Presidential address Experts and publishers: Writing popular science in early twentieth-century Britain, writing popular history of science now

British Journal for the History of Science

Volumn 39, Issue 2, 2006, Pages 159-187

  Bowler, Peter J ^a  

^a QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY BELFAST   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 33744957658     PISSN: 00070874     EISSN: 1474001X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S000708740600793X     Document Type: Review

References (70)

1. D. Knight, 'Getting science across', BJHS (1996), 29 129-38;
2. see also Knight, 'Scientists and their publics: popularization of science in the nineteenth century', in The Cambridge History of Science, Volume S: Modern Physical and Mathematical Sciences (ed. M. J. Nye), Cambridge, 2003, 72-90.
3. Quoted in R. MacLeod, 'Evolutionary internationalism and commercial enterprise in science: the international scientific series, 1877-1910', in Development of Science Publishing in Europe (ed. A. J. Meadows), Amsterdam, 1980, 63-93, 79.
4. The article is reprinted with the original pagination in MacLeod, The ' Creed of Science' in Victorian England, Aldershot, 2000.
5. J. W. N. Sullivan, Aspects of Science, London, 1923, 14-17;
6. Gerald Heard, This Surprising World: A Journalist Looks at Science, London, 1932, 12-14.
7. K. R. Dronamraju, If I Am to Be Remembered; The Life and Work of Julian Huxley with Selected Correspondence, Singapore, 1993, 26. Letter from D. M. S. Watson to Huxley, 25 January 1932, Julian Huxley Papers, General Correspondence, Rice University. Watson indicates that several members of the Royal Society committee wanted to see Huxley's latest book to reassure themselves that he was still doing research. He was eventually elected in 1938.
8. J. G. Crowther, Fifty Years with Science, London, 1970, 47.
9. G. Werskey, The Visible College: A Collective Biography of British Scientists and Socialists of the 1930s, London, 1988, 165-6. Werskey confirms that he was told this story independently by both Levy and Hogben. Hogben got the FRS and published under his own name shortly afterwards.
10. L. Hogben, Science for the Citizen : A Self-Educator Based on the Social Background of Scientific Discovery, London, 1938, 9.
11. J. D. Bernal, The Social Function of Science, London, 1939, 389-90.
12. C. H. Waddington, The Scientific Attitude, 2nd edn, West Drayton, 1948, 81.
13. J. B. S. Haldane, The Inequality of Man and Other Essays, London, 1932, pp. vi-vii.
14. Crowther, The Inequality of Man and Other Essays, op. cit. (5), 83.
15. See Peter Bowler, 'From science to the popularization of science: the career of J. Arthur Thomson', in Science and Beliefs : From Natural Philosophy to Natural Science (ed. M. T. Eddy and D. Knight), Aldershot, 2005, 231-48.
16. F. M. Turner, 'Public science in Britain, 1880-1919', Isis (1980), 71, 589-608.
17. See also R. and K. MacLeod, 'The social relations of science and technology 1914-1939', in The Fontana Economic History of Europe, Volume 5: The Twentieth Century-1 (ed. C. M. Cipolla), London, 1977, 301-63.
18. Later called the General Science series; the first volume was G. H. J. Adlam, Chemistry, London, 1921, reprinted 1929. The series was priced at a modest 3s. 6d. Since prices will form part of the discussion below, readers unfamiliar with the old money should note that there were twenty shillings in the pound and twelve pence in the shilling. Prices are written thus: £1 10s. 6d (one pound, ten shillings and sixpence).
19. R. Cooler and S. Pumfrey, 'Separate spheres and public places: reflections on the history of science popularization and on science in popular culture', History of Science (1994), 32, 232-67.
