Total knowledge? Encyclopedic handbooks in the twentieth-century chemical and life sciences
| Autor: | Mathias Grote |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine History Subject (documents) Temporality General Medicine Factual knowledge 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences language.human_language German 03 medical and health sciences Knowledge generation 030104 developmental biology Determinative bacteriology language Relevance (law) Classics |
| Zdroj: | BJHS Themes. 5:187-203 |
| ISSN: | 2056-354X 2058-850X |
| Popis: | Encyclopedic handbooks have been household names to scientists – Gmelins Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie to chemists, Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology to microbiologists. Their heavy tomes were consulted for reference, and their contents taken as authoritative. This paper analyses the development of this genre as well as of ‘handbook science’. Handbooks and their claim to provide comprehensive factual knowledge on a subject should be understood as a reaction to the scattering of knowledge in modern periodical print as discussed by Wilhelm Ostwald or Ludwik Fleck. A comparative analysis of the actors, the institutions and practices of compiling and editing a German and an American handbook project around mid-century reveals commonalities and differences in how twentieth-century sciences have attempted to cope with the acceleration and dispersion of knowledge generation before computing. These attempts have resulted in different conceptions of a book, from compilation to organic whole. Moreover, the handbook's claim to comprise lasting facts makes it a fitting case in point to reflect on the temporality of knowledge and the relevance of books to the sciences. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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