French Botany in the Enlightenment: The Ill-fated Voyages of La Perouse and His Rescuers

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This volume completes a trilogy meant to be a commentary on the botanophilia that captured the literate public in 18th-century France. Enthusiastic public support for any governmental initiative likely to expand botanical knowledge was an expression of immense curiosity about the natural world beyond Europe, which extended into a curiosity about primitive people and cultures little known. It amounted to a quest for universal knowledge that could benefit all mankind - the spirit of the Enlightenment, with science the key to humanity’s advancement. The botanists exploring abroad brought back exciting quantities of new species and genera, but also a message about the condition of primitive people that undercut the fashionable image of noble savagery.