20. For critiques of the 'dominant view' as applied to modern science see R. Whitley, 'Knowledge producers and knowledge acquirers: popularization and a relation between scientific fields and their publics', in Expository Science: Forms and Functions of Popularization (ed. T. Shin and R. Whitley), Dordrecht, 1985, 3-28;
21. S. Hilgartner, 'The dominant view of popularization: conceptual problems, political uses', Social Studies of Science (1990), 20, 519-39.
22. These differences are explored in Peter Bowler, Reconciling Science and Religion : The Debate in Early Twentieth-Century Britain, Chicago, 2001.
23. A. Keith, An Autobiography, London, 1950, 509.
24. A. Keith, Concerning Man's Origin, London, 1927. In fact the project backfired and demand was never high;
25. see Keith, Concerning Man's Origin, op. cit. (17), 509.
26. M. Whitworth, 'The cloth bound universe: popular physics books, 1919-39', Publishing History (1996), 40, 53-82.
27. Other important series were: Dent's Scientific Primers (commenced 1909) at one shilling, Milner's XXth Century Science series (commenced 1910) at one shilling, Harper's Library of Living Thought (commenced 1911) at 2s. 6d, Jack's People's Books (commenced 1912) at sixpence and Macmillan's Readable Books in Natural Knowledge (commenced 1913) at 1s. 6d.
28. Their publications included the Romance series (1907) at five shillings, the Science of Today series (1909) at six shillings and the Wonder Library (1912) at three shillings.
29. Press reports from the Scotsman and the Glasgow News quoted in the series catalogue at the end of F. O. Bower, Plant-Life on Land: Considered in Some of its Biological Aspects, Cambridge, 1911. Comparatively few volumes in the series contain this catalogue. Bower was professor of botany at Glasgow.
30. First quote from the dustjacket of R. Meldola, Chemistry, Williams and Norgate, 1913; second from advertising flyer in the September 1933 issue of Discovery magazine (Cambridge University Library copy; see Figure 1).
31. There is much correspondence relating to Thomson's activities as editor and author in the Patrick Geddes papers held at both the National Library of Scotland and Strathclyde University. See also Bowler, Chemistry, op. cit. (12).
32. Lord Brabazon of Tara, 'Introduction', in U. Bloom, He Lit the Lamp: A Biography of Professor A. M. Low, London, 1958, 1.
33. See the series of letters in J. S. Huxley, Memories, London, 1970, Chapter XII;
34. and D. C. Smith (ed.), The Correspondence of H. G. Wells, Volume 3: 1919-1934, London, 1998, 201-75 passim.
35. The book derived from the series is H. G. Wells, Julian Huxley and G. P. Wells, The Science of Life, London, 1930.
36. A. Mee (ed.), Popular Science, 7 vols, London, 1912-13.
37. A. Mee (ed.), New Harmsworth Self-Educator, London, 1913. Professional scientists who contributed included J. Arthur Thomson, Conwy Lloyd Morgan, Arthur Keith, A. T. Schofield, Sir Herbert Maxwell, Sylvanus Thomson, J. R. Ainsworth-Davis and J. W. Gregory. The ageing Alfred Russel Wallace also contributed.
38. J. A. Hammerton (ed.), Our Wonderful World: A Pictorial Account of the Marvels of Nature and the Triumphs of Man, London, 1931-2 (30 fortnightly parts). Over half of the many authors listed were professional scientists, including J. Arthur Thomson, J. W. Gregory, E. G. Boulanger, E. N. da C. Andrade, A. Smith Woodward, H. H. Turner and Sir William Bragg.
39. J. A. Hammerton (ed.), New Popular Educator: The University in the Home, London, 1933-4 (52 weekly parts). The quotation is from the cover page; the editor's opening remarks are on p. 1.
40. J. A. Hammerton, Encyclopedia of Modern Knowledge, London, 1936-7 (40 fortnightly parts), quotation from the front cover of Part 1, which also features as backdrop the new building of the University of London.
41. Charles Ray (ed.), The Popular Science Educator, London 1935-6 (52 weekly parts);
42. see also, for instance, idem (ed.), The Boy's Book of Everyday Science, London, 1936.
