This is firmly an intellectual and professional biography, and the reader learns a great deal about Garnetts thinking in addition to his haphazard vocational course ... Foxs account conveys the flexibility and improvisatory skill it took to thrive, let alone survive, in an era in which the role of professional scientist was still inchoate and new forms of professionalized medical careers were just emerging. * H-Net Reviews * A deeply researched, welcome study: the long-forgotten first professor at London's Royal Institution, Thomas Garnett, finally emerges from the shadows. Important themes from the Industrial Revolution - London versus the provinces, aristocratic pretensions versus humble talent, life versus death - are deftly illuminated. Robert Fox has fashioned a gem. -- Arnold Thackray, Joseph Priestley Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania and Founding President, Science History Institute, USA Robert Foxs long-awaited valuable biography of Thomas Garnett provides a very human and moving story of a life in late eighteenth-century Britain. Using it, Fox tracks the fundamental changes that occurred in British science during that period, especially Garnetts crucial role in the creation of permanent scientific institutions. * Frank James, Professor of History of Science, University College London, UK * A brilliantly researched, clearly articulated, panoramic view of late 18th-century rural and cosmopolitan British medical education, contemporary practices, urban and rural professional hierarchies, and contentious pedagogues. * Choice *
