Enlightenment botany was replete with sexual symbolism -- to the extent that many botanical textbooks were widely considered pornographic. Carl Linnaeus's controversial new system for classifying plants based on their sexual characteristics, as well as his use of language resonating with erotic allusions, provoked intense public debate over the morality of botanical study. And the renowned Tahitian exploits of Joseph Banks -- whose trousers were reportedly stolen while he was inside the tent of Queen Oberea of Tahiti -- reinforced scandalous associations with the field. Yet Linnaeus and Banks became powerful political and scientific figures who were able to promote botanical exploration alongside the exploitation of territories, peoples, and natural resources. Sex, Botany, and Empire explores the entwined destinies of these two men and how their influence served both science and imperialism. Patricia Fara reveals how Enlightenment botany, under the veil of rationality, manifested a drive to conquer, subdue, and deflower -- all in the name of British empire. Linnaeus trained his traveling disciples in a double mission -- to bring back specimens for the benefit of the Swedish economy and to spread the gospel of Linnaean taxonomy. Based in London at the hub of an international exchange and correspondence network, Banks ensured that Linnaeus's ideas became established throughout the world. As the president of the Royal Society for more than forty years, Banks revolutionized British science, and his innovations placed science at the heart of trade and politics. He made it a policy to collect and control resources not only for the sake of knowledge but also for the advancement of the empire. Although Linnaeus is often celebrated as modern botany's true founder, Banks has had a greater long-term impact. It was Banks who ensured that science and imperialism flourished together, and it was he who first forged the interdependent relationship between scientific inquiry and the state that endures to this day.

法拉,英国科学史家,供职于剑桥大学克莱尔学院。本科攻读物理专业,毕业于牛津大学。后转向科学史专业,在伦敦帝国学院得到博士学位。法拉善长分析科学史中肖像画等艺术品的作用,对启蒙运动时期英格兰的科学,以及妇女在科学发展中的作用进行了深刻的研究。主要作品有《无名的科学家：科学 中的伟大女性》（Scientists Anonymous: Great Stories of Women in Science）、《致命的吸引力：启蒙运动时期的磁学奥秘》（Fatal Attraction: Magnetic Mysteries of the Enlightenment）、《科学：四千年的历史》（Science: A Four Thousand Year History）等书。最新作品为《伊拉斯谟·达尔文：性、科学和机缘》（Erasmus Darwin: Sex, Science, and Serendipity）。

译者介绍：

李猛,北京大学哲学博士,现为厦门大学马克思主义学院助理教授,主要研究方向为英国科学史、博物学文化。