Book List for Spring 2015

STS 5205: History of Science (core) Instructor: Jeffrey Brideau Tuesdays 7:00–9:45 pm, NVC Falls Church

Was there really such a thing as the Scientific Revolution? What are the historical links between science and religion, technology, or politics? How have the knowledge-producing practices we call “science” varied across cultures and time periods, and how have individuals established an identity as scientists in different social contexts? This seminar is designed to provide you with the basic outlines of the history of Western science and to introduce key STS theories, approaches, and resources for historical research. We will survey some of the main schools of thought about the development of Western science and how have they been challenged. We will discuss issues such as the nature (or nonexistence) of scientific revolutions, the meaning of objectivity, scientific practices and institutions, and the influence of gender and race on scientific thought. The course will begin with ancient and medieval Science, focus in depth on the Scientific Revolution, and continue through the twentieth century.

Book List for Spring 2015 (In the order they will be assigned)

Lindberg, David C. The Beginnings of Western Science: The European Scientific Tradition in Philosophical, Religious, and Institutional Context, Pre-History to A.D. 1450. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Bowler, Peter J. and Iwan Rhys Morus. Making Modern Science: A Historical Survey. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.

Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. New York: HarperOne, Reprint Edition, 1990.

Biagioli. Mario. Galileo, Courtier: The Practice of Science in the Culture of Absolutism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

Shapin, Steven and Simon Schaffer. Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle and the Experimental Life. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986. (Most recent edition: 2011)

Spary, E. C. Utopia’s Garden: French Natural History from Old Regime to Revolution. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Bowler, Peter J. Evolution: The History of an Idea, 25th Anniversary Edition. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2009.

Secord, James A. Victorian Sensation: the Extraordinary Publication, Reception and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Worster, Donald. Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Anderson, Warwick. Colonial Pathologies : American Tropical Medicine, Race, and Hygiene in the Philippines. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006.

Russell, Edmund. War and Nature : Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring, Studies in Environment and History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Gould, Stephen J. The Mismeasure of Man. New York: Norton, 1996.

Lawrence, Christopher and Stephen Shapin (eds.). Science Incarnate: Historical Embodiments of Natural Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.