In Omar Nasim’s new book, a series of fascinating characters sketch, paint, and etch their way toward a mapping of the cosmos and the human mind. His book examines the history of observation of celestial nebulae in the nineteenth century, exploring the relationships among the acts of seeing, drawing, and knowing in producing visual knowledge about the heavens and its bodies. We had a chance to talk about … Continue reading Observing by Hand: An Interview
Craig Martin’s new book carefully traces religious arguments for and against Aristotelianism from the eleventh through the eighteenth centuries. Based on a close reading of a staggering array of primary sources, his book subverts several assumptions about the connection between Aristotelian thought and the emergence of the new sciences in early modernity. You can listen to our conversation about it here. Continue reading Subverting Aristotle: An Interview
Last year, I wrote a little piece on the “global turn” in the history of science, taking a moment to consider that turn not from the perspective of what we’re studying, but of how we’re doing it. It was published in a focus section of the journal Isis on “The Future of the History of Science” and you can find it here. The main take-away point, and one that I’m still … Continue reading The Global and Beyond: An Essay
Jane Maienschein’s great new book traces the history of transformations in the observation and observability of the earliest stages of developing life. Embryos Under the Microscope is equally suited to both academic historians and a broader interested public, carefully curating the elements of the narrative such that they collectively inform broader debates over embryo-related policy in the contemporary United States. You can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Embryos Under the Microscope: An Interview
Elizabeth Lunbeck’s wonderful new book offers a fascinating account of the entwined histories of narcissism, psychoanalysis, and modernity in 20th and 21st century America. You can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading The Americanization of Narcissism: An Interview
Marwa Elshakry’s new book offers a fascinating account of how the work of Darwin and others was read and rendered in modern Arabic-language contexts. It is a must-read for anyone interested in the entanglements of science, translation, and empire in the modern world, and you can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Reading Darwin in Arabic: An Interview
Hallam Stevens has written a fascinating ethnographic and historical account of the transformations wrought by integrating statistical and computational methods and materials into the biological sciences. It has already changed how I think about both biology and the digital humanities, and you can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Life Out of Sequence: An Interview
Gabriel Finkelstein’s new book explores the life and work of Emil du Bois-Reymond, “the most important forgotten intellectual of the nineteenth century.” The beautifully written book introduces readers to diary pages and love letters, laboratory equipment and frog pistols. Whether he’s busy conducting electrical experiments or avoiding his underwear-proffering mother-in-law, du Bois-Reymond is a pleasure to read about. You can find our conversation about Finkelstein’s book here. Continue reading Emil du Bois-Reymond: An Interview
David Kaiser’s new book takes readers into the “hazy, bong-filled excesses of the 1970s New Age movement” in order to explain and reveal the origins of some of the most transformative breakthroughs in twentieth-century quantum physics. It is an exceptionally well-written history of science that is also tremendous fun to read, and you can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading How the Hippies Saved Physics: An Interview
Gabrielle Hecht and I recently spoke about her thoughtful new book on nuclearity in modern Africa. Hecht’s multi-sited study weaves together atomic history, African history, and the histories of mining, economies, and health. The book is extremely important for historians of the modern world, and you can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Being Nuclear: An Interview
Carla Nappi 