Books

Higgitt examines Isaac Newton’s changing legacy during the nineteenth century. She focuses on 1820-1870, a period that saw the creation of the specialized and secularized role of the “scientist.” At the same time, researchers gained better access to Newton’s archives. These were used both by those who wished to undermine the traditional, idealised depiction of scientific genius and those who felt obliged to defend Newtonian hagiography. Higgitt shows how debates about Newton’s character stimulated historical scholarship and led to the development of a new expertise in the history of science.

Elwick explores how the concept of “compound individuality” brought together life scientists working in pre-Darwinian London. Scientists conducting research in comparative anatomy, physiology, cellular microscopy, embryology and the neurosciences repeatedly stated that plants and animals were compounds of smaller independent units. Discussion of a “bodily economy” was widespread. But by 1860, the most flamboyant discussions of compound individuality had come to an end in Britain. Elwick relates the growth and decline of questions about compound individuality to wider nineteenth-century debates about research standards and causality. He uses specific technical case studies to address overarching themes of reason and scientific method.

The concept of eccentricity was central to how people in the nineteenth century understood their world. This monograph is the first scholarly history of eccentricity. Carroll explores how discourses of eccentricity were established to make sense of individuals who did not seem to fit within an increasingly organized social and economic order. She focuses on the self-taught natural philosopher William Martin, the fossilist Thomas Hawkins and the taxidermist Charles Waterton.

The nineteenth century was an important period for both the proliferation of “popular” science and for the demarcation of a group of professionals that we now term scientists. Of course for Ireland, largely in contrast to the rest of Britain, the prominence of Catholicism posed various philosophical questions regarding research.

Adelman’s study examines the practical educational impact of the growth of science in these communities, and the impact of this on the country’s economy; the role of museums and exhibitions in spreading scientific knowledge; and the role that science had to play in Ireland’s turbulent political context.

Adelman challenges historians to reassess the relationship between science and society, showing that the unique situation in Victorian Ireland can nonetheless have important implications for wider European interpretations of the development of this relationship during a period of significant change.

Public Disputes, Tyndall’s Dramatic Mountain Climbing Escapades, Efforts to Promote Science to a Wide Audience, and More

The First Study of Medical Virology to Compare the History of Bacteriophages and Sarcoma Agents, Two Distinct but Equally Important Groups of Viruses

A History of Early International Preservationist Groups and the Natures They Sought to Preserve

Reconsidering the Distinction between Scientific Discovery and Travel Writing in International Arctic Explorations

An Engaging History of the Less Glamorous but Equally Essential Aspects of Space Travel: Sanitation, Food Supply, and Waste Disposal

Presents A New Way of Looking at Peripheral Scientists and Demonstrates Their Creativity and Impact on the Larger Scientific Community

An Argument for Art and Science as Practices and Knowledges that Emerge from Shared Epistemologies Rather than Compartmentalized Disciplines

Sheds New Light on the Stakes in the Conflict between Religion and the Sciences in the Age of Revolution and Reform

A Relatable, Complex Examination of the History of Health and Healing in Latin America across Five Centuries

How the Circulation of Tropical Bodies Changed Victorian Understandings of Race, Gender, Disease, and Climate

How Five Celebrity Scientists Used the Art of Public Speech to Advocate for Science as a Powerful Agent for Cultural Change