A01=Stephen Case
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Author_Stephen Case
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British history
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=BGT
Category=DNBT
chemistry
COP=United States
Delivery_Pre-order
discoverer of Uranus
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eq_nobargain
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history of astronomy
history of chemistry
history of geology
history of mathematics
history of optics
History of Science
John Herschel
Language_English
Natural philosophy
nineteenth century science
Olivet Nazarene faculty
PA=Not yet available
polymath
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Forthcoming
softlaunch
Victorian era
Product details
- ISBN 9780822948384
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 31 May 2025
- Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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In his lifetime, John Herschel was Britain’s best-known natural philosopher, a world celebrity, and arguably the first modern scientist of the generation in which the term itself was invented. The polymath son of William Herschel, discoverer of Uranus and constructor of the world’s largest telescopes, Herschel took highest honors as a student at Cambridge, conducted groundbreaking work in chemistry and optics, helped establish a mathematical revolution, extended his father’s astronomical surveys to the entire sky, and wrote the popular texts by which a generation of readers learned what it meant to do science. Along the way, Herschel gave to natural philosophy the contours of modern science, defining scientific theories as “creatures of reason rather than of sense.” His creatures of reason could also refer to a new type of scientific practitioner: the natural philosopher beginning to transition into the modern scientist. With this book, Stephen Case encompasses Herschel’s impact on mathematics, chemistry, geology, and optics as well as the organization of science and its relation to government, society, and culture, revealing Herschel’s transformation of the practice of science itself. Drawing on his unpublished manuscripts, correspondence, and notebooks from archives in London, Cambridge, and Austin, this book contributes significantly to our understanding of the early life and career of the nineteenth century’s most influential natural philosopher.
Stephen Case is a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Geosciences at Olivet Nazarene University, where he is also director of the University Honors Program. He is the author of Making Stars Physical: The Astronomy of Sir John Herschel and coeditor of the Cambridge Companion to John Herschel.
