The Celluloid Specimen

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Presss Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In The Celluloid Specimen, Benjamn SchultzFigueroa examines rarely seen behaviorist films of animal experiments from the 1930s and 1940s. These laboratory recordingsincluding Robert Yerkes's work with North American primate colonies, Yale University's ratbased simulations of human society, and B. F. Skinner's promotions for pigeonguided missileshave long been considered passive records of scientific research. In SchultzFigueroa's incisive analysis, however, they are revealed to be rich historical, political, and aesthetic texts that played a crucial role in American scientific and cultural historyand remain foundational to contemporary conceptions of species, race, identity, and society.