The Launching of Modern American Science: 1846-1876. - book reviews

National Review, May 27, 1988 by Jack D. Kirwan

The Launching of Modern American Science

THIS FASCINATING, scholarly, but extremely well-written book tells how science came of age in America, changing from the pastime of amateurs into an organized profession. Professor Bruce, a Boston University don with degrees in mechanical engineering and history, has the storyteller's gift: he has built a fascinating mosaic from thousands of dry, historical details. As with just about everything else, early American scientists looked to Europe for inspiration and guidance. Gradually, however, a distinctly American science came into being. As Bruce says, "Scientific emphasis, style, and institutions bear the stamp of a nation's culture and circumstances." At first, science did not make much of an impression in America. In 1846, "out of a population of twenty million, there were only seven to eight hundred men who had published or would ever publish a scientific article or book." But, twenty years later, a young American astronomer wrote: "If we do not hitch unto the moon and quarry our granite there, it will not be the fault of the Yankess." Yankees is the right word. For a long time, American science was pretty much a Northern, whitemale monopoly. With rare exceptions, "for a woman to aspire to serious scientific work was deemed especially grotesque, unseemly, hopeless, and impermissible." The West had other things on its mind and Southern science was such that "the University of Georgia faced facts and ruled that failure in mathematics and science (a third of all courses) should not keep a student from rising with his class." (And this was before big-time college football.) Launching is not just scientific history, but cultural history as well. Professor Bruce shows how scientific was the rudder that changed the course of America. Those stern, high-collared, bewhiskered gentlemen pictured in the book were pioneers as much as Kit Carson and Daniel Boone, and their influence was far greater.