Scientific Elite: Nobel Laureates in the United States

by William T. Golden (Editor)

Overview

Scientific Elite is about Nobel prize winners and the well-defined stratification system in twentieth-century science. It tracks the careers of all American laureates who won prizes from 1907 until 1972, examining the complex interplay of merit and privilege at each stage of their scientific lives and the creation of the ultra-elite in science.

The study draws on biographical and bibliographical data on laureates who did their prize-winning research in the United States, and on detailed interviews with forty-one of the fifty-six laureates living in the United States at the time the study was done. Zuckerman finds laureates being successively advantaged as time passes. These advantages are producing growing disparities between the elite and other scientists both in performance and in rewards, which create and maintain a sharply graded stratification system.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138532311
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/15/2018
Series:	Foundations of Higher Education
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	382
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Transaction Edition, Preface and Acknowledgements, Chapter 1: Nobel Laureates and Scientific Elites, Chapter 2: The Sociology of the Nobel Prize, Chapter 3: The Social Origins of Laureates, Chapter 4: Masters and Apprentices in Science, Chapter 5: Moving into the Scientific Elite, Chapter 6: The Prize-Winning Research, Chapter 7: After the Prize, Chapter 8: The Nobel Prize and the Accumulation of Advantage in Science, Appendix A: Interviewing an Ultra-elite, Appendix B: Nobel Laureates in Science, 1901-76, Appendix C: Prize-Winning Research: Specialty and Year of Award, Appendix D: Official Occupants of the Forty-first Chair: “Honorable Mentions” for Nobel Prizes, Appendix E: Age-Specific Annual Rates of Productivity of Laureates and a Matched Sample of Scientists Who Survived to Each Age, Bibliography, Index of Names, Index of Subjects

Editorial Reviews

Zuckerman (sociology, Columbia U.) chronicles Nobel prize winners and the stratification system in 20th century science, tracking the careers of all American laureates who won prizes from 1907 to 1972. By examining the interplay of merit and privilege at each stage of their careers, she creates a portrait of a scientific elite whose advantages perpetuate disparities between themselves and other scientists. The appendices contain interviews with Nobel prize winners and lists of recipients. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Scientific Elite is a standard and definitive work. It need not be done again. . . . unmistakably the work of someone who has something to say and knows how to say it.”—Peter B. Medawar, Nobel Laureate in Medicine, Minerva “[C]learly describes the processes and mechanisms of stratification in science. It tackles some very big questions in the sociology of the Nobel Prize and in the allocation of prestige in science . . . important and should be read.”—Barbara Rosenblum, American Journal of Sociology “There can be little doubt that historians and sociologists who in the future examine the stratification of science will return time and again to Zuckerman’s study.”—Saul Benison, American Historical Review “[I]nformative and scrupulously researched . . . should be read by all those interested in stratification in science.”—Paul Allison, Political Science Quarterly “An absorbing study of the sociological aspects of the Nobel prizes. . . . The critical analysis reveals a great deal about the structure of the scientific establishment and the psychology of its intellectual leaders. Perfectly fascinating reading.”—Dr. Ernst Mayr, Harvard University

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