43. F. A. Bather et al., Animals of All Countries, London, 1923-4 (24 fortnightly parts). In addition to Bather, other professional biologists involved include E. G. Boulanger, W. T. Calman, F. Martin Duncan, M. A. C. Hinton and W. P. Pycraft.
44. T. E. R. Phillips (ed.), Splendour of the Heavens: A Popular Authoritative Astronomy, London, 1923-4 (24 fortnightly parts).
45. J. W. N. Sullivan, Aspects of Science, London, 1923;
46. J. W. N. Sullivan, idem, Three Men Discuss Relativity, London, 1925.
47. There is a short biography by Charles Singer in J. W. N. Sullivan, Isaac Newton, 1647-1727, London, 1938.
48. On Sullivan's work see M. Whitworth, 'Pièces d'identité: T. S. Elliot, J. W. N. Sullivan and poetic impersonality', English Literature in Transition (1996), 39, 149-70;
49. and David Bradshaw, 'The best of companions: J. W. N. Sullivan, Aldous Huxley, and the new physics,' Review of English Studies (1996), 47, 188-206 and 352-62.
50. See also Whitworth, Review of English Studies, op. cit. (19).
51. Heard's work was summarized in his This Surprising World: A Journalist Looks at Science, London, 1932.
52. Unsigned editorial, Science Progress (1906-7), 1, 1-2. The editors were N. H. Alcock and M. D. and W. G. Freeman of the Physiology Laboratory, London University.
53. See the advertisement on the front cover of Vol. 1 of Science Progress (1907), which quotes various press notices including the Athenaeum: 'The articles are all from the pens of authors eminent in their own lines.'
54. A. S. Russell, 'Editorial notes', Discovery (1920), 1, 3-4.
55. As already noted, Russell wrote frequently for the Listener. On the origins of Discovery see A.-K. Mayer, ' "A combative sense of duty" : Englishness and the scientists', in Regenerating England: Science, Medicine and Culture in Inter-War Britain (ed. C. Lawrence and A.-K. Mayer), Amsterdam, 67-106.
56. C. P. Snow, 'Editorial: the end of discovery", Discovery (1940), NS, 3, 117-18. The magazine opened up again in 1944 under a new publisher and became distinctly less 'popular' in its content.
57. P. W. Harris, 'The editor's chair: a short talk on the aims and ideals of conquest', Conquest (1919), 1, 18.
58. Anon, [presumably A. P. Bradley], 'Ourselves', Armchair Science (1929), 1, 11.
59. Anon. [Bradley], 'Science and the public', Armchair Science (1929), 1, 71.
60. W. T. Stead, 'My system', Cassell's Magazine (August 1906), 297;
61. see P. Broks, Media Science before the Great War, London, 1996, 35.
62. See the letter from Campbell Stuart, editor of the Daily Mail, to Huxley, 23 February 1920, explaining that the piece he had written for the paper was too difficult for the ordinary reader, in Julian Huxley papers, Rice University, General Correspondence.
63. Slossen to Huxley, 7 December 1921, Julian Huxley papers, Rice University, General Correspondence.
64. See the letters from W. J. Sollas to Robert Broom, May and July 1925, quoted in G. H. Findlay, Dr. Robert Broom, FRS: Palaeontologist and Physician, 1866-1951, Cape Town, 1972, 53.
65. Crowther, Robert Broom, FRS: Palaeontologist and Physician, 1866-1951, op. cit. (5)
66. See Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins's foreword to R. Calder, The Birth of the Future, London, 19.34.
67. J. H. Brooke, 'Does the history of science have a future ?' BJHS (1999), 32, 1-20.
68. D.P. Miller, 'The "Sobel Effect" : the amazing tale of how multitudes of popular writers pinched all the best stories in the history of science and became rich and famous while historians languished in accustomed poverty and obscurity, and how this transformed the world. A reflection on a publishing phenomenon', Metascience (2002), 11, 185-200.
69. See Miller, Metascience, op. cit. (51) for the comments on Simon Winchester's book on Smith.
70. For an assessment of the books in this series see A. Fyfe and P. Smith, 'Telling stories', B/HS (2003), 36, 471-6.