Abstract
The public image of experimentation on live animals and the campaigning activities of anti-vivisectionists have attracted scholarly interest, with historians typically focusing on the links to nascent animal welfare and women’s rights activism. Less attention has been paid to the consolidation of pro-vivisectionist communities, the subject of Rob Boddice’s latest book. Spanning the 1870s to World War I, Humane Professions crosses Britain, Germany, and the United States to delineate the strategies by which scientific researchers mounted a defense of experimental medicine and cemented their position in the febrile court of public opinion. Boddice’s lucid and engaging work traces the development of transnational networks of medical professionals, scientists, and researchers, using vivisection as a lens through which to explore how modern medicine bolstered its political influence, social authority, and public relations. While retaining its taut focus, Humane Professions forms part of a wider body of scholarship concerned with medico-scientific self-fashioning and community-building.
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