James C. Whorton, Crusaders for fitness. The history of American health reformers, Princeton, N.J., and Guildford, Surrey, Princeton University Press, 1982, (reprint of 1942 ed.), 8vo, pp. xi, 359, illus., £14.60.

Crusaders for fitness. The history of American health reformers

enterprise, and many gaps in our knowledge remain; however, Maggs confirms the lack of opportunity for trained nurses in voluntary hospitals, retrieves information about nursing agencies, and, by examining some job changes, begins to reevaluate thinking about the relationship between the voluntary and poor law sectors. All of this adds up to new ideas and interpretations and justifies the claim...

Pure Food. Securing the Federal Food and Drugs Act of 1906. James Harvey Young. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1989. xiv, 312 pp. $29.95.

A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World. By Gregory Clark. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007. Pp. xii, 420. $29.95, cloth

The Theory of Ecological Communities. Monographs in Population Biology 57, Mark Vellend, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA (2016). 248 pp., $49.95, ISBN: 9780691164847 (Hardback), 9781400883790 (eBook)

A productive concept, or “theory” in ecological jargon, trikes just the right balance between abstract universality nd specific applicability. Too abstract, and ecologists will gnore it as too aloof; too specific, and it will not cross ub-disciplinary boundaries and fade away. Darwin’s Thery of Natural Selection fits this bill, as does MacArthur Wilson’s Island Biogeography. Will Vellend’s Theo...

Searching for ourselves Stranger in the Mirror: The Scientific Search for the Self Robert V. Levine (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ; 2016) ISBN: 978-0-691167-916

and we know other couples who pursue careers in different areas of science, or where one half makes the money which softens the rigours of academic life for the other. JA: Any partnership, whether it’s purely scientifi c or personal as well, depends on appreciating and respecting the particular strengths and quirks of the other half. I think that Ol and I have been fortunate in complementing ea...