Product Description

On October 19, 1876 a group of leading French citizens, joined together to form the Society of Mutual Autopsy, with the aim of proving that souls do not exist. With this group as its focus, The End of the Soul is a study of science and atheism in France in late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It shows that anthropology grew out of a struggle between tradition (especially Catholicism) and modernism, and that it became for many a secular religion, with such adherents as Emile Zola, Margaret Sanger, and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1007476 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Review
Hecht has given us a very strong account of the republican scientific vision . . . This book will be richly rewarding to scholars of the Third Republic, to historians of anti-clericalism and of the social sciences, and even to laymen with an interest in the current round of the nature-nurture culture wars about the genome and evolutionary psychology. -- Review

Review

"[Hecht] brings wit and enthusiasm to her densely packed tale of the freethinking anthropologists, who first knew each other as distraught republicans during the Second Empire." -- Nina C. Ayoub, Chronicle of Higher Education

"Hecht is... a very good writer and a brilliant researcher. Highly recommended for all academic libraries." -- Library Journal

"A fascinating glimpse of a little-known chapter in French history." -- Publishers Weekly

"Hecht has given us a very strong account of the republican scientific vision... This book will be richly rewarding to scholars of the Third Republic, to historians of anti-clericalism and of the social sciences, and even to laymen with an interest in the current round of the nature-nurture culture wars about the genome and evolutionary psychology." -- Martin S. Staum, H-France Book Reviews

"Clearly, this is a superb work, one that captures a major moment in French and European thought with thorough scholarship and literary grace. Highly recommended." -- Choice

"A comprehensively researched, carefully contextualized, engagingly narrated, and provocatively revelatory book about an underappreciated episode in the history of anthropology and religion." -- George W. Stocking, Journal of Anthropological Research

"Jennifer Hecht's endlessly fascinating book...A great gift for that special intellectual history buff in your life." -- The Society of Mutual Autopsy

"The often poignant life-histories she recounts...are one of the real pleasures on offer in this wide-ranging, original study of late nineteenth-century French anthropologists." -- Elizabeth Williams, American Historical Review

"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. Hecht has produced a work of impressive erudition." -- Susan Terrio, Anthropological Quarterly

"Hecht is a vivid writer with a keen eye for the evocative anecdote and the unexpected interconnection.... Hecht's book will make provocative reading for historians of science, religion, and republican politics." -- Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

"The result is a well-researched, persuasive, and engaging contribution to the cultural history of modern France." -- John I. Brooks III, Journal of Modern History

Review

"This is a wonderful analysis of the passionate, exuberant and at times bombastic radical anthropologists whose views were central to political culture in late-nineteenth-century France. In lively prose, the author characterizes these combative scientists and their contributions to every conceivable topic of the day, from religion, to morality, to prehistory, to criminality, human equality, feminism, and socialism. It is full of striking insights into the politics of science, especially the ways in which an almost religious fervor for scientific materialism could lead either to radical scientific egalitarianism or it's opposite, scientific racism." -- Nancy Leys Stepan, Columbia University

Customer Reviews

This writer is just too much
This writer is as even handed and fair as she is brilliant. I read Doubt: A History and was left feeling the same way. In addition to being a history of French anthropology this book is an example of the very finest writing.

Very Disappointing
I purchased this book thinking it was a study of the death of an idea, namely the idea that human beings have an immortal soul. This is not that book. Rather, this book attempts to distill into a single narrative all the complex political, scientific, and philosophical issues surrounding atheism and anthropology in late nineteenth-century France. No small task, to be sure. Unfortunately, I cannot say it is successful.

Hecht deserves praise for her thorough research and her willingness to tackle such an ambitious project. That is about where my praise for the book ends, however. Ultimately, I found this study to be poorly reasoned, extremely unorganized, dryly written, and offensively unsympathetic to its subject.

At times, it reads more as a polemic against atheism than as a sober evaluation of any moment in history. This is quite surprising, since Hecht is herself an atheist.

What is particularly annoying are her repeated assertions that the primary subject of her study, the passionately atheistic Society of Mutual Autopsy, founded their own religion. She doesn't even provide the reader with a definition of "religion," so we have no way of knowing what qualifies as a religion in her book. For the vast majority of scholars and lay people, religions are based around a belief in the supernatural. That means the atheists studied in this book were not in any way religious, a detail Hecht conveniently overlooks.

When she then offers phrases like "evangelical atheism" without any justification or explanation, Hecht seems set on diminishing her Society's values. As an atheist myself, I found this extremely annoying. There are plenty of other unsupported conjectures and highly questionable conclusions offered here (and even a number of blatant misrepresentations of the facts), and none are intended to give her subjects the benefit of the doubt.

She even mocks the Society's interest in brains and skulls, and suggestively emphasizes the lack of useful scientific information garnered by their research. She curiously argues that they were not truly interested in science because they failed to further our understanding of neurology.

Overall, Hecht offers very little insight into the end of the soul or atheism. One of her main ideas is that atheism is not caused by scientific discoveries, but that science is rather more likely to be influenced by atheism. This claim is not supported by anything close to a compelling argument, however. Ultimately, all of her views seem to be based on questionable assumptions about human psychology, and there is a sore lack of coherent argument throughout.

The biggest problems with this book, however, have to do with the way it was written. The book does not seem to be organized around a main idea, and the reader is likely to wonder why one chapter or section is followed by the next. The entire book is greatly lacking in focus, a truly tragic flaw considering the breadth of material Hecht covers. The whole thing feels like something of a mess. Furthermore, the language itself is often very dry and unpleasant.

Again, the research that went into this book is outstanding, and there is a wealth of information here for anyone interested in the subject matter. However, wading through it (and separating the facts from Hecht's questionable assertions) is not a particularly enjoyable task.