Graduate Survey in the History of Modern Science

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1 History of Science 5533 Fall 2007 / Tues 1:30-4:20 Bizzell Library 225 Professor Katherine Pandora Office: phsc 619 Office Hours: Tu 10:30-12:30, Th 10:30-11:30, and by appt. Tel/Voic kpandora@ou.edu Graduate Survey in the History of Modern Science th th This course is a graduate-level survey of the history of science in the 19 and 20 centuries, the period which saw the emergence, elaboration, and institutionalization of what we loosely think of as the modern scientific enterprise. This course will take seriously its mission as a survey of the history of science during these two pivotal centuries: the goal is to give students the opportunity to explore the dynamics of scientific life during this era from the vantage point of different national contexts, different disciplinary traditions, and different research methods in the history of science. You will gain insight into the social, intellectual, and cultural history of science in this era by considering issues in the history of biology, physics, and other fields, analyzing rhetoric and visual images, and taking up such issues as science and the legal system and science and popular culture. To give this diverse array of areas and issues some focus, we will be concentrating on booklength treatments and cohesive edited volumes which will allow us to build up a set of comparative episodes in the making of modern science; there will also be accompanying reading that will point to related areas and larger issues. There will be periodic reflection papers designed to help you develop your analytical skills, and a final paper assignment that th th will have you focus on emphases of your choice for either the 19 or 20 century by discussing current journal literature. NOTE: It is not my policy to grant extensions on assignments or incompletes at the end of the term. Papers are due on the stated due dates. Required Books: The Science of Energy: A Cultural History of Energy Physics in Victorian Britain / Crosbie Smith (U of Chicago Pr, 1999) The Heretic in Darwin s Court: The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace / Ross Slotten (Columbia U Pr, 2006) Figuring it Out: Science, Gender and Visual Culture / Ann Shteir and Bernard Lightman, eds. (Dartmouth College Pr, 2006) Laws of Men and Laws of Nature: The History of Scientific Expert Testimony in England and America / Tal Golan (Harvard U Pr, 2007 ) Appropriating the Weather: Vilhelm Bjerknes and the Construction of a Modern Meteorology / Robert Marc Friedman (Cornell U Pr, 1993 ) Landscapes and Labscapes: Exploring the Lab-Field Border in Biology / Robert Kohler (U of Chicago Pr, 2002) Redeeming Culture: American Religion in an Age of Science / James Gilbert (U of Chicago Pr, 1998)

2 Recommended Books: If you are new to history of science, the humanities, or the writing of graduate seminar papers, the following texts are recommended as study and writing aids: Writing History: A Guide for Students / William Storey (Oxford U Pr, 1998) Science and Technology in World History: An Introduction / James E. McClellan and Harold Dorn (Johns Hopkins U Pr, 1999) A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th rev. ed. / Kate L. Turabian (U of Chicago Pr 1996) Schedule of Topics and Reading Week 1 Introduction: The How and Why of What Historians of Science Know 8/21 and Don t Know About Science in the Modern Era Reading Entries for Science, Nature, and Materialism in Raymond Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society, rev. ed. (Oxford U Pr, 1983) / Class Handout Set of Introductory Images / Class Handout Week 2 8/28 Victorian Science and its Contexts: Physics Smith, Science of Energy (chaps. 1-7) Bruce Hunt, Doing Science in a Global Empire: Cable Telegraphy and Electrical Physics in Victorian Britain, in Bernard Lightman, ed., Victorian Science in Context (U of Chicago Pr, 1997) Helena Pycior, At the Intersection of Mathematics and Humor: Lewis Carroll s Alices and Symbolical Algebra, in Patrick Brantlinger, ed., Energy and Entropy (Indiana U Pr, 1989) *James Secord, Extraordinary Experiment: Electricity and the Creation of Life in Victorian England, in D. Gooding, T. Pinch, and S. Schaffer, eds., The Uses of Experiment: Studies in the Natural Sciences (Cambridge U Pr, 1988) Week 3 9/4 Energetic Science, continued Smith, Science of Energy (finish) Gillian Beer, The Death of the Sun : Victorian Solar Physics and Solar Myth, in J.B. Bullen, ed., The Sun is God: Painting, Literature and Mythology in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford U Pr, 1989) Simon Schaffer, Accurate Measurement is an English Science, in M. Norton Wise, ed., The Values of Precision (Princeton U Pr, 1995) *Andrew Warwick, Exercising the Student Body: Mathematics and Athleticism in Victorian Cambridge, in Christopher Lawrence and Steven Shapin, eds., Science Incarnate: Historical Embodiments of Natural Knowledge (U of Chicago Pr, 1998)

