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

Download or read book David Brewster and the Culture of Science in Scotland, 1793-1843 written by Bill Jenkins and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2024-11-30 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.