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As the first thorough scholarly treatment of an important subject, Jole Shackelford’s study improves upon partisan accounts produced by scientists, who generally were trying to advance their own arguments rather than create a properly contextualized historical analysis. But these volumes do more than that: the stories told here raise many fundamental themes about the nature of science, about scientific controversies, and the way we think about organisms and their relationship to the environment. Shackelford provides an original analysis that will be an important starting point for all subsequent research on this topic. His command of this very technical subject is masterful, and the scientific context is developed in exceptional detail. His work also serves as an interesting survey of biological and medical science, over and above its value as a history of chronobiology.