Scientific History: Experiments in History and Politics from the Bolshevik Revol

Description: Scientific History by Elena Aronova Increasingly, scholars in the humanities are calling for a reengagement with the natural sciences. Taking their cues from recent breakthroughs in genetics and the neurosciences, advocates of "big history" are reassessing long-held assumptions about the very definition of history, its methods, and its evidentiary base. In Scientific History, Elena Aronova maps out historians continuous engagement with the methods, tools, values, and scale of the natural sciences by examining several waves of their experimentation that surged highest at perceived times of trouble, from the crisis-ridden decades of the early twentieth century to the ruptures of the Cold War. The book explores the intertwined trajectories of six intellectuals and the larger programs they set in motion: Henri Berr (1863–1954), Nikolai Bukharin (1888–1938), Lucien Febvre (1878–1956), Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943), Julian Huxley (1887–1975), and John Desmond Bernal (1901–1971). Though they held different political views, spoke different languages, and pursued different goals, these thinkers are representative of a larger motley crew who joined the techniques, approaches, and values of science with the writing of history, and who created powerful institutions and networks to support their projects. In tracing these submerged stories, Aronova reveals encounters that profoundly shaped our knowledge of the past, reminding us that it is often the forgotten parts of history that are the most revealing. FORMAT Hardcover LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Author Biography Elena Aronova is assistant professor of the history of science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the coeditor of Osiris, Volume 32: Data Histories and Science Studies during the Cold War and Beyond: Paradigms Defected. Table of Contents Preface Introduction Russia as Method 1 The Quest for Scientific History Two Unity of Science Movements Positivism, History, and Henri Berrs Historical Synthesis Historical Synthesis and the History of Science The Internationalist Politics of Synthesis 2 Scientific History and the Russian Locale Russia and the West Russian Historiography on the World Stage Marxism and History The Great Break Bukharin and the History of Science London 1931 3 Nikolai Vavilov, Genogeography, and Historys Past Future The Geographies of History and the Genetic Archive The Mendeleev of Biology Vavilovs Genogeography and the Bolsheviks Geopolitics A "New Kind of History" The Politics of History 4 Julian Huxleys Cold Wars Julian Huxleys Two Careers A Journey to a Utopian Future The Crisis in Soviet Genetics and Julian Huxleys Cold Wars Huxleys Evolutionary History 5 The UNESCO "History of Mankind: Cultural and Scientific Development" Project History by Committee Febvres Cahiers: Historical Journals and the Making of Historical Knowledge Cold War Internationalism and the Writing of History 6 Information Socialism, Historical Informatics, and the Markets Bernals Information Socialism: From London 1931 to Cold War America, via Russia Envisioning History as Data Science Historians and Computers The Socialist Markets for a Capitalist Data Product Epilogue Past Futures of the History of Science List of Archive Abbreviations Notes Index Review "Aronova illuminates intellectual cross-fertilizations of science and historiography by zooming in on the practices of scientists and scientist historians. . . . Aronovas thoroughly researched book uncovers largely submerged historiographical approaches that have emphasized the shared features of all modern knowledge-seeking endeavors ranging from the natural sciences to the humanities. It is a significant contribution to our understanding of both the natural sciences and the humanities. Its originality and sometimes surprising comparisons are thought-provoking for historians of all fields of study, and it is to be hoped that they will stimulate especially the much-needed methodological reflection in the historiography of science." * Journal of the History of Economic Thought *"With extensive source material and broad geographical range, Aronova gives us a tight and interwoven sense of trajectories of past big historical and big data ambitions and practices, relating these to shifting cultural and political contexts and observing the striking historical ironies these trajectories reveal. The book is significant in canvassing so much diverse material so efficiently and expertly, uncovering unexpected and disregarded historical connections while presenting the material engagingly and accessibly. It is a satisfying, impressive piece of scholarship that provides an explicit, extended, transnational historicization of big history." -- Nasser Zakariya, author of A Final Story: Science, Myth, and Beginnings"Where do todays dreams of writing history scientifically come from? Not from David Christian and Bill Gates, Anthropocene scholars, apostles of digital humanities, apologists for big data, amateur neuroscientists, or latterday cliometricians. Aronova provides a deeper genealogy of todays data-driven obsessions, rooted instead in twentieth-century Russian ambitions for a scientific Marxism. Using Russia-as-method to examine Soviet visions of history as a materialist science, Aronovas sparklingly subversive narrative excavates foundational fights over how to write the history of science, how to practice the science of history, and how to tell the story of mankind. A work of wit, grace, and profundity." -- James Delbourgo, James Westfall Thompson Distinguished Professor of History, Rutgers University"A captivating tale of Clio becoming a scientist! Animated by a commanding multinational cast of characters, Scientific History offers the first broad-ranging analysis of why and how the methods, approaches, values, and frameworks advanced within the natural sciences—ranging from biogeography to mathematics to genetics—became part of historians armamentarium and profoundly influenced twentieth-century historical thought and practice. This engaging account ventures with enviable ease from the editorial offices of the Annales to the sessions of international history congresses, through the corridors of UNESCO to computer rooms at the scientific information institutes in Philadelphia and Moscow. Aronova uncovers the forgotten and sometimes deliberately obscured but deep and thoroughly transnational roots of present-day historians fascination with big data, quantification, and big history. Meticulously researched and refreshingly free from Cold War–era polarizing biases, this book is a must read for anyone interested in history, science, and their intricate connections." -- Nikolai Krementsov, author of Revolutionary Experiments: The Quest for Immortality in Bolshevik Science and Fiction"[Aronova] demonstrates the complex interactions between science and history. Vivid passages describe the Soviet governments corruption of academic disciplines: social sciences, biology, and agronomy. A demanding but highly informative read." * Choice * Review Quote "With extensive source material and broad geographical range, Aronova gives us a tight and interwoven sense of trajectories of past big historical and big data ambitions and practices, relating these to shifting cultural and political contexts and observing the striking historical ironies these trajectories reveal. The book is significant in canvassing so much diverse material so efficiently and expertly, uncovering unexpected and disregarded historical connections while presenting the material engagingly and accessibly. It is a satisfying, impressive piece of scholarship that provides an explicit, extended, transnational historicization of big history." Details ISBN022676138X Author Elena Aronova Short Title Scientific History Pages 256 Language English Year 2021 ISBN-10 022676138X ISBN-13 9780226761381 Format Hardcover Subtitle Experiments in History and Politics from the Bolshevik Revolution to the End of the Cold War Imprint University of Chicago Press Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2021-04-02 NZ Release Date 2021-04-02 US Release Date 2021-04-02 Publication Date 2021-04-02 UK Release Date 2021-04-02 Illustrations 5 halftones Publisher The University of Chicago Press DEWEY 907.2 Audience Professional & Vocational We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:161784468;

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