THE MAN WHO ORGANIZED NATURE

A Swedish scholar chronicles the life of the indispensable botanist and taxonomist.

Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) formalized the modern binomial system of naming organisms. Broberg (1942-2022), former professor emeritus of history of ideas and sciences at Sweden’s Lund University, provides a detailed account of his subject’s work as well as his “darker aspects.” The son of a country pastor, Linnaeus overcame poverty to impress scholars and acquire patrons, who financed expeditions across Sweden, beginning with a yearlong trek through Lapland, to document wildlife and people as well as economic possibilities. Beginning in his 20s, he published scores of books on botany and zoology, and his naming system gradually won over other naturalists. By middle age, he was world famous, and travelers deluged him with their discoveries. Definitely not ahead of his time, Linnaeus never doubted that all species came from the hand of God and remained unchanged, but he was a stickler for evidence. He rejected spontaneous generation and most legendary creatures (unicorns, dragons) that other naturalists accepted. That his classification of plants according to their sexual parts was denounced as obscene is probably exaggerated, but his conclusion that humans were animals shocked many contemporaries. Scholars still debate whether his classification of modern humans is racist, and Broberg digs into this element of his legacy. Writing for a general audience, the author mostly avoids turgid academic prose, but those who are less scientifically inclined may struggle with some passages. They can easily ignore the generous footnotes and bibliography but not the dense thicket of quotations. Within the text, if Linnaeus quarrels with a colleague, Broberg describes the disagreement and then follows with a long excerpt from a letter in which Linnaeus recites his complaints. Readers will lose little by skipping past any pair of quotation marks.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Linnaeus and more.