Curious Species: How Animals Made Natural History

Whitney Barlow Robles' book explores how animals have shaped the field of natural history and its ecological afterlives, challenging human efforts to master nature during the Enlightenment. She makes animals the unruly protagonists of eighteenth-century science, revealing a forgotten lineage of empirical inquiry that forced researchers to embrace uncertainty. The book combines history and nature writing to show how animals founded human knowledge and why tackling our current environmental crisis requires looking back in time.

Format: Hardback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 23 January 2024
Publisher: Yale University Press

Animals have played a significant role in shaping the field of natural history and its ecological afterlives. During the Enlightenment, when humans sought to master nature, animals posed challenging questions that hindered their understanding. Animals and the inquiries they sparked challenged the rigid classification systems that dominated natural history at the time, as people traded in one species for another and imperial ambitions expanded across the globe.

Whitney Barlow Robles takes us on a captivating journey through four spaces and ecological zones: the ocean, the underground, the curiosity cabinet, and the field. Through these explorations, Robles reveals a forgotten lineage of empirical inquiry that forced researchers to embrace uncertainty. This tumultuous era in the history of human-animal encounters continues to haunt modern biologists and ecologists as they strive to comprehend animals in our contemporary world.

Robles' book blends history and nature writing in an eclectic fashion, alternating between careful historical investigations and personal narratives. These excavations of the past and present of distinct nonhuman creatures shed light on the animal foundations of human knowledge and underscore the importance of looking back in time to address our current environmental crisis.

By exploring the intricate relationships between animals and humans throughout history, Robles offers a fresh perspective on the complex web of life. She challenges our assumptions about the natural world and encourages us to reevaluate our place in it. Animals and the questions they raise remind us of the interconnectedness of all living beings and the urgent need to protect and preserve our planet for future generations.

In conclusion, Animals and the Questions They Raised is a captivating and innovative exploration of the profound impact that animals have had on the field of natural history and its ecological afterlives. Through her meticulous research and engaging storytelling, Robles offers a valuable contribution to our understanding of the world and inspires us to embrace the complexity and wonder of the natural world.

Weight: 622g
Dimension: 165 x 243 x 26 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300266184