This book presents a biography of the Danish botanist Eugen Warming. As the author of a treatise on ecology that brought him international recognition, he was able to inspire the first generation of 20th-century European and American ecologists.
His innovative approach to nature and his Arctic and tropical missions heralded the birth of a new science and an ecological awareness.
As a professor at several Scandinavian universities during a period of intense debate and controversy over evolutionary theories, Eugen Warming vigorously asserted his convictions. Birth of Scientific Ecology presents the image of a man of knowledge and power, recognized by his contemporaries as a founder of ecology and a player in the ecological project of the Kingdom of Denmark at a time when the empires were clashing.
Part 1. From Mandø to Lagoa Santa.
1. Eugenius’ Birthplace.
2. Jutland: At the Roots of a Passion.
3. An Interrupted University Course.
4. From Rio to Lagoa Santa: A New World.
Part 2. Good Times and Bad.
5. Outstanding Doctoral Studies.
6. Intense Activity, a Detour via Stockholm.
7. Back to Copenhagen.
Part 3. New Latitudes.
8. Arctic and Tropical Missions.
9. Eugenius’ Arctic Botanical Geography.
10. The Long-Term Tropics.
Part 4. Professor Warming’s Ecology.
11. 1895–1896: Ecological Botanical Geography.
12. Authorized Editions, or Not.
13. 1909: Oecology of Plants in the Storm.
14. Limits and Potentials.
15. Warming’s Ecology and Evolutionary Theories.
Part 5. The Ubiquitous Professor Warming.
16. The Institutionalization of Ecology.
17. The Man of Knowledge and Power.
18. The Protagonist of the Danish Ecological Project.
Patrick Matagne holds a doctorate in Epistemology and the History of Science from the University of Paris VII, France. He was a lecturer at the University of Poitiers, France, until 2020.