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The Cambridge History of Science is to be published in eight substantial volumes, beginning with Ancient Mesopotamia and classical Greece and Rome, through the Medieval period, early modern Europe, and on through modern science. The history begins chronologically and that approach continues on up to Vol. 4, after which the volumes split off into modern histories of different branches of science. They are designed to be read as both a narrative and an interpretation, and also used as a work of reference. The first comprehensive history of science in 30 years, they will be an excellent reference for historians and professionals in the history of science. The contributors, world leaders in their respective specialties, engage with current historiographical and methodological controversies and strike out on positions of their own.

  • General Editors: David C. Lindberg, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Ronald L. Numbers, University of Wisconsin, Madison

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8 results in The Cambridge History of Science

The Cambridge History of Science
  • Volume 8, Modern Science in National, Transnational, and Global Context
  • Edited by Hugh Richard Slotten, Ronald L. Numbers, David N. Livingstone
  • Published online:
    21 March 2020
    Print publication:
    09 April 2020
  • This volume in the highly respected Cambridge History of Science series is devoted to exploring the history of modern science using national, transnational, and global frames of reference. Organized by topic and culture, its essays by distinguished scholars offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date nondisciplinary history of modern science currently available. Essays are grouped together in separate sections that represent larger regions: Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, East and Southeast Asia, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, and Latin America. Each of these regional groupings ends with a separate essay reflecting on the analysis in the preceding chapters. Intended to provide a balanced and inclusive treatment of the modern world, contributors analyze the history of science not only in local, national, and regional contexts but also with respect to the circulation of knowledge, tools, methods, people, and artifacts across national borders.

The Cambridge History of Science
  • Volume 1, Ancient Science
  • Edited by Alexander Jones, Liba Taub
  • Published online:
    01 December 2018
    Print publication:
    13 December 2018
  • This volume in the highly respected Cambridge History of Science series is devoted to the history of science, medicine and mathematics of the Old World in antiquity. Organized by topic and culture, its essays by distinguished scholars offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date history of ancient science currently available. Together, they reveal the diversity of goals, contexts, and accomplishments in the study of nature in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and India. Intended to provide a balanced and inclusive treatment of the ancient world, contributors consider scientific, medical and mathematical learning in the cultures associated with the ancient world.

The Cambridge History of Science
  • Volume 2, Medieval Science
  • David C. Lindberg, Michael H. Shank
  • Published online:
    05 September 2013
    Print publication:
    07 October 2013
  • This volume in the highly respected Cambridge History of Science series is devoted to the history of science in the Middle Ages from the North Atlantic to the Indus Valley. Medieval science was once universally dismissed as non-existent - and sometimes it still is. This volume reveals the diversity of goals, contexts and accomplishments in the study of nature during the Middle Ages. Organized by topic and culture, its essays by distinguished scholars offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date history of medieval science currently available. Intended to provide a balanced and inclusive treatment of the medieval world, contributors consider scientific learning and advancement in the cultures associated with the Arabic, Greek, Latin and Hebrew languages. Scientists, historians and other curious readers will all gain a new appreciation for the study of nature during an era that is often misunderstood.

The Cambridge History of Science
  • Volume 6, The Modern Biological and Earth Sciences
  • Edited by Peter J. Bowler, John V. Pickstone
  • Published online:
    28 November 2009
    Print publication:
    13 April 2009
  • This book in the highly respected Cambridge History of Science series is devoted to the history of the life and earth sciences since 1800. It provides comprehensive and authoritative surveys of historical thinking on major developments in these areas of science, on the social and cultural milieus in which the knowledge was generated, and on the wider impact of the major theoretical and practical innovations. The articles are written by acknowledged experts who provide concise accounts of the latest historical thinking coupled with guides to the most important recent literature. In addition to histories of traditional sciences, the book covers the emergence of newer disciplines such as genetics, biochemistry and geophysics. The interaction of scientific techniques with their practical applications in areas such as medicine is a major focus of the book, as is its coverage of controversial areas such as science and religion, and environmentalism.

The Cambridge History of Science
  • Volume 4, Eighteenth-Century Science
  • Edited by Roy Porter
  • Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    17 March 2003
  • This volume offers to general and specialist readers alike the fullest and most complete survey of the development of science in the eighteenth century, exploring the implications of the 'scientific revolution' of the previous century and the major new growth-points, particularly in the experimental sciences. It is designed to be read as both a narrative and an interpretation, and also used as a work of reference. While prime attention is paid to western science, space is also given to science in traditional cultures and colonial science. The coverage strikes a balance between analysis of the cognitive dimension of science itself and interpretation of its wider social, economic and cultural significance. The contributors, world leaders in their respective specialities, engage with current historiographical and methodological controversies and strike out on positions of their own.

The Cambridge History of Science
  • Volume 3, Early Modern Science
  • Edited by Katharine Park, Lorraine Daston
  • Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    03 July 2006
  • This book provides a comprehensive account of knowledge of the natural world in Europe, c.1500–1700. Often referred to as the Scientific Revolution, this period saw major transformations in fields as diverse as anatomy and astronomy, natural history and mathematics. Articles by leading specialists describe in clear, accessible prose supplemented by extensive bibliographies, how new ideas, discoveries, and institutions shaped the ways in which nature came to be studied, understood, and used. Part I frames the study of 'The New Nature' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Part II surveys the 'Personae and Sites of Natural Knowledge'. Part III treats the study of nature by discipline, following the classification of the sciences current in early modern Europe. Part IV takes up the implications of the new natural knowledge for religion, literature, art, gender, and European identity.

The Cambridge History of Science
  • Volume 7, The Modern Social Sciences
  • Edited by Theodore M. Porter, Dorothy Ross
  • Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    04 August 2003
  • This volume provides a history of the concepts, practices, institutions, and ideologies of social sciences (including behavioural and economic sciences) since the eighteenth century. It offers original, synthetic accounts of the historical development of social knowledge, including its philosophical assumptions, its social and intellectual organization, and its relations to science, medicine, politics, bureaucracy, philosophy, religion, and the professions. Its forty-two chapters include inquiries into the genres and traditions that formed social science, the careers of the main social disciplines (psychology, economics, sociology, anthropology, political science, geography, history, and statistics), and international essays on social science in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It also includes essays that examine the involvement of the social sciences in government, business, education, culture, and social policy. This is a broad cultural history of social science, which analyzes from a variety of perspectives its participation in the making of the modern world.

The Cambridge History of Science
  • Volume 5, The Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences
  • Edited by Mary Jo Nye
  • Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    28 October 2002
  • A narrative and interpretative history of the physical and mathematical sciences from the early nineteenth century to the close of the twentieth century. Drawing upon the most recent methods and results in historical studies of science, the authors of over thirty chapters employ strategies from intellectual history, social history, and cultural studies to provide unusually wide-ranging and comprehensive insights into developments in the public culture, disciplinary organization, and cognitive content of the physical and mathematical sciences. The sciences under study in the volume include physics, astronomy, chemistry and mathematics, as well as their extensions into geosciences and environmental sciences, computer science, and biomedical science. Scientific traditions and scientific changes are examined; the roles of instruments, languages, and images in everyday practice are analyzed; the theme of scientific 'revolution' is scrutinized; and the interactions of the sciences with literature, religion, and ideology are examined.