Yuri Gama, Book Review of Activist Biology by Duarte (MARLAS Journal) (original) (raw)

Book Review for MARLAS Journal. In Activist Biology: The National Museum, Politics, and Nation Building in Brazil, Regina Horta Duarte, with the help of the translator Diane Grosklaus Whitty, tells the story of the Brazilian National Museum in relation to a context of scientific, social, and political transformations between 1926 and 1945. In the middle of a dynamic scenario, Duarte affirms that Brazilians started to question what kind of country they wanted and needed. The author successfully portrays how Brazil’s National Museum changed as naturalists reclassified nature, as knowledge grew more specialized, and as scientists began relating to collections in new ways.