a public event

Practical Matter: Newton's Science in the Service of Industry and Empire, 1687-1851

A CEES Book Discussion

Thursday, May 19, 2005
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Bunche Hall
6275 Bunche Hall
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095

The Center for European and Eurasian Studies presents a discussion of the forthcoming book, Practical Matter: Newton's Science in the Service of Industry and Empire, 1687-1851 (Harvard University Press 2005), with author Margaret Jacob of the UCLA Department of History, and discussant Jean-Laurent Rosenthal of the UCLA Department of Economics. The lecture is free and open to the public.

About the book (from Harvard University Press):

Margaret Jacob and Larry Stewart examine the profound transformation that began in 1687. From the year when Newton published his Principia to the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, science gradually became central to Western thought and economic development. The book aims at a general audience and examines how, despite powerful opposition on the Continent, a Newtonian understanding gained acceptance and practical application. By the mid-eighteenth century the new science had achieved ascendancy, and the race was on to apply Newtonian mechanics to industry and manufacturing. They end the story with the temple to scientific and technological progress that was the Crystal Palace exhibition. Choosing their examples carefully, Jacob and Stewart show that there was nothing preordained or inevitable about the centrality awarded to science. "It is easy to forget that science might have been stillborn, or remained the esoteric knowledge of court elites. Instead, for better and for worse, science became a centerpiece of Western culture."

For more information please contact

Vera Wheeler
Tel: (310) 825-4060
vwheeler@international.ucla.edu
international.ucla.edu/euro

Sponsor(s): Center for European and Eurasian Studies

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