The Species Maker

“The way in which the story is woven within the author’s deep knowledge of scientific, religious, and popular discussions in the 1920s on evolutionary theory and the genetics and eugenics is magnificent. Professor Johnson gives life to historical people, as well as to the Seattle, Tacoma, and Friday Harbor environment in which the action takes place. The grounding of the characters and their debates in the horrors of the First World War, left-wing labor unrest, the Leopold and Loeb criminal case, and the Scopes Trial is captivating. Readers will quickly see implications for current scientific debates about human evolution, genetic engineering, and public support of science.”
—Mary Jo Nye, Professor Emerita of History, Oregon State University 
 

“As someone who grew up in Tennessee in the time when teaching evolution in the schools remained illegal, I keep imagining the day when we no longer need to explain all the ways that evolution and religion can be compatible. That time has not yet come. Kristin Johnson suggests that we can approach the topic in a different way. She reveals tensions and struggles surrounding competing ideas and personal commitments from the past through the life of a taxonomist. Rather than a polemic or a traditional history of the sort that tends to polarize audiences, her creative approach invites in a diversity of readers who will each find ways to interact with the story. She sets the book up with additional readings for teachers and students, and this volume provides a promising experiment in innovative communication about science.”
—Jane Maienschein, author of Embryos under the Microscope: The Diverging Meanings of Life

“The Species Maker is a brilliant piece of work giving the reader a much deeper understanding of the era of the Scopes Trial, recreating the many layers of thinking that played out on both sides of the conflict over evolution.”
—John S. Haller Jr., author of Fictions of Certitude: Science, Faith, and the Search for Meaning, 1840–1920

“Americans today are no strangers to heated rhetoric, as xenophobia gives rise to calls for more stringent controls on immigration, workers attempt to unionize in the face of stolid opposition from employers, and streams of misinformation leach away the public’s trust in scientific teachings. For many people, this rhetoric is simply the background noise of our lives; few realize how closely it echoes debates that flared up among Americans nearly a hundred years ago. Such resonance between past and present offers much food for thought in Kristin Johnson’s novel The Species Maker.... A story that offers a fresh perspective on some all-too-familiar arguments.”
—American Scientist (Science Book Gift Guide 2021)