A01=Mary Terrall
academy of sciences
astronomy
Author_Mary Terrall
berlin
biology
Category=DNBT
Category=PDX
cosmology
enlightenment
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
expedition
exploration
frederick the great
government
heredity
lapland
least action
materialism
mathematics
maupertuis
metaphysics
navigation
newton
nonfiction
paris
physics
poles
print culture
prussia
science
scientific institutions
self fashioning
teleology
Product details
- ISBN 9780226793610
- Weight: 624g
- Dimensions: 15 x 23mm
- Publication Date: 15 Jun 2006
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Self-styled adventurer, literary wit, and statesman of science, Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698 - 1759) stood at the center of Enlightenment science and culture. With "The Man Who Flattened the Earth", Mary Terrall offers an elegant portrait of this remarkable man, revealing just how his private life and public works made him a man of science in eighteenth-century Europe. Maupertuis entered the public eye with a much-discussed expedition to Lapland and went on to make significant and often intentionally controversial contributions to physics, life science, and astronomy. Equally at ease in cafes and royal courts, Maupertuis used his social connections and his printed works to enhance a carefully constructed reputation as both a man of letters and a man of science. Terrall not only illuminates the life and work of Maupertuis but also delves into larger Enlightenment issues, including the development of scientific institutions, the impact of print culture on science, and the often vexed interactions of science and government.
Mary Terrall is associate professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles.
