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Edited by

DEMO

Carsten Timmermann and Julie Anderson

10.1057/9780230286405preview - Devices and Designs, Edited by Carsten Timmermann and Julie Anderson

Copyright material from www.palgraveconnect.com - licensed to npg - PalgraveConnect - 2016-03-04

Devices and Designs

Science, Technology and Medicine in Modern History General Editor: John V. Pickstone, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, England (www.man.ac.uk/CHSTM)

The reasons for this failure are as obvious as they are regrettable. Education in many countries, not least in Britain, draws deep divisions between the sciences and the humanities. Men and women who have been trained in science have too often been trained away from history, or from any sustained reflection on how societies work. Those educated in historical or social studies have usually learned so little of science that they remain thereafter suspicious, overawed, or both. Such a diagnosis is by no means novel, nor is it particularly original to suggest that good historical studies of science may be peculiarly important for understanding our present. Indeed this series could be seen as extending research undertaken over the last half-century. But much of that work has treated science, technology and medicine separately; this series aims to draw them together, partly because the three activities have become ever more intertwined. This breadth of focus and the stress on the relationships of knowledge and practice are particularly appropriate in a series which will concentrate on modern history and on industrial societies. Furthermore, while much of the existing historical scholarship is on American topics, this series aims to be international, encouraging studies on European material. The intention is to present science, technology and medicine as aspects of modern culture, analysing their economic, social and political aspects, but not neglecting the expert content which tends to distance them from other aspects of history. The books will investigate the use and consequences of technical knowledge, and how it was shaped within particular economic, social and political structures.

DEMO

Such analyses should contribute to discussions of present dilemmas and to assessments of policy. ‘Science’ no longer appears to us as a triumphant agent of Enlightenment, breaking the shackles of tradition, enabling command over nature. But neither is it to be seen as merely oppressive and dangerous. Judgement requires information and careful analysis, just as intelligent policymaking requires a community of discourse between men and women trained in technical specialities and those who are not. This series is intended to supply analysis and to stimulate debate. Opinions will vary between authors; we claim only that the books are based on searching historical study of topics which are important, not least because they cut across conventional academic boundaries. They should appeal not just to historians, nor just to scientists, engineers and doctors, but to all