A01=Keith Stewart Thomson
Author_Keith Stewart Thomson
Category=NHK
Category=PDX
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eq_isMigrated=2
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eq_non-fiction
eq_science
Product details
- ISBN 9780300205930
- Weight: 517g
- Dimensions: 146 x 227mm
- Publication Date: 15 Jun 2015
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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A unique account of Thomas Jefferson’s passion for science, the influence of science on his vision for America, and the amazing extent of his scientific contributions
In the voluminous literature on Thomas Jefferson, little has been written about his passionate interest in science. This new and original study of Jefferson presents him as a consummate intellectual whose view of science was central to both his public and his private life. Keith Stewart Thomson reintroduces us in this remarkable book to Jefferson’s eighteenth-century world and reveals the extent to which Jefferson used science, thought about it, and contributed to it, becoming in his time a leading American scientific intellectual.
With a storyteller’s gift, Thomson shows us a new side of Jefferson. He answers an intriguing series of questions—How was Jefferson’s view of the sciences reflected in his political philosophy and his vision of America’s future? How did science intersect with his religion? Did he make any original contributions to scientific knowledge?—and illuminates the particulars of Jefferson’s scientific endeavors. Thomson discusses Jefferson’s theories that have withstood the test of time, his interest in the practical applications of science to societal problems, his leadership in the use of scientific methods in agriculture, and his contributions toward launching at least four sciences in America: geography, paleontology, climatology, and scientific archaeology. A set of delightful illustrations, including some of Jefferson’s own sketches and inventions, completes this impressively researched book.
In the voluminous literature on Thomas Jefferson, little has been written about his passionate interest in science. This new and original study of Jefferson presents him as a consummate intellectual whose view of science was central to both his public and his private life. Keith Stewart Thomson reintroduces us in this remarkable book to Jefferson’s eighteenth-century world and reveals the extent to which Jefferson used science, thought about it, and contributed to it, becoming in his time a leading American scientific intellectual.
With a storyteller’s gift, Thomson shows us a new side of Jefferson. He answers an intriguing series of questions—How was Jefferson’s view of the sciences reflected in his political philosophy and his vision of America’s future? How did science intersect with his religion? Did he make any original contributions to scientific knowledge?—and illuminates the particulars of Jefferson’s scientific endeavors. Thomson discusses Jefferson’s theories that have withstood the test of time, his interest in the practical applications of science to societal problems, his leadership in the use of scientific methods in agriculture, and his contributions toward launching at least four sciences in America: geography, paleontology, climatology, and scientific archaeology. A set of delightful illustrations, including some of Jefferson’s own sketches and inventions, completes this impressively researched book.
Keith Stewart Thomson (1938–2025) was a distinguished evolutionary biologist, historian, and writer. He was emeritus professor of natural history at the University of Oxford and had served as director of the Oxford Museum of Natural History, the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and the Peabody Museum at Yale University, where he was also a professor and dean. He wrote many books and essays on history, history of science, evolution, and paleontology, including The Common but Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays; Before Darwin: Reconciling God and Nature; The Young Charles Darwin; and The Legacy of the Mastodon: The Golden Age of Fossils in America.
