HSCI 3815 || Intro to History of Science
This course meets with HSci 1815. All basic requirements are the same. Your work on the Project, Historical Simulation and original texts is expected to be deeper and more thorough, reflecting the course level. In addition, you must read and review a historical narrative or original text (approved by me). Evaluation is distributed as follows:
Complete and submit the contract form.
Book Review
Perhaps check with Douglas for something closely related to your field of study.
The following are also recommended and pre-approved [X denotes books already claimed]:
On Personalities & Topics in Class:
Arthur Donovan, Antoine Lavoisier: Science, Administration, and Revolution
X Adrian Desmond & James Moore, Darwin, The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist
Janet Browne, Charles Darwin: Voyaging OR
Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure of Man -- on craniology and IQ testing
Ian Hacking, The Taming of Chance
X John Stuart Mill, System of Logic
William Glen, The Road to Jaramillo -- on continental drift (1957-1966)
Linda Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature
Great New Books and Prize Winners:
X Alison Winter, Mesmerized -- on mesmerism
James Strick, Sparks of Life -- a new look at spontaneous generation debates
Gerald Geison, The Private Life of Louis Pasteur
Robert Kohler, Lords of the Fly -- a history of the fruit fly in research
John Servos, Physical Chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling
James Bartholomew, The Formation of Science in Japan
David Cassidy, Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg
Margaret W. Rossiter, Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 1940-1972
Crosbie Smith, The Science of Energy: A Cultural History of Energy Physics
James Secord, Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation"
Original Texts:
William Buckland, Reliquae Diluvianae
Charles Darwin, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Other Animals (or another?)
David Hull, Darwin and his Critics -- original book reviews of the Origin of Species
Guidelines for Writing a Review:
~2250 wds (~10-12 pp.)
Remember that your aim is to demonstrate your depth of understanding in historical interpretation.
Summarize the book briefly yet fully, highlighting especially noteworthy elements.
Articulate the historical and/or cultural perspective of the scientist(s) involved. Discuss the contemporary status of knowledge and new findings. Discuss how the person's interpretation reflects his or her time, place, values and culture.
Most important(!), link to relevant themes from class discussion (fellow classmate as your audience).
Be prepared to profile what someone might learn from the book in ~3 minutes to other class members on an appropriate date.
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