A Companion to the History of Science

by Bernard Lightman (Editor)

Overview

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to the History of Science is a single volume companion that discusses the history of science as it is done today, providing a survey of the debates and issues that dominate current scholarly discussion, with contributions from leading international scholars.

• Provides a single-volume overview of current scholarship in the history of science edited by one of the leading figures in the field
• Features forty essays by leading international scholars providing an overview of the key debates and developments in the history of science
• Reflects the shift towards deeper historical contextualization within the field
• Helps communicate and integrate perspectives from the history of science with other areas of historical inquiry
• Includes discussion of non-Western themes which are integrated throughout the chapters 
• Divided into four sections based on key analytic categories that reflect new approaches in the field

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118620755
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	02/01/2016
Series:	Wiley Blackwell Companions to World History
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	624
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Bernard Lightman is Professor of Humanities at York University, Toronto, Canada. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, former Editor of the journal Isis, and Vice-President and President Elect of the History of Science Society. Professor Lightman has published over 50 articles and is author of The Origins of Agnosticism (1987) and Victorian Popularizers of Science (2007). He is also editor or co-editor of several collections, Victorian Science in Context (1997), Science in the Marketplace (2007), and Victorian Scientific Naturalism (2014). In addition, he is the series editor of "Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century."

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Table of Contents

About the Editor viii

About the Contributors ix

Acknowledgements xvi

Introduction 1
Bernard Lightman

1 Historiography of the History of Science 7
Lynn K. Nyhart

Part I Roles 23

2 Learned Man and Woman in Antiquity and the Middle Ages 25
Nathan Sidoli

3 Go-Betweens, Travelers, and Cultural Translators 39
Kapil Raj

4 The Alchemist 58
Tara Nummedal

5 The Natural Philosopher 71
Peter Dear

6 The Natural Historian 84
Kristin Johnson

7 Invisible Technicians, Instrument Makers, and Artisans 97
Iwan Rhys Morus

8 Scientific illustrators 111
Valérie Chansigaud

9 The Human Experimental Subject 126
Anita Guerrini

10 Amateurs 139
Katherine Pandora

11 The Man of Science 153
Paul White

12 The Professional Scientist 164
Cyrus C. M. Mody

Part II Places and Spaces 179

13 The Medieval University 181
Steven J. Livesey

14 The Observatory 196
Robert W. Smith

15 The Court 210
Bruce T. Moran

16 Academies and Societies 224
Denise Phillips

17 Museums and Botanical Gardens 238
Lukas Rieppel

18 Domestic Space 252
Donald L. Opitz

19 Commercial Science 268
Paul Lucier

20 The Field 282
Robert E. Kohler and Jeremy Vetter

21 The Laboratory 296
Catherine M. Jackson

22 Modern School and University 310
Heike Jöns

Part III Communication 329

23 Manuscripts 331
Joyce van Leeuwen

24 The Printing Press 344
Nick Wilding

25 Correspondence Networks 358
Brian Ogilvie

26 Translations 372
Marwa Elshakry and Carla Nappi

27 Journals and Periodicals 387
Aileen Fyfe

28 Textbooks 400
Josep Simon

29 Lectures 414
Diarmid A. Finnegan

30 Film, Radio, and Television 428
David A. Kirby

Part IV Tools of Science 443

31 Timing Devices 445
Rory McEvoy

32 Weights and Measures 459
Hector Vera

33 Calculating Devices and Computers 472
Matthew L. Jones

34 Specimens and Collections 488
Mary E. Sunderland

35 Recording Devices 500
Jimena Canales

36 Microscopes 515
Boris Jardine

37 Telescopes 530
Jim Bennett

38 Prisms, Spectroscopes, Spectrographs, and Gratings 543
Klaus Hentschel

39 Diagrams 557
Charlotte Bigg

40 Three Dimensional Models 572
Joshua Nall and Liba Taub

Index 587

Editorial Reviews

"Bernard Lightman has assembled a superb roster of many of the leading figures in their respective specialisms. [The] Companion is organized around analytical catagories...[which] enables [it] to address current issues such as identity, practice, the movement of knowledge, and material culture from a number of different perspectives that, helpfully, are often mutually illuminating. Although the individual chapters...are uniformly excellent, the Companion to the History of Science, when read as a whole or even section by section, really is more than the sum of its parts." - British Journal for the History of Science.

"Assembling a one-volume companion to the history of science across ages, scientific disciplines and global space is a particularly daunting task. The editor has approached this challenge in a somewhat unconventional way.... This thematic approach is a successful and innovative way of providing an overview of the key literature and current debates in the history of science. ...stimulating and informative...individual contributions are well suited for inclusion in undergraduate courses. The volume is very ambitious in terms of geographical scope...[which] sets [it] apart from other available introductions to the history of science. Admirably, it includes science and ways of studying nature in many different parts of the world through history. As a whole, the companion presents a highly commendable state-of-the-art view on the history of science. [Presenting] the richness of a thriving academic field...as an introduction to the history of science informed by cultural history and cultural theory, a better introduction is difficult to come by." - Notes and Records of the Royal Society

"The book will serve well in an introductory graduate seminar and as a starting point for undergraduate research. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; faculty and professionals." - Choice

"A valiant effort to condense in a single (large) book such an extremely diverse subject as the history of science." - The Sun News Miami

"In time this book will become a snapshot of early twenty-first-century historiography of science. It is all the more useful because of its clearly articulated approach. These essays will remain a valuable resource for many years to come." - Annals of Science

"All in all, this is a magnificent collection of essays that would be extremely useful and informative to those science educators who have no formal training in history of science, but who nevertheless use, or want to use, history of science in their work." - Science and Education

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