Science Periodicals in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Constructing Scientific Communities

Gowan Dawson · Bernard Lightman · Sally Shuttleworth · Jonathan R. Topham

mars 2020 · University of Chicago Press

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Periodicals played a vital role in the developments in science and medicine that transformed nineteenth-century Britain. Proliferating from a mere handful to many hundreds of titles, they catered to audiences ranging from gentlemanly members of metropolitan societies to working-class participants in local natural history clubs. In addition to disseminating authorized scientific discovery, they fostered a sense of collective identity among their geographically dispersed and often socially disparate readers by facilitating the reciprocal interchange of ideas and information. As such, they offer privileged access into the workings of scientific communities in the period.

The essays in this volume set the historical exploration of the scientific and medical periodicals of the era on a new footing, examining their precise function and role in the making of nineteenth-century science and enhancing our vision of the shifting communities and practices of science in the period. This radical rethinking of the scientific journal offers a new approach to the reconfiguration of the sciences in nineteenth-century Britain and sheds instructive light on contemporary debates about the purpose, practices, and price of scientific journals.

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Gowan Dawson is professor of Victorian literature and culture and director of the Victorian Studies Centre at the University of Leicester. Bernard Lightman is distinguished research professor in the Humanities Department at York University and president of the History of Science Society. Sally Shuttleworth is professor of English literature at the University of Oxford. Jonathan R. Topham is a senior lecturer in the history of science at the University of Leeds.