Julian Huxley: Biologist and Statesman of Science - Hardcover

Julian Huxley (1887-1975) was a man of many talents and enormous energy. At the beginning of his career, he founded the Biology Department at Rice Institute, where he taught for three years before going on to achieve eminence as a biologist, statesman, and intellectual. While this volume concentrates on Huxley's contributions to field and laboratory biology, it also provides the first in-depth examination of his efforts to popularize science and to advance the human species through eugenics. The first part of the book places Huxley in a broad intellectual context and offers an overview of his contributions to biology as they related to major developments in twentieth-century evolutionary theory. Huxley's biological work is investigated in more depth in the second part, while the third examines him as a public scientist and takes a new look at his efforts to bring biology and its potential benefits to the community at large. It is hoped that the book will spur further research into Huxley's religious and social views and his public role in science.

C. KENNETH WATERS is professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota.ALBERT VAN HELDEN is professor of history at Rice University; his specialty is the history of science.