David Brewster and the Culture of Science in Scotland, 1793-1843 - by Bill Jenkins

About the Book

How did Scottish scientific culture change from the Enlightenment to the Victorian period?

Book Synopsis

The decades between the French Revolution and the mid-nineteenth century were a period of radical transformation in Scottish society and culture on many levels. The Scottish Enlightenment had seen a striking blossoming of the natural sciences, with the development of a distinctive and influential national scientific culture.

The natural philosopher David Brewster was educated in Edinburgh amidst the intellectual ferment of the late Enlightenment but lived to end his days as a grand old man of Victorian science. This book uses the long and eventful career of Brewster as a lens through which to explore themes of rupture and continuity in Scottish scientific culture in a period of dramatic social and political change.

Review Quotes

Bill Jenkins' deft portrait of David Brewster's multifaceted scientific career illuminates a long-neglected period in the history of Scottish science. No other book tells us as much about the intersections of Evangelicalism, Whig politics, patronage and the cultivation of natural knowledge in post-Enlightenment Scotland as this one.--Paul Wood, University of Victoria

Carefully researched and well written, Jenkins pieces together facets of patronage that were so important to scientific progress in the early 19th century and explores the influence of politics and religion, often neglected in histories of the. period. This history is a valuable addition to understanding 19th century science and Scotland.--J. J. Butt, emeritus, James Madison University "CHOICE"