Mary Somerville: Science, Illumination, and the Female Mind (Cambridge Science Biographies) [Paperback]

Kathryn A. Neeley (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521626722 | ISBN-13: 978-0521626729 | Publication Date: October 22, 2001 | Edition: 1st ed

In an era when science was perceived as a male domain, Mary Somerville (1780-1872) became both the leading woman scientist of her day and an integral part of the British scientific community. Her scientific writings contributed to one of the most important cultural projects of Victorian Britain: establishing science as a distinct, integral, and unifying element of culture. By the time of her death, Somerville had achieved near-mythic status in Britain. Her works reflect both the power of science to capture imagination and the influence of cultural factors in the development of science. They provide a window into a particularly lucid and illuminated mind and into one of the most formative periods in the evolution of modern scientific culture. This retelling of Somerville's story focuses on the factors that allowed her to become an eminent scientist and argues for rethinking the story of women's participation in science.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Neeley poses compelling questions about the character of scientific discourse and women's participation in science." Lancet

"Neeley...contributes to the recent wealth of work on science writing, an integration of gender studies and science-in-culture. ...Neeley's historiographical analysis of the changing strategies and roles for women in science over the course of Somerville's long life (1780-1872) deserves to be read by any serious scholar of nineteenth-century science or women's history." Isis

Book Description

This book tells the life story of the leading woman of science in Great Britain during the nineteenth century and offers in-depth analysis of the factors that allowed her to achieve prominence; her extensive scientific writings; and the processes by which Mary Somerville and her work were committed to historical memory. It argues for a broad definition of significance in science and a new narrative for women's participation in science, both of which make it easier to appreciate the accomplishments of Somerville and other women scientists.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1st ed edition (October 22, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521626722
• ISBN-13: 978-0521626729
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,739,874 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Florid, turgid prose, June 28, 2004

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This review is from: Mary Somerville: Science, Illumination, and the Female Mind (Cambridge Science Biographies) (Hardcover)

A very distinguished female scientist, in whose long life of 92 years, she experienced and contributed to Victorian science. Neeley takes us back to that era. She shows how Somerville became well known to the educated via such books as "Mechanism of the Heavens" (1831) and "On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences" (1834). They were well received and helped popularise science, and also the (shocking!) concept that a woman could write such analytic prose. That such deeds were not a male preserve.

To be sure, from our vantage point, some of Somerville's analyses may seem strained. Prior to James Maxwell's discoveries of his equations that unified electricity and magnetism, those effects could only be treated in a vague, qualitative fashion. Neeley's excerpts of Somerville's writings reveal this. Along with a florid, turgid style. But keep in mind that this was the accepted style of that era. And until Maxwell came along, her speculations were arguably the best any scientist could do.