British Scientists of the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

COMPARATIVELY few historians of science have as yet recognised the powerful influence which social forces have had on the development of science, and it is characteristic of this book that Mr. Crowther sets out to overthrow the idea that scientific knowledge originates entirely in minds completely detached from mundane affairs and concerned solely with the pursuit of truth for its own sake. He offers instead a picture of the lives of Davy, Faraday, Joule, Kelvin and Clerk Maxwell, in which we see how their characters were moulded by early upbringing, and the way in which their work was determined by various social and industrial influences. In revealing the extent to which other incentives besides the desire to contribute to the advancement of knowledge affected their careers, Mr. Crowther gives us a highly stimulating series of studies which appear appropriately at a moment when scientific workers are considering much more seriously both the social consequences of their work and the social factors which determine its extent or direction.

British Scientists of the Nineteenth Century

By J. G. Crowther. Pp. xii + 332 + 12 plates. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1935.) 12s. 6d. net.