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Recent scholarship has revealed that pioneering Victorian scientists endeavored through voluminous writing to raise public interest in science and its implications. But it has generally been assumed that once science became a profession around the turn of the century, this new generation of scientists turned its collective back on public outreach. Science for All debunks this apocryphal notion.Peter J. Bowler surveys the books, serial works, magazines, and newspapers published between 1900 and the outbreak of World War II to show that practicing scientists were very active in writing about their work for a general readership. Science for All argues that the social environment of early twentieth-century Britain created a substantial market for science books and magazines aimed at those who had benefited from better secondary education but could not access higher learning. Scientists found it easy and profitable to write for this audience, Bowler reveals, and because their work was seen as educational, they faced no hostility from their peers. But when admission to colleges and universities became more accessible in the 1960s, this market diminished and professional scientists began to lose interest in writing at the nonspecialist level. Eagerly anticipated by scholars of scientific engagement throughout the ages, Science for All sheds light on our own era and the continuing tension between science and public understanding.
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SCIENCE FOR ALL
Science for All :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: The Popularization of Science in Early Twentieth-Century Britain
PE T E R J. B OW L E R
The University of Chicago Press : Chicago and London
Peter J. Bowler is professor of history of science in the School of History and Anthropology at Queen’s University, Belfast. He is the author of several books, including with the University of Chicago Press: Life’s Splendid Drama: Evolutionary Biology and the Reconstruction of Life’s Ancestry, 1860–1940 and Reconciling Science and Religion: The Debate in Early-Twentieth-Century Britain; and coauthor of Making Modern Science. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2009 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2009 Printed in the United States of America 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 1 2 3 4 5 isbn-13: 978-0-226-06863-3 (cloth) isbn-10: 0-226-06863-3 (cloth) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bowler, Peter J. Science for all: the popularization of science in early twentiethcentury Britain / Peter J. Bowler. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-226-06863-3 (cloth: alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-226-06863-3 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Science news— Great Britain—History—20th century. 2. Communication in science—Great Britain—History—20th century. I. Title. q225.2.g7b69 2009 509.41'0904—dc22 2008055466 a The paper used in this publication meets the minimum re quirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1992.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations Preface A Note about Money 1
Introduction: Scientists, Experts, and the Public
vii ix xi 1
Part I : Topics and Themes in Popular Science 2
Rival Ideologies of Science
17
3
The Big Picture
33
4
Practical Knowledge for All
53
Part II : Publishers and Their Publications 5
Creating an Audience
75
6
Bestsellers on Big Issues
96
7
Publishers’ Series
114
8
Encyclopedias and Serial Publications
143
9
Popular Science Magazines
161
10