The Routledge History of American Science provides an essential companion to the most significant themes within the subject area.
The field of the history of science continues to grow and expand into new areas and to adopt new theories to explain the role of science and its connections to politics, economics, religion, social structures, intellectual history, and art. This book takes North America as its focus and explores the history of science in the region both nationally and internationally with 27 chapters from a range of disciplines. Part I takes a chronological look at the history of science in America, from its origins in the Atlantic World, through to the American Revolution, the Civil War, the World Wars, and ending in the postmodern era. Part II discusses American science in practice, from scientists as practitioners, laboratories and field experiences, to science and religion. Part III examines the relationship between science and power. The chapters touch on the intersection of science and imperialism, environmental science in U.S. politics, as well as capitalism and science. Finally, Part IV explores how science is embedded in the culture of the United States with topics such as the growing importance of climate science, the role of scientific racism, the construction of gender, and how science and disability studies converge. The final chapter reviews the way in which society has embraced or rejected science, with reflections on the recent pandemic and what it may mean for the future of American science.
This book fills a much-needed gap in the history and historiography of American science studies and will be an invaluable guide for any student or researcher in the history of science in America.
Introduction
Timothy W. Kneeland
PART I
The History of American Science
- Science and the Atlantic World
J. Marc McDonald - Science in the American Revolution
- Science in the Early Republic
David I. Spanagel - Science in the Antebellum South
Gregory Nobles - Science in the Civil War and Reconstruction
John P. Daly - Science in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Paul Neinkamp - Science From World War I to World War II
Timothy W. Kneeland - Science in the Cold War
James R. Spiller - Science in the Postmodern Era
Krisztian Szabados - Social Studies of Science
Charles Thorpe - Laboratories and Field Experiences
Michael J Lannoo - Science and Instrumentation
Jennifer Croissant - Science and History
H.F. Cohen - Science and Religion
Gary B. Ferngren - Science and the Social Sciences
George Steinmetz - Science and U.S. Imperialism
Joseph L. Graves - Science and the Military
Greg Whitesides - Science, Technocracy, and Public Policy in the U.S
Michael Lubell - Environmental Science and Politics in the U.S.
Christine Keiner - Capitalism and Science
Paul Lucier - Climate Science
Paul N. Edwards - Structural Racism in U.S. Science
Joseph Graves - Gender and Science
Leslie Madsen - Science and Disability Studies
Marion Andrea Schmidt - Genetics in American Science
Joseph L. Graves - Science and Speciesism
Jeroen Hopster - Science in American Life
John Durant
Sarah Naramore
PART II
American Science in Practice
PART III
American Science and Power
PART IV
American Science and Society
Biography
Timothy W. Kneeland is Professor of history and politics at Nazareth College. He is the author of Declaring Disaster: Buffalo's Blizzard of ’77 and the Creation of FEMA (2021), Playing Politics with Natural Disaster: Hurricane Agnes, the 1972 Election, and the Origins of FEMA (2020), and Pushbutton Psychiatry: A Cultural History of Electroshock in America (2008).
