The Great Naturalists Book Review

​​Title: The Great Naturalists
Author: Robert Huxley and others 
Genre: Nonfiction, Science
Published: 2007
Pages: 252
Goodreads Rating: 3.94
Rating: 6/10

 “Continually impelled by a restless spirit of curiosity…”

In The Great Naturalists, Huxley takes on the daunting task of outlining the scientific development of our natural history. Starting in ancient times and going through the 19th century, Huxley covers 39 of the greatest minds that established our knowledge and understanding of geology, paleontology, biology, and zoology. While this is not a comprehensive analysis of each person’s life and scientific achievements, it certainly covers the basics and piques your curiosity to learn more. 

Pros
Clear and compact summaries 
Each section of the book covers a different time period and each chapter in the book covers a different person in a few pages. In the ancient times through the Renaissance, the focus was on establishing the foundation of knowledge through the development of encyclopedia-type publications. Later in the Renaissance, naturalists sought to improve and build upon the foundation. Finally in the Enlightenment, theories were created and tested as naturalists worked through the hows and whys of the natural world.

This book successfully interests you to pursue additional readings about particular naturalists and time periods in order to learn more. And to make it easy on the reader, Huxley includes recommended additional readings at the back of the book. 

Cons
Repetitive 
It quickly becomes apparent that each chapter is meant to stand on its own. When combined into this book, there’s quite a bit of repetition that could have been better consolidated to reduce unnecessary reiteration. 

Overall… 
This was a nice book to gain a workable understanding of the people and contributions that established our knowledge of the natural world. If a high level knowledge is all you want, this is a great book for you. But as Huxley seems to acknowledge, the intent is to explore additional books to gain a deeper understanding.