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The History and Future of the Gene
- Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 62, Number 2, Spring 2019
- pp. 366-378
- 10.1353/pbm.2019.0020
- Article
- Additional Information
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ABSTRACT:
This essay reviews three books that trace the development of the contemporary conception of the gene in the early 20th century: The Gene: An Intimate History (2016) by Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene: A Historical Perspective (2007) by Ted Everson, and In Pursuit of the Gene: From Darwin to DNA (2008) by James Schwartz. Each of these books is written for the educated lay reader, and each approaches its subject in a different way. Read together, they show how the now-dominant conception of the gene was not the inevitable result of impartial scientific inquiry; rather, it emerged within a particular historical context, and was shaped by specific social and intellectual forces.