Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose: Natural History in Early America by Lee Alan Dugatkin is an account of a particular episode in history of well, natural history (and transcontinental cultural/political squabbles) centring around the early US President's attempt to prove that the US had fauna every bit as good as Europe's, if not better, free courtesy of publisher The University of Chicago Press as their selected free ebook of the month.
This is actually pretty nifty, and kind of funny, in a retro kerfuffle-watching way. Extracting the "Tapeworm of Europe" from the American brain, indeed.
Free throughout November in return for your email address @
The University of Chicago Press (ADE-DRM PDF available worldwide).
And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.
Because science! And nature! And history! And vintage kerfuffles! Written up for my entertainment!
(And also because I love heartwarming animal stories, especially the ones involving drunken moose*. None of which are to be found in this, alas, according to the PDF search, so I guess I'll have to wait for the annual ones to show up in the Norwegian newspapers.)
Enjoy!
Description
In the years after the Revolutionary War, the fledgling republic of America was viewed by many Europeans as a degenerate backwater, populated by subspecies weak and feeble. Chief among these naysayers was the French Count and world-renowned naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, who wrote that the flora and fauna of America (humans included) were inferior to European specimens.
Thomas Jefferson—author of the Declaration of Independence, U.S. president, and ardent naturalist—spent years countering the French conception of American degeneracy. His Notes on Virginia systematically and scientifically dismantled Buffon’s case through a series of tables and equally compelling writing on the nature of his home state. But the book did little to counter the arrogance of the French and hardly satisfied Jefferson’s quest to demonstrate that his young nation was every bit the equal of a well-established Europe. Enter the giant moose.
The American moose, which Jefferson claimed was so enormous a European reindeer could walk under it, became the cornerstone of his defense. Convinced that the sight of such a magnificent beast would cause Buffon to revise his claims, Jefferson had the remains of a seven-foot ungulate shipped first class from New Hampshire to Paris. Unfortunately, Buffon died before he could make any revisions to his Histoire Naturelle, but the legend of the moose makes for a fascinating tale about Jefferson’s passion to prove that American nature deserved prestige.
In Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose, Lee Alan Dugatkin vividly recreates the origin and evolution of the debates about natural history in America and, in so doing, returns the prize moose to its rightful place in American history.
* Mynd you, moose bites Kan be pretti nasti...