Jordan Goodman – författare

‘Based on meticulous research in original sources … Goodman illustrates vividly how adept [Banks] was … Shining a light on individuals whose achievements are relatively uncelebrated’ Jenny Uglow, New York Review of Books A bold new history of how botany and global plant collecting – centred at Kew Gardens and driven by Joseph Banks – transformed the earth. Botany was the darling and the powerhouse of the eighteenth century. As European ships ventured across the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans, discovery bloomed. Bounties of new plants were brought back, and their arrival meant much more than improved flowerbeds – it offered a new scientific frontier that would transform Europe’s industry, medicine, eating and drinking habits, and even fashion.Joseph Banks was the dynamo for this momentous change. As botanist for James Cook’s great voyage to the South Pacific on the Endeavour, Banks collected plants on a vast scale, armed with the vision – as a child of the Enlightenment – that to travel physically was to advance intellectually. His thinking was as intrepid as Cook’s seafaring: he commissioned radically influential and physically daring expeditions such as those of Francis Masson to the Cape Colony, George Staunton to China, George Caley to Australia, William Bligh to Tahiti and Jamaica, among many others.Jordan Goodman’s epic history follows these high seas adventurers and their influence in Europe, as well as taking us back to the early years of Kew Gardens, which Banks developed devotedly across the course of his life, transforming it into one of the world’s largest and most diverse botanical gardens.In a rip-roaring global expedition, based on original sources in many languages, Goodman gives a momentous history of how the discoveries made by Banks and his collectors advanced scientific understanding around the world.

A fascinating, big picture history of malaria from its zoonotic emergence in Africa 50,000 years ago through to its impact today, and the frightening truth of how it might spread in future years. A fascinating, big picture history of malaria from its zoonotic emergence in Africa 50,000 years ago through to its impact today, and the frightening truth of how it might spread in future years. Malaria is one of humanity’s oldest diseases. In this interdisciplinary history, Jordan Goodman exposes how we can understand its many facets, from the scientific knowledge on zoonotic diseases and how they operate to their historical influence on population movement, spurring world-changing mass migration both in the ancient world and today. We are offered an insight into how the charity sector and medical research work, as well as a vision of our imperilled future: as global warming accelerates, the significant spread of malaria to Europe and the US is only too likely.Working in primary sources from multiple languages, this will be a defining book on malaria and how it has shaped humanity.

Jordan Goodman explores the historical transformation of tobacco from Amerindian shamanism to global capitalism, from the food of the spirits to the fatal epidemic, from the rough pipe and cigar to the modern-day cigarette. This scholarly and comprehensive survey combines up-to-date published work with primary research to provide a systematic way of understanding current debates from a historical perspective. Goodman draws on a wide range of disciplines to present a history that explores larger themes, such as colonialism, consumerism, medical discourse and multinational enterprise. The book reveals the complex web of dependence and relationships surrounding this controversial commodity.

Covering a wide range of substances, including opium, cocaine, coffee, tobacco, kola, and betelnut, from prehistory to the present day, this new edition has been extensively updated, with an updated bibliography and two new chapters on cannabis and khat. Consuming Habits is the perfect companion for all those interested in how different cultures have defined drugs across the ages.Psychoactive substances have been central to the formation of civilizations, the definition of cultural identities, and the growth of the world economy. The labelling of these substances as 'legal' or 'illegal' has diverted attention away from understanding their important cultural and historical role. This collection explores the rich analytical category of psychoactive substances from challenging historical and anthropological perspectives.

Covering a wide range of substances, including opium, cocaine, coffee, tobacco, kola, and betelnut, from prehistory to the present day, this new edition has been extensively updated, with an updated bibliography and two new chapters on cannabis and khat. Consuming Habits is the perfect companion for all those interested in how different cultures have defined drugs across the ages.Psychoactive substances have been central to the formation of civilizations, the definition of cultural identities, and the growth of the world economy. The labelling of these substances as 'legal' or 'illegal' has diverted attention away from understanding their important cultural and historical role. This collection explores the rich analytical category of psychoactive substances from challenging historical and anthropological perspectives.

Taxol is arguably the most celebrated, talked-about and controversial natural product in recent years. It is celebrated because of its efficacy as an anti-cancer drug and because its discovery has provided powerful support for policies concerned with biodiversity; talked about because in the late 1980s and early 1990s the American public was bombarded with news reports and special programmes about the molecule and its host, the Pacific yew; and controversial because during the early 1990s the drug and the tree became embroiled in a number of very sensitive political issues with wide implications for the conduct of public policy. The Story of Taxol tells this story.

Taxol is arguably the most celebrated, talked-about and controversial natural product in recent years. It is celebrated because of its efficacy as an anti-cancer drug and because its discovery has provided powerful support for policies concerned with biodiversity; talked about because in the late 1980s and early 1990s the American public was bombarded with news reports and special programmes about the molecule and its host, the Pacific yew; and controversial because during the early 1990s the drug and the tree became embroiled in a number of very sensitive political issues with wide implications for the conduct of public policy. The Story of Taxol tells this story.

Through American, British, and Australian case histories of germ warfare tests and radiation experiments, an examination of the role of state power in human experimentation.

Jordan Goodman explores the historical transformation of tobacco from Amerindian shamanism to global capitalism, from the food of the spirits to the fatal epidemic, from the rough pipe and cigar to the modern-day cigarette. This scholarly and comprehensive survey combines up-to-date published work with primary research to provide a systematic way of understanding current debates from a historical perspective. Goodman draws on a wide range of disciplines to present a history that explores larger themes, such as colonialism, consumerism, medical discourse and multinational enterprise. The book reveals the complex web of dependence and relationships surrounding this controversial commodity.

In September 1910, the human rights activist and anti-imperialist Roger Casement arrived in the Amazon to investigate reports of widespread human rights abuses in the vast forests stretching along the Putumayo river. There, the Peruvian entrepreneur Julio César Arana ran an area the size of Belgium as his own private fiefdom; his British registered company operated a systematic programme of torture, exploitation and murder. Fresh from documenting the scarcely imaginable atrocities perpetrated by King Leopold in the Congo, Casement was confronted with an all too recognisable scenario. He uncovered an appalling catalogue of abuse: nearly 30,000 Indians had died to produce four thousand tonnes of rubber.From the Peruvian rainforests to the City of London, Jordan Goodman recounts a crime against humanity that history has almost forgotten, but whose exposure in 1912 sent shockwaves around the world. Drawing on a wealth of original research, The Devil and Mr Casement is a story of colonial exploitation and corporate greed with enormous contemporary political resonance.