List of Illustrations
Introduction
Part 1: Before
1 Who Needs a Science of Heredity?
2 The Meaning of the Quincunx
3 Biology for the Steam Age
4 Royal Entrances (and Exits)
Part 2: Battle
5 Between Boers and Basset Hounds
6 Two Plates of Peas
7 Mendel All the Way
8 Damn All Controversies!
9 An Unfinished Manuscript
Part 3: Beyond
10 The Success of a New Science
11 What Might Have Been
12 Mendelian Legacies
13 Weldonian Legacies
Conclusion
Postscript 1: On “Genetic Determinism” and “Interaction”
Postscript 2: A Simple Mendelian Cross Weldonized
Postscript 3: From a Counterfactual Edition of the Dictionary of
Scientific Biography
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
Gregory Radick is professor of history and philosophy of science at the University of Leeds. He is the author of The Simian Tongue: The Long Debate about Animal Language, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and coauthor, most recently, of Darwin’s Argument by Analogy.
“The archives for this episode in the history of biology are almost
too rich: sheaves of correspondence among the protagonists, minutes
of meetings, committee reports, Weldon’s unpublished manuscripts.
Radick recounts every twist and turn of the debate, and his account
of the Bateson-Weldon stand-off is surely definitive . . .
allow[ing] the reader to experience the uncertainty and messiness
of real science in the making. . . . Everyone now knows that
Bateson and the Mendelians won in the end. Radick wants us to
imagine that it could have and should have turned out differently,
had all the evidence and arguments been weighed and had Weldon not
died prematurely in 1906, aged 46.”
*London Review of Books*
“An ambitious work . . . In paying attention to today's
sophisticated ideas about genetics, Radick poses a deceptively
simple question: why, he asks, knowing what we do now, do we still
bother with Mendel? . . . This isn’t the first attempt to lay
history’s ghosts to rest and reset our ideas about genetics. That
said, I can’t think of one that is better argued, more fair-minded,
or more enjoyable.”
*New Scientist*
“Radick provides a scholarly, detailed and perceptive analysis of
why Mendelian genetics has long dominated our approach to
understanding inheritance, despite valiant attempts to propose
alternatives. . . . By describing how the debates of scientists
shaped the field of genetics, Disputed Inheritance provides a basis
for understanding the work that has led, over the past century, to
a richer understanding of heredity than Mendelian genetics could
ever have provided.”
*Nature*
“‘You name it,’ writes Radick in his brilliant, provocative new
book, Disputed Inheritance, ‘and there is, we are told, a gene for
it, invisibly pulling the strings, determining how our bodies grow
and our lives go.’ . . . Radick argues that, had genetics taken a
Weldonian turn in the early twentieth century, we need have
sacrificed nothing in our understanding of biology and would have
reduced the hereditarianism that remains so prevalent today. . . .
Radick has an extraordinarily rich research program in front of him
that has the potential for significant impact on both science and
society.”
*FASEB Journal*
“Radick is raising the stakes here with an inventive approach . . .
Disputed Inheritance gives centrality to contingency, and in so
doing presents convincingly a ‘what could have been’ argument. The
book culminates in a reiteration of the desire to elevate the study
(and presentation) of counterfactuals to be part and parcel of
standard methodology. It is a difficult argument to dismiss, and
this book is the reason why: Radick’s meticulous research and
balanced presentation can help redefine the essential struggle
against historical amnesia—arguably the main culprit for reductive
thinking and facile generalizations.”
*H-Sci-Med-Tech*
“Marks a new milestone in the historiography of this famous
episode. . . . The extreme fluidity of the writing, the richness of
the historical information, as well as the boldness of the theses
put forward make for an irresistible invitation to
discussion.”
*Revue d’histoire des sciences*
“In letters, both antagonists kept friends and allies continually
up to date on their thoughts and feelings at every stage of the
debate, enabling Radick to provide a vivid new narrative and
analysis. . . . Present-day misconceptions about genetic
determinism or genes for traits stand in need of correction, and
Radick deserves kudos for trying to do so by reforming science
education.”
*Journal of the History of Biology*
“If your job involves teaching genetics (or if you’re just
interested) you should take the time to read and digest this book.
It presents a reasoned alternative to the standard narrative. It
illuminates a lot of history that was much more complex than I had
realized. It introduces the sympathetic figure of Weldon. . . . And
it makes a case that, as Radick succinctly puts it, Mendel was not
a Mendelian.”
*Adelphi Review*
"This work examines a foundational belief in biology: 'heredity is
destiny.' . . . [and] should provoke considerable debate among
historians and philosophers of biology. . . . Highly
recommended."
*Choice*
“This is a magnificent book. It is really a tour de force,
elegantly written and diligently documented. There is so much that
I learned while reading it that has made me now better understand
this story. I think it will be fascinating reading for everyone
interested in the early history of genetics. Disputed Inheritance
deserves to be widely read, and Radick deserves praise for an
intellectual achievement that will change not only our
understanding of history but also our approach to its study.”
*Kostas Kampourakis, author of Understanding Genes*
“Radick’s magisterial study scrutinizes common understandings—the
‘folk wisdom’—of the history of genetics. Informed by unusual
historical depth and philosophical sophistication, Radick offers a
compelling rival view, one that reinterprets both the history and
the science itself. In a world often affected by loose talk about
‘genes for’ interesting traits, this book supplies a welcome
antidote to simplistic thinking. It is as important as it is
fascinating.”
*Philip Kitcher, author of In Mendel’s Mirror: Philosophical
Reflections on Biology*
“There are few ideas in biology as powerful—and dangerous—as the
notion that genes determine who we are and what we can become. In
this deeply researched and beautifully written history, Radick
reveals the contingent pathways through which genetic determinism
took hold among biologists and beyond. Disputed Inheritance
rewrites the story of genetics with care and verve, in the hopes
that future students will learn to see both history and biology
differently.”
*Helen Anne Curry, author of Evolution Made to Order*
“Radick underscores some of the most vital but neglected facts of
genetics—that genes don’t work in simple ways, and that variation
and context matter. This is a beautifully researched, important
book. It may be a work of history, but the lessons are also
relevant for us today.”
*Angela Saini, author of Superior: The Return of Race Science*
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