Throughout this book, Daniel P. Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), a renowned Russian physiologist, is briefly introduced to both his life and science by Todes. With a focus on his investigation into the psychology of the “torments of our consciousness,” Todes skillfully ties together Pavlov’s life, values, background, and science. From his early years in a provincial Riazan, where his family was priests, to his struggles and eventual professional success in the glittering capital of St. Petersburg, this introduction traces the beginnings and development of Pavlov’s quest. Petersburg saw his world destroyed catastrophically during the 1917–1921 Bolshevik civil war and takeover, and then rebuilt as a “prosperous dissident” in his 70s during the Leninist 1920s. He also experienced personal anguish and success between 1929 and 1936 during the industrialization, cultural revolution, and terror of the Stalin era. Beyond a simple biography, Todes pays close attention to Pavlov’s experiments with dogs, his notable studies of conditional reflexes and higher nervous activity (1903–1936), and his digestion research (1891–1903), which earned him the Nobel Prize. Todes reveals that Pavlov was not a behaviorist, did not use a bell, and had no interest in training dogs, essentially reinterpreting his well-known studies on conditional reflexes. In addition to explaining outward behaviors, the Russian scientist also tried to explain the mental and emotional states of both humans and animals. Moreover, this well-known “objectivist” was a professor.