How scientific discoveries and practice were integrated into nineteenth-century French culture and thought.Winner of the Sarton Medal for Lifetime Scholarly Achievement of the History of Science SocietyThere has been a tendency to view science in nineteenth-century France as the exclusive territory of the nation’s leading academic centers and the powerful Paris-based administrators who controlled them. Ministries and the great savants and institutions of th...

Since the 16th century, Paris has been a leading arbiter of taste and the ultimate source of luxury goods for Europe and the world. However, the origins of the luxury trades of Paris and their role in the wider economic development of France and Europe have been relatively little examined by historians. This volume provides an entry into some of the many questions raised by the growth of the luxury trades, by bringing together eight detailed case studies of specific trades with five more w...

In this volume, scholars from these two very different traditions are brought together. Never before has a single volume contained such a distinguished and diverse group of historians of technology.

What was it like to be there at the very moment when great events took place; when great figures strode onto the world stage; when the wonderful, the terrible, the diverting and the just plain curious happened? In this acclaimed collection of eyewitness reportage, Robert Fox brings together accounts from soldiers, journalists, poets, scientists, adventurers, chance bystanders and many more to create a vivid, compelling history of the twentieth century as it happened.Covering two wo...

Thomas Garnett was a man of science and physician whose career took him from rural obscurity in 18th-century Westmorland to metropolitan prominence as the first professor of natural philosophy and chemistry at the newly founded Royal Institution in London in 1799. His rise to the summit of British science was far from straightforward, but is brought to life in vivid detail by Robert Fox.Fox gives an engrossing and moving account of the trials, triumphs, and tragedi...

This volume sheds new light on one of the most remarkable polymaths of the English Renaissance. It offers original perspectives not only on Harriot’s personal achievements in mathematics and natural philosophy but also on the wider realms of exploration, colonial ambition, and philosophical debate in which he earned the attention and respect of contemporaries in and far beyond the socially elevated circles of his two great patrons, first Walter Ralegh and then Henry Percy, the ninth Earl o...

This volume assembles ten studies of the life and work of Thomas Harriot (1560-1621). These are based on lectures that have been given annually at Oriel College, Oxford since 1990, by such authorities as Hugh Trevor Roper, David Quinn and John D. North. An astronomer and mathematician whose activities embraced not only science but also philosophical debate and an engagement in the early exploration of America, Harriot occupied a prominent place in intellectual and public life. He was well ...

This second volume of papers on Thomas Harriot edited by Professor Robert Fox is based on the annual Harriot lectures delivered at Oriel College, Oxford between 2000 and 2009. It complements the previous volume, published as Thomas Harriot: An Elizabethan Man of Science in 2000. The focus in several of the papers is on Harriot's outstanding achievements as a mathematician; others consider why he has never received the recognition accorded to his great contemporary, Galileo; others again ex...

After the sudden death of his parents, fourteen year old Mark Talbot's comfortable and sheltered world crashes around him. His uncle, following instructions in his father's will, sends Mark to New Zealand to live with a colony of Maori people that his father knew and loved as a young man. Among these brown skinned Polynesians, Mark begins to grow to manhood, not just in body but in mind and spirit. His inherited family teaches him love, truth, beauty, and the satisfaction of hard work. Mar...

This book, written by a lawyer and a doctor explains to everyday readers ways in which they can avoid death and injury caused by medical mistakes. It may be shocking to learn that preventable errors by doctor and hospital personnel are a leading cause of death and injury in the United States—perhaps even exceeding the annual deaths caused by heart disease and cancer. But avoiding these mistakes is possible, and the rules found in this book will arm readers against the careless errors that ...

Alfred King, wealthy, retired, and in his seventies is traveling in Kenya on a photo safari when he meets Koro, a small Masai boy at a roadside stop who wants to "practice his English." On a sudden impulse, King asks him if he would like to go to America. The boy is overjoyed and takes King to his village to receive permission from the tribal elders. They tell him that Koro has a unique gift: he hears strange music that often leads him to people needing help. The elders tell King that Koro...

The only survivor in a plane crash, a young boy who was unconsciousness and not discovered by rescue crews, awakens in the branches of a large pine tree. He has no memory of how he got there or who he is. In his pocket is a small Bible inscribed "to Jared." In this mystical story, he then decides to name himself Jared the Seeker. He soon comes upon a log cabin and meets its strange occupant and his dog. The strange fellow tells Jared that he is Elijah the Prophet and they become companions...