The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France Jennifer Michael Hecht. 2003. The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France. New York: Columbia University Press. 402 pp. In this book historian Jennifer Hecht, a student of the eminent professor of modern French history, Robert Paxton, assigns herself the very ambitious task of uncovering and analyzing the complex intellectual currents that coalesced in the late 19th century to produce a uniquely French version of physical anthropology. This is an intellectual history of the often virulent ideological, epistemological, and existential debates that occurred within and among the nascent medical and social sciences. These debates centered on the very essence and mission of as it grappled with the new dilemmas posed by emerging French modernity. This was a century marked by expanding industrialization, an emergent and restive working class, the acquisition of empire, bitter struggles between clerical and anti-clerical proponents, and the dominance of monarchies and empires until 1871. One of the fascinating ironies and a leitmotif of the book is the late fulfillment of the 1789 revolutionary legacy of political enfranchisement and democratic principles. These developments shaped the French 19th century scientific investigation of human origins, race, gender, class, and nation. The pursuit of a science of man, the lives and careers of would-be anthropologists, and the larger political context are at the heart of Hecht's book. Despite some weaknesses, the book makes a significant contribution and should be of interest not only to historians but to a wider readership interested in the intersection of culture, science, and politics. I begin with an overview of the book's contributions before discussing in some detail the substance of individual chapters. This book is important because it fills a gap in the history of the French social sciences. At this point the history of Durkheim's life and work as well as the dominance of Durkheimian sociology within the French university system has been well documented (Lukes 1985). So too has the history of French ethnology with its deep roots in folklore and museum studies (Chiva 1987; Lebovics 1992; Segalen and Zonabend 1987). Hecht focuses on a fascinating but relatively unknown group of left-wing thinkers who envisioned physical anthropology as a rational, scientific, and liberating antidote to what they were convinced were the false promises and dead ends posed by religion, metaphysics, and philosophy. Hecht provides the first comprehensive history of this eclectic and politicized group whose members opposed the church and espoused atheism in the name of science. Her book is a cautionary tale for contemporary readers in its exploration of the limits and misuses of as we now weigh the consequences of biotechnological advances from DNA testing and in-vitro fertilization to the genome project and human cloning. With its focus on the beginnings of scientific modernity, it will complement a rich existing literature on the current French research establishment (Latour 1989; Rabinow 1996, 1999). Finally, in its detailed examination of the early proponents of racial such as Vacher de Lapouge, it joins new historical scholarship on race in France (Peabody and Stovall 2003). France is an interesting case study because the nation represents itself as the first of the modern democracies and as an exemplar of universal human rights. It depicts itself as a preeminent color blind society where racial bias has had no place since 1789. There is a consensus in France that when it comes to race, and ideology are clearly demarcated in contrast to the US where it is science, or what passes for science, which informs public debate on race. In his recent article on the polemic created by the publication of The Bell Curve, sociologist Eric Fassin points out that racist ideologues such as Jean-Marie Le Pen, who publicly declared the inequality of the races in 1996 and whose presidential candidacy ended in defeat in the final round of the 2002 elections, enjoy no legitimacy within the French academy (Fassin 1997). …