3 Week 4 9/11 Victorian Science and its Contexts: The Living World Slotten, Heretic in Darwin s Court (through chapter 10) *Adrian Desmond, Artisan Resistance and Evolution in Britain, , Osiris, 1987, 3: Roy Porter, The Terraqueous Globe in George Rousseau and Roy Porter, eds., The Ferment of Knowledge: Studies in the Historiography of Eighteenth-Century Science (Cambridge U Pr, 1980) Jacques Roger, The Living World, in ibid. Week 5 9/18 Victorian Science and Its Contexts: Biology Slotten, Heretic in Darwin s Court (finish) Eric D. Anderson, Black responses to Darwinism, , ; R. Scott Appleby, Exposing Darwin s hidden agenda : Roman Catholic responses to evolution, ; and Marc Swetlitz, American Jewish responses to Darwin and evolutionary theory, , in Ronald Numbers and John Stenhouse, eds., Disseminating Darwinism: The Role of Place, Race, Religion, and Gender (Cambridge U Pr, 1999) *Francesco Scudo and Michele Acanfora, Darwin and Russian Evolutionary Biology in David Kohn, ed., The Darwinian Heritage (Princeton U Pr, 1985) Week 6 9/25 Gender Issues through the Lens of Visual Culture (pre-20thc) Shteir and Lightman, Figuring it Out (parts 1 and 2 for discussion) * Isis Focus Section on Science and Visual Culture / March 2006, 97(1): Response Paper on Figuring it Out Due at Class Meeting Week 7 10/2 Gender Issues through the Lens of Visual Culture (20thc) Shteir and Lightman, Figuring it Out (part 3 for discussion) * Julie Wosk, Women and the Machine (Johns Hopkins U Pr, 2003) / excerpt Reflection Paper on The Science of Energy and The Heretic in Darwin s Court due on Thursday, 10/4 by 5 p.m. in my office or by Week 8 Presentations on Article Searches, Part 1 10/9

4 Week 9 10/16 Topics in Science and Society: The Question of Law Golan, Laws of Nature, Laws of Men * Isis Focus Section on Science and the Law / June 2007, 98(2): Response Paper on Laws of Nature Due at Class Meeting Week 10 10/23 Disciplinary Construction Friedman, Appropriating the Weather Russell McCormmach, Editor s Foreword, Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 1971, 3:ix-xxiv. Mary Jo Nye, National Styles? French and English Chemistry in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries, Osiris, 1993, 8:30-49 * Fritz Ringer, The Social and Institutional Background, from his The Decline of the German Mandarins: The German Academic Community, (Harvard U Pr, 1969) Week 11 10/30 Disciplining Science: In and Out of the Lab Kohler, Landscapes and Labscapes Lynn K. Nyhart, Natural History and the New Biology, in N. Jardine, J.A. Secord, and E. C. Spary, eds., Cultures of Natural History (Cambridge U Pr, 1996) *Philip Pauly, Modernist Practice in American Biology, in Dorothy Ross, ed., Modernist Impulses in the Human Sciences, (Johns Hopkins U Pr, 1994) Susan Sheets-Pyenson, Introduction, in her Cathedrals of Science: The Development of Colonial Natural History Museums during the Late Nineteenth Century (McGill- Queen s U Pr, 1988) Week 12 Presentations on Article Research, Part 2 11/6 Week 13 11/13 Visual Sources: Science on Film in the Post-War Period Selected Primary Sources for In-Class Viewing and Analysis Reflection Paper on Appropriating the Weather and Landscapes and Labscapes Due Friday 11/16 by 5 p.m. in my office or by Week 14 11/20 Individual Consultations on Term Papers

5 Week 15 11/27 Science, Religion, and American Popular Culture James Gilbert, Redeeming Culture Response Paper on Redeeming Culture Due at Class Meeting Week 16 12/4 Individual Consultations on Term Papers Assignments: 1. Short Response Paper on Figuring it Out. Due Week 6 for class discussion on 9/25 (approx. 4-5 pp., 10%). 2. Reflection Paper comparing and contrasting issues in The Science of Energy and The Heretic in Darwin s Court. Due Week 7 on Thursday, 10/4, by 5 p.m. at my office or via (approx. 6-7 pp., 20%) 3. Short Response Paper on Laws of Nature, Laws of Men. Due Week 9, on 10/16 (approx. 4-5 pp., 10%). 4. Reflection Paper comparing and contrasting issues in Appropriating the Weather and Landscapes and Labscapes. Due Week 13, 11/16 (approx. 6-7 pp., 20%) 5. Short Response Paper on Redeeming Culture. Due Week 15 for class discussion on 11/27 (approx. 4-5 pp., 10%). 6. Historiographic Term Paper, drawing on current article literature: Final Draft due Exam Week on Thursday, 12/13, in my office by 5 p.m. (12-15 pp., 30%).