Reviews
Presents 15 years of meticulous work compiling more years of West’s fascination with and study of the German biologist who spent most of his professional life in southern Brazil, and who is considered a major contributor to Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
--Roanoke Times
Despite the importance and scope of his work...Müller is known for relatively few of his discoveries. West remedies this oversight, chronicling the life and work of this extraordinary and overlooked man of science.
--Virginia Tech News
A thorough examination of a human figure and a scientist’s achievements.
--H-Net
This fine biography of Fritz Müller (1821-97) explains how he helped Darwin shape his ideas on mimicry. . . . ideal for students of natural history, historians of science, and other scholars.
--Choice
Situates Müller’s research at the cutting edge of 19th-century natural science. Müller emerges here, not as a solitary naturalist in the isolated wilderness of southern Brazil, but as an essential figure in an active and collaborative scientific network. . . . Reminds us that the work of naturalists in Europe would be impossible without the research that was conducted in places such as Blumenau.
--Quarterly Review of Biology
Offers an unfiltered view into science of the mid-nineteenth century, when evolutionary theory had its origins. West makes this world tangible, with all of its pleasures and challenges. . . . A wonderful addition to the library of any evolutionary biologist or natural historian and is a pleasant foray into the lives of nineteenth-century naturalists.
--American Entomologist
Will doubtless be an important source for those interested in the history of modern biology.
--Isis
A beautifully written and thoroughly researched study of Miami. Essential.
--Isis
Drawing on Alfred Möller’s monumental work, Fritz Müller: Werke, Briefe und Leben, published between 1915 and 1920, West’s book opens up this rich source of material for non-German speakers, but it also reveals much that is new. . . . West details all the different areas of Müller’s research and important discoveries with admirable thoroughness.
--Luso-Brazilian Review