Scientific Advice to the Nineteenth-Century British State

by Roland Jackson

Overview

In twenty-first-century Britain, scientific advice to government is highly organized, integrated across government departments, and led by a chief scientific adviser who reports directly to the prime minister. But at the end of the eighteenth century, when Roland Jackson’s account begins, things were very different. With this book, Jackson turns his attention to the men of science of the day—who derived their knowledge of the natural world from experience, observation, and experiment—focusing on the essential role they played in proffering scientific advice to the state, and the impact of that advice on public policy. At a time that witnessed huge scientific advances and vast industrial development, and as the British state sought to respond to societal, economic, and environmental challenges, practitioners of science, engineering, and medicine were drawn into close involvement with politicians. Jackson explores the contributions of these emerging experts, the motivations behind their involvement, the forces that shaped this new system of advice, and the legacy it left behind. His book provides the first detailed analysis of the provision of scientific, engineering, and medical advice to the nineteenth-century British government, parliament, the civil service, and the military.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822990055
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	11/14/2023
Series:	Sci & Culture in the Nineteenth Century
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	420
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Roland Jackson is a historian of nineteenth-century science, an honorary research fellow at University College London, and a visiting fellow at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. His career has spanned scientific research, science education, science communication, science policy, and the history of science. He has been head of museum at the Science Museum London, chief executive of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and executive chair of Sciencewise, which works across the UK government on policy relating to controversial issues involving science and technology.

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Editorial Reviews

Jackson’s monograph is a timely and effective guide to the historical development of specialist knowledge in the business of governance.

Technology and Culture

No account matches the scope of Jackson’s intervention and one of its many virtues is that it helps us to see, for the first time, something like the landscape as a whole—the multiple and diverse policy-making arenas in which scientists specializing in chemistry, engineering and medicine had a role to play and the degree to which their authority and advice was acted on.

British Journal for the History of Science

Jackson draws skillfully on an impressive array of sources to provide the first systematic account of the growing role of scientific advice to the nineteenth-century British state, on food and energy production, war and empire, industry, transport, taxation, and health. Combining history of science with history of the state, his book sheds new light on both the status of science and scope of government action.

Rebekah Higgitt

Important, timely, and an excellent introduction to how science becomes institutionalized during this century, often at the expense of the Royal Society. Roland Jackson underlines the durable tension between the pursuit of knowledge as an individual endeavor (requiring independent funds) with state-funded research via official bodies. Anyone who wants to understand the relationship between British science and government during this period will have to read this book.

William J. Ashworth

This book is . . . destined to become a classic and an obligatory read for scholars of virtually all aspects of nineteenth-century British science, engineering, and medicine, as well as scholars of nineteenth-century British politics.

The Renaissance Mathematicus

Scientific advice, Roland Jackson makes clear, was shaped by the political climate, and the extent to which such advice was heeded depended on that climate. His argument is supported by a wealth of empirical data, his work the fruit of massive research, and his coverage of the field detailed and comprehensive. No other book offers such a thorough-going survey of scientific advice and its ramifications in nineteenth-century Britain.

John Gascoigne

"This book is . . . destined to become a classic and an obligatory read for scholars of virtually all aspects of nineteenth-century British science, engineering, and medicine, as well as scholars of nineteenth-century British politics."
—The Renaissance Mathematicus

“Scientific advice, Roland Jackson makes clear, was shaped by the political climate, and the extent to which such advice was heeded depended on that climate. His argument is supported by a wealth of empirical data, his work the fruit of massive research, and his coverage of the field detailed and comprehensive. No other book offers such a thorough-going survey of scientific advice and its ramifications in nineteenth-century Britain.”
—John Gascoigne, author of Science and the State: From the Scientific Revolution to World War II 

“Jackson draws skillfully on an impressive array of sources to provide the first systematic account of the growing role of scientific advice to the nineteenth-century British state, on food and energy production, war and empire, industry, transport, taxation, and health. Combining history of science with history of the state, his book sheds new light on both the status of science and scope of government action.”
—Rebekah Higgitt, National Museums Scotland 

“The subject of the book is important and timely. The author charts the rise of science and its increasing role in advising nineteenth-century British government and state institutions. The author provides an excellent introduction to how science becomes institutionalized during this century, often at the expense of the Royal Society. However, he also underlines the durable tension between the pursuit of knowledge as an individual endeavor (requiring independent funds) with state funded research via official bodies. Anyone who wants to understand the relationship between British science and government during this period will have to read this book.”
—William J. Ashworth, University of Liverpool 

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