An experiment with science for the nineteenth- century book trade: the International Scientific Series

Abstract

The theory, method and disciplinary foundations of ‘book history’ are addressed in the context of a close examination of the International Scientific Series, a set of monographs that appeared from 1871 to 1911 in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States. Working closely with entrepreneurial publishers, most authors of ISS volumes were scientific professionals (T. H. Huxley, John Tyndall, Herbert Spencer and E. L. Youmans were among the founders) aiming to educate a broad popular audience. Commercial, scholarly and other pressures made the texts less fixed than they appear: revisions, appendices and other evidences of textual instability have been overlooked by previous commentators.

The Power of Weak Competitors: Women Scholars, “Popular Science,” and the Building of a Scientific Community in Italy, 1860s-1930s

“…Like the case of the “Italian Nature ,” another interesting episode attesting popularizing's transnational character saw the Turin publishers, the brothers Dumolard, launch in 1875 the Biblioteca Scientifica Internazionale . The series started as an Italian offshoot of the International Scientific Series, brainchild of the American Edward L. Youmans and involving collaboration between publishers and scientists to spread Darwin's evolutionary theories (MacLeod 1980; Howsam 2000; Lightman 2007, chaps. 2 and 7; Govoni, [2002] 2011, chap.…”

Transatlantic communication in the early years of the International Scientific Series (1871 to 1875)

“…The book history of the ISS was described by Howsam in 2000. 4 Here we will examine the trend-setting early British and American volumes in the ISS (figure 1), using Roman numerals for British, and Arabic numerals for American volumes. How were they involved in transatlantic science communication, and did the ISS achieve its stated objective of purifying popular science publishing?…”