This third volume of Jacques-Olivier Boudon's really a terrific book: first, it is very well documented, very well written and particularly accessible (already, it can be read without having already cleared the first two volumes). But above all, he managed a tour de force, that of being the work of a historian at the forefront of scientific knowledge, without any pedantry. In the end, Mr. Boudon's book reads with great pleasure (even if the end is not a big surprise), starting with that of having learned a lot about one of the most controversial topics of the early nineteenth century.
