Books

Making Stars Physical offers the first extensive look at the astronomical career of John Herschel, son of William Herschel and one of the leading scientific figures in Britain throughout much of the nineteenth century.

Combining perspectives from the history of science and world history, this volume examines the impact of major world-historical processes of the postwar period on the evolution of the life sciences. Contributors consider the long-term evolution of scientific practice, research, and innovation across a range of fields and subfields in the life sciences, and in the context of Cold War anxieties and ambitions. Together, they examine how the formation of international organizations and global research programs allowed for transnational exchange and cooperation, but in a period rife with competition and nationalist interests, which influenced dramatic changes in the field as the postcolonial world order unfolded.

The 329 letters in this volume represent a period of immense transition in John Tyndall’s life. A noticeable spike in his extant correspondence during the early 1850s is linked to his expanding international network, growing reputation as a leading scientific figure in Britain and abroad, and his employment at the Royal Institution. By December 1854, Tyndall had firmly established himself as a significant man of science, complete with an influential position at the center of the British scientific establishment.

These detailed yet interlocking studies consider whether knowledge evolved more through recurring intercultural links or through localized innovations; or whether it arose more from endogenous scientific study or from exogenous shifts in the world order.

Combining biographical and institutional history, Thomas C. Lassman examines the professional career of theoretical physicist Edward Condon at Princeton University, Pittsburgh’s Westinghouse Electric Company and Manufacturing Company, and the National Bureau of Standards to illuminate contested visions of the usefulness of science that played out during The Great Depression, the Second World War, and the early Cold War.

Volume 5 contains 266 letters covering a period of twenty-two months, when Tyndall was in his mid-thirties and had been employed by the Royal Institution as professor of natural philosophy since September 1853.

A Prehistory of Genius

The Construction of Medical Privilege and a New Argument about Medical “Progress”

A Historical Investigation of Mechanism in Seventeenth-Century Debates

The Movement and Circulation of Materials, People, and Practices across the Eurasian Continent over Nearly Two Millennia

This sixth volume of Tyndall’s correspondence contains 302 letters covering a period of twenty-eight months (1856–1859).

Examining the Circulation, Commodification, and Organization of Healing Goods and Healing Knowledge

Adolphe Quetelet was an influential astronomer and statistician whose controversial work inspired heated debate in European and American intellectual circles. In creating a science designed to explain the “average man,” he helped contribute to the idea of normal, most enduringly in his creation of the Quetelet Index, which came to be known as the Body Mass Index. Kevin Donnelly presents the first scholarly biography of Quetelet, exploring his contribution to quantitative reasoning, his place in nineteenth-century intellectual history, and his profound influence on the modern idea of average.

The Pressures of Modern Life and Their Impact on Bodily and Mental Health in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Divine Destiny and the Popularization of Space Exploration in America