Jessica Riskin, The Power of Life: The Invention of Biology and the Revolutionary Science of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Stanford historian Jessica Riskin rehabilitates Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, the French naturalist who coined the term "biology" and proposed the first evolutionary theory of life in the early nineteenth century. For two centuries, Lamarck has been dismissed and ridiculed—mocked by adversaries, personally insulted by Napoleon, and buried in a pauper's grave—but new findings in epigenetics and niche construction suggest his core insight was correct: living organisms actively shape their own evolution. In this virtuosic blend of biography, history, and science, Riskin reveals how denying the agency of living beings has underpinned eugenic policies and environmental destruction, and argues that Lamarck's radical ideas offer a more inclusive, collaborative approach to understanding life itself.

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