Unmaking Botany

“Examining the intersections of colonization, science, and nature, Unmaking Botany innovatively illustrates how botany in the colonial Philippines was shaped as much by scientific ideals and transimperial agendas as it was by science’s own epistemological limitations, internal disagreements, and nomenclatural instabilities. With this argument, Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez draws important attention to how imperial science and knowledge systems are inflected by particular historical contexts, social contours, epistemologies, and material structures. A landmark work.” - Sophie Chao, author of In the Shadow of the Palms: More-Than-Human Becomings in West Papua

“In this remarkable history of imperial botany, Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez shows how the colonial project of Latinizing plant species was constantly tripped up by the persistence of vernacular names and practices among local populations, destabilizing the very systematicity of the botanical project. Through its beautifully written and finely crafted examination of the complexity of imperial botany, this brilliant and timely book will speak to a wide range of readers in science studies, colonial studies, Southeast Asian and Philippines studies, American studies, and beyond.” - Vicente L. Rafael, author of The Sovereign Trickster: Death and Laughter in the Age of Duterte

"In her (perhaps aptly entitled) new book, Unmaking Botany, Kathleen C Gutierrez sets about describing not just the history of botany in the Philippines but how the practice of it intersected with the imperial projects of Spain and the United States. She combines history of science with political science and an almost anthropological approach to the material to a provide a different perspective on an otherwise reasonably well-known narrative of one colonial regime giving way to another, it helps that she writes well, and has a keen eye for the interesting fact, telling anecdote and (sometimes darkly) humorous aside." - Peter Gordon, Asian Review of Books

"Gutierrez performs the demagnification of the colonial experience to bring autonomous history to new heights." - Charlie Samuya Veric, Pacific Affairs