Travels and Adventures of Serendipity
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A01=Elinor Barber
A01=Robert K. Merton
Alertness
Analogy
Antiquarian
Aphid
Author_Elinor Barber
Author_Robert K. Merton
Body of knowledge
Calliphoridae
Category=JBCC9
Category=JH
Causality
Christopher Morley
Clairvoyance
Combatant
Connotation
Cornhill Magazine
Dictionary
Discovery (observation)
Dividend
Edition (book)
Eloquence
Empiricism
Epithelium
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Essay
Etymology
Experiment
Explanation
Exposition (narrative)
First appearance
Freethought
Heraldry
Historical figure
Horace Walpole
Illustration
Ingredient
Insect
Institution
Invention
Learning
Memoir
Metabolite
Metaphor
Mr.
Multitude
Neologism
Notes and Queries
Noun
Observation
Omnipotence
Organization
Ovipositor
Pas d'armes
Protist
Publicity
Pungency
Recreation
Research and development
Result
Science
Scientist
Serendipity
Social science
Termitomyces
The Advertisement
The Telling
The Three Princes of Serendip
The Various
Thought
Transstadial transmission
Usage
Vermicompost
Wolbachia
Writing
Zadig
Product details
- ISBN 9780691126302
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 22 Jan 2006
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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From the names of cruise lines and bookstores to an Australian ranch and a nudist camp outside of Atlanta, the word serendipity--that happy blend of wisdom and luck by which something is discovered not quite by accident--is today ubiquitous. This book traces the word's eventful history from its 1754 coinage into the twentieth century--chronicling along the way much of what we now call the natural and social sciences. The book charts where the term went, with whom it resided, and how it fared. We cross oceans and academic specialties and meet those people, both famous and now obscure, who have used and abused serendipity. We encounter a linguistic sage, walk down the illustrious halls of the Harvard Medical School, attend the (serendipitous) birth of penicillin, and meet someone who "manages serendipity" for the U.S. Navy. The story of serendipity is fascinating; that of The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity, equally so. Written in the 1950s by already-eminent sociologist Robert Merton and Elinor Barber, the book--though occasionally and most tantalizingly cited--was intentionally never published.
This is all the more curious because it so remarkably anticipated subsequent battles over research and funding--many of which centered on the role of serendipity in science. Finally, shortly after his ninety-first birthday, following Barber's death and preceding his own by but a little, Merton agreed to expand and publish this major work. Beautifully written, the book is permeated by the prodigious intellectual curiosity and generosity that characterized Merton's influential On the Shoulders of Giants. Absolutely entertaining as the history of a word, the book is also tremendously important to all who value the miracle of intellectual discovery. It represents Merton's lifelong protest against that rhetoric of science that defines discovery as anything other than a messy blend of inspiration, perspiration, error, and happy chance--anything other than serendipity.
Robert K. Merton, who died in 2003, was one of the leading sociologists of the twentieth century. His many books include "Social Theory and Social Structure" and "On the Shoulders of Giants". Elinor Barber was, at the time of her death, Research Associate at Columbia University. She is a coauthor of "Bridges to Knowledge" and "Increasing Faculty Diversity". James L. Shulman is Executive Director of ARTstor and a coauthor of "The Game of Life" (Princeton).
