Patrick Matagne

The French Tradition in Ecology: 1820–1950

Conceptual history reveals that scientific ecology was built up around work conducted during the nineteenth century by authors who often came from what was, broadly speaking, a German cultural background. However, France also had a presence in this field, in particular through authors who worked to develop the study of botanical geography. Research in the history of ecology rarely explores the literature of the learned societies in the French provinces. One reason for this is that conventional historiography treats these groups and their work as social phenomena that, however interesting to historians of French society, are assumed a priori to be of little interest in terms of scientific content, except for local history and archaeology, where their contributions are recognized.