History of Science, Technology and Medicine

Science and technology have shaped virtually every aspect of modern life. From how we see our place in the cosmos to how we battle illness, wage wars and produce food, human life has been transformed as a result of the development of new ways of investigating the physical world. But given that science seems to go from strength to strength it may not seem obvious that historians can do anything other than follow the tidy trails of reason which lead to current knowledge. In fact, science is a rich, fascinating and important topic for historical inquiry.

Historians of science seek answers to fundamental questions about the nature of science, the credibility of its claims to truth, and the qualities which distinguish it from other ways of acquiring knowledge. Historians also ask basic questions about the process of scientific discovery. What is the relationship between theory and experiment? How are experiments designed? What is the role of creativity in science? Do new breakthroughs tend to rely on individual brilliance or the collective contributions of the many? And does science advance at an even pace or are periods of revolutionary change interspersed by long periods of stasis?

Modern historians have been able to show that for all the extraordinary accomplishments of science, it is neither as objective nor as straightforward as we are often led to believe. History demonstrates that the route to new discoveries is seldom straight or narrow, that the experimental method is far more complicated than it may at first seem, and that that the history of science is replete with failed theories and misconceptions. Above all else, historians have revealed many of the circumstances, social, political and physical, which shape scientific inquiries, and have explored the contexts in which the findings of science are interpreted, applied and sometimes abused.

Our graduate field embeds science, technology, and medicine in their broader social, political, cultural, and economic contexts and avoids twisting past scientific ideas practices to fit today’s categories and concerns. Our students are given the opportunity to take a wide variety of courses covering different periods and fields. They are also able to take complementary classes in the history and the sociology of science and are strongly encouraged to develop a working knowledge of the sciences they study. Current Department of History faculty members in the history of science, major book publications and their interests are listed below:

Mark Largent, a historian of American biology and medicine who teaches history of science and public policy courses in James Madison College. Mark is the book review editor for the Journal of the History of Biology and editor of the Rutgers Series on Modern Science, Technology and the Environment. His current project explores the ongoing debates over compulsory vaccinations.

John Waller, a historian of science and medicine who teaches the history of disease, health care and psychiatry. He has written on the development of the British eugenics movement, the conditions of child laborers in early industrial England, outbreaks of collective hysteria, and is currently writing a study of hereditarian concepts in western history.

Rich Bellon, a historian of science who divides his attention between the Victorian world of natural history and the modern age of molecular biology. His current research project explores the impact of Darwin’s botany on the debate over evolution in the 1860s. Most of his undergraduate teaching, on the other hand, is driven by an interest in contemporary biomedical and biotechnology policy.

Georgina Montgomery, a historian of science who teaches the history of animal behavior studies, primatology, and gender and science. Georgina is currently working on her manuscript Seeing Primates Scientifically, which explores the development of places and practices for the study of natural primate behavior. She is also working on a new project about the lives of individual gorillas used for science and spectacle in the early to mid-twentieth century.

Helen Veit, a historian of the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries whose first book-length project, Victory over Ourselves: American Food in the Era of the Great War, explores food and nutrition in the Progressive Era, and their relationship to ideas about individual self-discipline, scientific rationalization, social and racial progress, and international power. Helen is also the general editor for a book series on food and history with Michigan State University Press.

Mark Waddell, a historian of early modern science and medicine whose research focuses on the intersections between science, religion, and imagery in Europe.  He is at work on his first book, The Crisis of Uncertainty: Jesuit Science in the Seventeenth Century, and teaches courses on science and religion, technology and culture, and gender in science and medicine.

History of Science, Technology and Medicine Links

Women in Science, womeninscience.history.msu.edu