Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) is well known as the founder of modern chemistry. Notwithstanding his importance in the history of science, however, Lavoisier was much more than a scientist. He was also a successful financier, a respected economist, and an influential administrator, deeply involved in the economic and political reform of eighteenth-century France.

While Jean-Pierre Poirier's account of Lavoisier's scientific accomplishments refines our understanding of his role in the chemical revolution and the early historic of organic chemistry and physiology, and goes beyond recent scholarship in attributing to Lavoisier comprehension of the metabolic role of the liver, it is in his examination of Lavoisier's political and economic activities and accomplishments that he breaks new ground.