Pavlov's Physiology Factory

For anyone wanting particulars about Pavlov's research protocols, results, and practical applications, this is an excellent source.

Daniel Todes has written a masterful book that offers a unique combination of an insider's understanding of Pavlov's science and the outsider's perspective of the critical historian. His book is a significant contribution to the recent spate of studies that emphasize laboratory praxis... [A] wonderfully complex and intricate story.

Todes analyzes the unfolding of Pavlov's central scientific vision with a sureness of hand that will be hailed by historians of science... Readers will find their own favorite chapters in this enticing book.

Pavlov's physiology has fully benefited from Todes' extensive and intimate knowledge of the protagonist... Living up to the intention to appeal not only to humanities scholars, but also to scientists, Todes treats the basics of science and of history-writing symmetrically.

Todes's excellent work takes its place among the histories of experimentation that place empirical analysis and precision within the context of social relations, politics, institutions, and personalities, in this case, dog as well as human.

Todes's book is particularly rich.

Pavlov's Physiology Factory is a work of prodigious scholarship, utilizing a massive collection of published and unpublished resources which would be otherwise inaccessible to English-speaking readers. The work is rich, not only in its portrayal of this particular enterprise, but in its suggestion of approaches applicable to other case-histories in the evolution of modern large-scale laboratories.

Todes engages Pavlov's complex personality in a unique way—through his management of a large and productive scientific laboratory. This original and insightful study will be useful to historians of science, physiologists, and psychologists who want to investigate the origins of current methodology.