Histories of Science: Natural Philosophy in the Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World

Spreading the news of scientific breakthroughs in the eighteenth century

Histories of Science shows how different forms of media communicated scientific breakthroughs during the long eighteenth century, bringing together eighteen humanities scholars to discuss the representation, reception, and application of natural philosophy in the Atlantic world. In particular, the authors focus on descriptions of scientific discoveries in popular print, with essays on topics as varied as placebo pills, irrigation systems, and navigational technology. And while each contributor advances a discrete argument, the collection coheres in its shared questions of methodology, historicity, and ethics. Histories of Science expands our record of the past, our understanding of the present, and our ability to imagine the future.

David Alff is Associate Professor of English at the University at Buffalo and the author of The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, the People, the History, the Region. Danielle Spratt is Professor of English at California State University, Northridge, and coauthor of Engaging the Age of Jane Austen: Public Humanities in Practice.