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Higgitt examines Isaac Newton's changing legacy during the nineteenth century. She focuses on 1820-70, a period that saw the creation of the specialized and secularized role of the 'scientist'. At the same time, researchers gained better access to Newton's archives. These were used both by those who wished to undermine the traditional, idealised depiction of scientific genius and those who felt obliged to defend Newtonian hagiography. Higgitt shows how debates about Newton's character stimulated historical scholarship and led to the development of a new expertise in the history of science.
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RECREATING NEWTON: NEWTONIAN BIOGRAPHY AND THE MAKING OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY HISTORY OF SCIENCE SCIENCE AND CULTURE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Series Editor: Bernard Lightman TITLES IN THIS SERIES Styles of Reasoning in the British Life Sciences: Shared Assumptions, 1820–1858 James Elwick FORTHCOMING TITLES The Transit of Venus Enterprise in Victorian Britain Jessica Ratcliff Medicine and Modernism: A Biography of Sir Henry Head L. S. Jacyna Science and Eccentricity: Collecting, Writing and Performing Science for Early Nineteenth-Century Audiences Victoria Carroll www.pickeringchatto.com/scienceculture RECREATING NEWTON: NEWTONIAN BIOGRAPHY AND THE MAKING OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY HISTORY OF SCIENCE BY Rebekah Higgitt LONDON PICKERING & CHATTO 2007 Published by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited 21 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH 2252 Ridge Road, Brookfield, Vermont 05036-9704, USA www.pickeringchatto.com All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior permission of the publisher. © Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited 2007 © Rebekah