizer of American science.
--Kirkus ReviewsReading this book is a pleasure - the writing is
engaging and witty, while always intellectually rewarding ....
Irmscher's account of Agassiz's life reminds us always to examine
our own preconceptions concerning the nature of reality and man's
place in the universe.
--Tom Cronin, Professor of Biology, University of Maryland
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
