‘Binnema has produced a superbly written, thoroughly researched, and highly relevant study of the HBC’s role in the development of scientific networks in the modern era. The book is an enormous achievement.’

‘I recommend this book for its excellent biographical data and its chronicling of HBC interactions with scientific networks.’

‘Enlightened Zeal is a quite successful combination of corporate history and the history of science.’

‘Enlightened Zeal will be useful foundational reading for graduate seminars and independent research on the history of chartered trading companies, network exchange, and the appropriation of knowledge in the HBC and Rupert’s Land.’

‘This book will help change the ways specialists understand both the remarkable history of the HBC and the sustained practice of corporate-sponsored scholarship.’

‘This text is essential reading for anyone interested in corporate contributions to the development of science in the British Atlantic world.’

“Enlightened Zeal makes a significant contribution to the growing scholarship on imperial science by shifting our attention to the less studied scenes – and new paradigms – in the vast territory of arctic and subarctic North America.  Especially attentive to the ways in which the interests and actions of individuals, institutions, and empires do not necessarily align, Binnema offers a nuanced history of one commercial monopoly’s scientific networks operating for over two hundred years across changing economic and political terrains.”