Prize sponsored by the American Association for the History of Medicine. One of "Choice"'s Outstanding Academic Books of 1995
"Winner of the 1996 William H. Welch Medal, American Association
for the History of Medicine"
"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1995"
"Geison's controversial but stunning biography raises many
important questions about the nature of science, past and present.
. . . [I]t requires us to reevaluate our heroes and consider the
complexities of science as it is actually created instead of merely
clinging to comforting and heroic myths."---Elizabeth Fee, New
England Journal of Medicine
"A fascinating and detailed account of much of Pasteur's life and
of French science in the last century."---Lewis Wolpert, The New
York Times Book Review
"Geison makes Pasteur in many ways worthier of our admiration than
the saintly figure of legend was."
*The Economist*
". . . a well-documented, evenhanded biography that will be useful
for many years to come. . . . a readable, enjoyable biography."
*Booklist*
"In The Private Science of Louis Pasteur, Gerald L. Geison has
explored 100 of Pasteur's laboratory notebooks . . . which record
40 years of scientific activity and which were made available to
researchers only about 20 years ago. Mr. Geison specifically
disclaims any intention to deny Pasteur's greatness as a scientist,
but to illuminate the scientific process, he sets out to expose
some serious discrepancies between what Pasteur published and said
in public and what is recorded in the notebooks. . . . This book
provides a fascinating and detailed account of much of Pasteur's
life and of French science in the last century. . . . What this
life of Pasteur shows is how complex, hard and imaginative
scientific discovery is, and that it requires a variety of skills
rarely found in one person."
*New York Times Book Review*
"In Geison's hands, Pasteur is shown to have been a consummate
publicist and showman . . . He was also single minded, secretive
and rather selfish. . . . He is, in short, the perfect anti-hero
for our anti-heroic age."---W. F. Bynum, Nature
"In revealing . . . discrepancies between Pasteur's private
activities and the accounts he subsequently published of those
activities, Geison's aim is not to discredit Pasteur or his
contributions to science. On the contrary, he gives full credit to
Pasteur's brilliance as an experimenter. But he also makes clear
the extent to which Pasteur's public reputation depended not just
on his ability to manipulate his experimental materials in the
laboratory, but also on his ability to control and manipulate the
information that issued from his laboratory."---Steve Sturdy,
Medical History
"Geison has discovered that Pasteur's two most famous experiments
were tainted by lies and scientific, if not moral, misconduct. The
author's deconstruction of the Pasteur myth is not an attempt to
discredit the man or his works but to present the unadorned truth.
Well written and scholarly, with extensive notes and bibliography,
this book is highly recommended."
*Library Journal*
"Realities of the creative process, scientific method, research
ethics, personalities and politics are confronted in this weighty
reappraisal of Pasteur's pioneering work. . . . this work of
historical scholarship touches on many human issues ever pertinent
in scientific research."
*Publishers Weekly*
"[Geison's] deconstruction of the Pasteur myth is not an attempt to
discredit the man or his works but to present the unadorned truth.
Well written and scholarly, with extensive notes and bibliography,
this book is highly recommended."
*Library Journal*
"With magisterial scholarship, Geison presents incisive accounts of
Pasteur's research . . . the book is largely structured around
instances of Pasteur's 'unsavory' behavior and Geison's
explanations do little to soften the image of Pasteur as a
ruthlessly ambitious and competitive operator."
*Social History of Medicine*
"It is to Geison's considerable credit that, in telling this story
and documenting Pasteur's human failings along the way, he recounts
a record of insight, confidence and certainty on core essentials
that still amounts to genius."---Bernard Dixon, New Scientist
"A very good book . . . adds extraordinary nuance to the
biographical portrait of Pasteur."---Christopher Dornan, The Globe
and Mail
"A meticulous biography of one of the grandest figures in the
history of science. . . . Gerald Geison , the author of this
splendid biography, . . . makes Pasteur in many ways worthier of
our admiration than the saintly figure of legend was."
*The Economist*
"Gerald Geison has been studying Pasteur for more than two decades.
. . . [He] shows that there are intriguing discrepancies between
Pasteur's private science and public utterances. . . . In Geison's
hands, Pasteur is shown to have been a consummate publicist and
showman . . . the perfect anti-hero for out anti-heroic age."---W.
F. Bynum, Nature
"The Pasteur who emerges from these pages is a creative, even
brilliant, scientist but a distinctly unattractive human being. . .
. [Geison] provides a far more interesting and generally persuasive
view of Pasteur's work than the earlier, more flattering accounts.
. . . Geison's controversial but stunning biography raises many
important questions about the nature of science, past and present.
. . . It requires us to reevaluate our heroes and consider the
complexities of science as it is actually created instead of merely
clinging to comforting and heroic myths. Elegantly written,
beautifully produced, and very reasonably priced."---Elizabeth Fee,
Ph.D., The New England Journal of Medicine
"This marvelous and fascinating scientific biography is
indispensable in understanding Pasteur's life and research."
*Choice*
"This book provides a fascinating and detailed account of much of
Pasteur's life and of French science in the last century.... What
this life of Pasteur shows is how complex, hard and imaginative
scientific discovery is, and that it requires a variety of skills
rarely found in one person."
*New York Times Book Review*
"Winner of the 1996 William H. Welch Medal, American Association
for the History of Medicine"
"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1995"
"Geison's controversial but stunning biography raises many
important questions about the nature of science, past and present.
