Studies of Skin Color in the Early Royal Society

PRIZE: Shortlisted for the British Society for Literature and Science Book Prize 2013

'. . . offers an original, nuanced, and deeply compelling investigation into the pre-history of modern understandings of race. . . . Combining a meticulous attention to 17th century theories such as pre-Adamism and polygenesis with a careful regard to the institutional trappings of the new science, this study reveals how material practices, such as colonialism, gender politics and of course the brutalities of the slave trade, were bound up with the scientific practice of Boyle and others.' Patricia Cahill, Emory University, USA

'Studies of Skin Color is an impressive addition to Ashgate's excellent "Literary and Scientific Cultures of Early Modernity" series, demonstrating in depth for the first time the significant connections between seventeenth- and eighteenth-century science, commerce, colonialism, and slavery; and, perhaps more importantly, the unique capacity of literary works to interrogate such bonds.' Greg Lynall, University of Liverpool for The British Society for Literature and Science

'I have already recommended this volume to colleagues working in the field of history of medicine and scientific biography, but would further commend it to historians of science, gender, race and early modernists more generally.' Jonathan Reinarz, Director of the History of Medicine Unit at the University of Birmingham, Centaurus: An International Journal of the History of Science and its Cultural Aspects

'This is a refreshingly diverse array of sources and interests . . . a fascinating and critical look at Boyle and the Royal Society in the co-constitution of empiricism, colonialism, and race.' Sixteenth Century Journal

'Malcolmson's book is noteworthy for its clear argument, its excellent use of literary sources, its creative gender analysis, and its status as a metropolitan history in light of Atlantic studies. . . . a variety of scholars will be interested in her work.' Seventeenth-Century