. . . [I]t requires us to reevaluate our heroes and consider the
complexities of science as it is actually created instead of merely
clinging to comforting and heroic myths."---Elizabeth Fee,
New England Journal of Medicine
"A fascinating and detailed account of much of Pasteur's life and
of French science in the last century."---Lewis Wolpert, The
New York Times Book Review
"Geison makes Pasteur in many ways worthier of our admiration than
the saintly figure of legend was." * The Economist *
". . . a well-documented, evenhanded biography that will be useful
for many years to come. . . . a readable, enjoyable biography." *
Booklist *
"In The Private Science of Louis Pasteur, Gerald L. Geison has
explored 100 of Pasteur's laboratory notebooks . . . which record
40 years of scientific activity and which were made available to
researchers only about 20 years ago. Mr. Geison specifically
disclaims any intention to deny Pasteur's greatness as a scientist,
but to illuminate the scientific process, he sets out to expose
some serious discrepancies between what Pasteur published and said
in public and what is recorded in the notebooks. . . . This book
provides a fascinating and detailed account of much of Pasteur's
life and of French science in the last century. . . . What this
life of Pasteur shows is how complex, hard and imaginative
scientific discovery is, and that it requires a variety of skills
rarely found in one person." * New York Times Book Review *
"In Geison's hands, Pasteur is shown to have been a consummate
publicist and showman . . . He was also single minded, secretive
and rather selfish. . . . He is, in short, the perfect anti-hero
for our anti-heroic age."---W. F. Bynum, Nature
"In revealing . . . discrepancies between Pasteur's private
activities and the accounts he subsequently published of those
activities, Geison's aim is not to discredit Pasteur or his
contributions to science. On the contrary, he gives full credit to
Pasteur's brilliance as an experimenter. But he also makes clear
the extent to which Pasteur's public reputation depended not just
on his ability to manipulate his experimental materials in the
laboratory, but also on his ability to control and manipulate the
information that issued from his laboratory."---Steve Sturdy,
Medical History
"Geison has discovered that Pasteur's two most famous experiments
were tainted by lies and scientific, if not moral, misconduct. The
author's deconstruction of the Pasteur myth is not an attempt to
discredit the man or his works but to present the unadorned truth.
Well written and scholarly, with extensive notes and bibliography,
this book is highly recommended." * Library Journal *
"Realities of the creative process, scientific method, research
ethics, personalities and politics are confronted in this weighty
reappraisal of Pasteur's pioneering work. . . . this work of
historical scholarship touches on many human issues ever pertinent
in scientific research." * Publishers Weekly *
"[Geison's] deconstruction of the Pasteur myth is not an attempt to
discredit the man or his works but to present the unadorned truth.
Well written and scholarly, with extensive notes and bibliography,
this book is highly recommended." * Library Journal *
"With magisterial scholarship, Geison presents incisive accounts of
Pasteur's research . . . the book is largely structured around
instances of Pasteur's 'unsavory' behavior and Geison's
explanations do little to soften the image of Pasteur as a
ruthlessly ambitious and competitive operator." * Social History of
Medicine *
"It is to Geison's considerable credit that, in telling this story
and documenting Pasteur's human failings along the way, he recounts
a record of insight, confidence and certainty on core essentials
that still amounts to genius."---Bernard Dixon, New
Scientist
"A very good book . . . adds extraordinary nuance to the
biographical portrait of Pasteur."---Christopher Dornan, The
Globe and Mail
"A meticulous biography of one of the grandest figures in the
history of science. . . . Gerald Geison , the author of this
splendid biography, . . . makes Pasteur in many ways worthier of
our admiration than the saintly figure of legend was." * The
Economist *
"Gerald Geison has been studying Pasteur for more than two decades.
. . . [He] shows that there are intriguing discrepancies between
Pasteur's private science and public utterances. . . . In Geison's
hands, Pasteur is shown to have been a consummate publicist and
showman . . . the perfect anti-hero for out anti-heroic
age."---W. F. Bynum, Nature
"The Pasteur who emerges from these pages is a creative, even
brilliant, scientist but a distinctly unattractive human being. . .
. [Geison] provides a far more interesting and generally persuasive
view of Pasteur's work than the earlier, more flattering accounts.
. . . Geison's controversial but stunning biography raises many
important questions about the nature of science, past and present.
. . . It requires us to reevaluate our heroes and consider the
complexities of science as it is actually created instead of merely
clinging to comforting and heroic myths. Elegantly written,
beautifully produced, and very reasonably priced."---Elizabeth
Fee, Ph.D., The New England Journal of Medicine
"This marvelous and fascinating scientific biography is
indispensable in understanding Pasteur's life and research." *
Choice *
"This book provides a fascinating and detailed account of much of
Pasteur's life and of French science in the last century.... What
this life of Pasteur shows is how complex, hard and imaginative
scientific discovery is, and that it requires a variety of skills
rarely found in one person." * New York Times Book Review
*
There hardly seems to be a person alive who does not know of Louis Pasteur and his great works‘the discovery of rabies and anthrax vaccines and the pasteurization process. Many people will be dismayed by Geison's revisionist account of Pasteur's work. A professor of history at Princeton University who has lectured and written extensively on the history of science, Geison spent 15 years studying 30 bound volumes of Pasteur's unpublished correspondence and lecture notes and over 100 laboratory workbooks‘over 10,000 pages in all. These works have not been available to researchers until recently because Pasteur left them to his family with instructions never to show them to anyone. With the death of his last male decendant, they became the property of the French National Library. Geison has discovered that Pasteur's two most famous experiments were tainted by lies and scientific, if not moral, misconduct. The author's deconstruction of the Pasteur myth is not an attempt to discredit the man or his works but to present the unadorned truth. Well written and scholarly, with extensive notes and bibliography, this book is highly recommended.‘James Olson, Northeastern Illinois Univ. Lib., Chicago
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