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The Rise of Robert Millikan: Portrait of a Life in American Science
by Robert H. Kargon
Robert H. Kargon
The Rise of Robert Millikan: Portrait of a Life in American Science
by Robert H. Kargon
Robert H. Kargon
9.99
In Stock
Overview
"I do not consider myself to be Robert Millikan's biographer. This book is not a full record of Millikan's life or even of his scientific career. It is an essay, very selective, on themes that are illustrated and illuminated by Millikan's life in American science. It is, as well, a portrait of the development of a scientist...
Robert Millikan was among the most famous of American scientists; to the public of the 1920s, Millikan represented science. The first American-born physicist to win the Nobel Prize, Millikan was a leader in the application of scientific research to military problems during World War I and a guiding force in the rise of the California Institute of Technology to a preeminent place in American scientific education and research. His life is therefore peculiarly suited to illuminate and provide texture for the vast changes that have taken place in science during the twentieth century. In this extended essay, I employ the biographical mode to explore several important aspects of this theme. Millikan was successively a teacher, researcher, administrator, entrepreneur, and sage. By describing the novel roles that he assumed, I suggest how science grew in complexity and carved out an essential place for itself in our general culture." — Robert H. Kargon, from the Preface of The Rise of Robert Millikan: Portrait of a Life in American Science
"Professor Kargon... has given us a sympathetic account of Millikan's scientific career, including his great triumphs, his rearguard actions to defend untenable positions, and the eventual rejection or revision of every major result or standpoint. But he is more concerned with Millikan's influence on the developing American physics community and with Millikan's role in advancing American science generally and American higher education... Together with the chemist A.P. Noyes and the astronomer G.E. Hale, Millikan... believed in an American scientific destiny... This picture of American science is presented with great insight, tremendous learning, and wit... Professor Kargon's book strikes a happy balance between being an interpretive story of a scientific life and a social history of science in America. Every reader interested in science or in the place of science in society will come away from this book with new information, important insights and a better understanding of the growth of scientific ideas and institutions in the twentieth century." — I. Bernard Cohen, Nature
"With the publication of this volume by Kargon, readers now have new and valuable access to much material about Millikan that was previously unavailable... Kargon states that he is not writing a biography of Millikan but rather a portrait of the man and the scientific scene in early 20th-century America... he has succeeded well in this endeavor... the book is well written, and readers who are already reasonably conversant with 20th-century developments in physics will find much that is illuminating... a genuine contribution to the history of science." — Katherine R. Sopka, American Scientist
"[H]ere is an admirable piece of work... Kargon has not sought to make his readers like his subject, but only to understand his scientific style, his achievements, and his character, and to perceive how his life was 'a microcosm of new roles assumed by the scientist during the course of the twentieth century'... Kargon's [...] insights [are] important, and his book [is] deserving of a careful study. " — Robert C. Post, The American Historical Review
"A useful corrective to Millikan's self-portrait that reveals some of the blemishes, as well as the embellishments, of an important life in American science." — Robert W. Seidel, Science
"For over thirty years, the only overview of Millikan's life available to the layman was his own selective autobiography. That book either omitted or told only one side (sometimes biased by hindsight) of many important controversial episodes associated with his achievements and views... Kargon's portrait-essay deals with some of these neglected incidents in a well-written and coherent manner aimed at a wide readership." — John L. Michel, Technology and Culture
"A very readable work with the virtue of containing a great deal of information in a brief compass. Kargon's book deserves and will receive a wide audience as the successor to its subject's autobiography... [Kargon] also merits credit for interesting discussions on Millikan as a statesman, administrator, and spokesman for science... a clearly first-rate narrative..." — Nathan Reingold, Isis
Robert Millikan was among the most famous of American scientists; to the public of the 1920s, Millikan represented science. The first American-born physicist to win the Nobel Prize, Millikan was a leader in the application of scientific research to military problems during World War I and a guiding force in the rise of the California Institute of Technology to a preeminent place in American scientific education and research. His life is therefore peculiarly suited to illuminate and provide texture for the vast changes that have taken place in science during the twentieth century. In this extended essay, I employ the biographical mode to explore several important aspects of this theme. Millikan was successively a teacher, researcher, administrator, entrepreneur, and sage. By describing the novel roles that he assumed, I suggest how science grew in complexity and carved out an essential place for itself in our general culture." — Robert H. Kargon, from the Preface of The Rise of Robert Millikan: Portrait of a Life in American Science
"Professor Kargon... has given us a sympathetic account of Millikan's scientific career, including his great triumphs, his rearguard actions to defend untenable positions, and the eventual rejection or revision of every major result or standpoint. But he is more concerned with Millikan's influence on the developing American physics community and with Millikan's role in advancing American science generally and American higher education... Together with the chemist A.P. Noyes and the astronomer G.E. Hale, Millikan... believed in an American scientific destiny... This picture of American science is presented with great insight, tremendous learning, and wit... Professor Kargon's book strikes a happy balance between being an interpretive story of a scientific life and a social history of science in America. Every reader interested in science or in the place of science in society will come away from this book with new information, important insights and a better understanding of the growth of scientific ideas and institutions in the twentieth century." — I. Bernard Cohen, Nature
"With the publication of this volume by Kargon, readers now have new and valuable access to much material about Millikan that was previously unavailable... Kargon states that he is not writing a biography of Millikan but rather a portrait of the man and the scientific scene in early 20th-century America... he has succeeded well in this endeavor... the book is well written, and readers who are already reasonably conversant with 20th-century developments in physics will find much that is illuminating... a genuine contribution to the history of science." — Katherine R. Sopka, American Scientist
"[H]ere is an admirable piece of work... Kargon has not sought to make his readers like his subject, but only to understand his scientific style, his achievements, and his character, and to perceive how his life was 'a microcosm of new roles assumed by the scientist during the course of the twentieth century'... Kargon's [...] insights [are] important, and his book [is] deserving of a careful study. " — Robert C. Post, The American Historical Review
"A useful corrective to Millikan's self-portrait that reveals some of the blemishes, as well as the embellishments, of an important life in American science." — Robert W. Seidel, Science
"For over thirty years, the only overview of Millikan's life available to the layman was his own selective autobiography. That book either omitted or told only one side (sometimes biased by hindsight) of many important controversial episodes associated with his achievements and views... Kargon's portrait-essay deals with some of these neglected incidents in a well-written and coherent manner aimed at a wide readership." — John L. Michel, Technology and Culture
"A very readable work with the virtue of containing a great deal of information in a brief compass. Kargon's book deserves and will receive a wide audience as the successor to its subject's autobiography... [Kargon] also merits credit for interesting discussions on Millikan as a statesman, administrator, and spokesman for science... a clearly first-rate narrative..." — Nathan Reingold, Isis
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940162764199 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Plunkett Lake Press |
| Publication date: | 11/08/2020 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 3 MB |
About the Author
Robert Hugh Kargon was born in Brooklyn, educated with a Union Carbide Research Scholarship at Duke University where he received a B.Sc. degree in physics. He earned a Master of Science degree in physics at Yale and a Ph.D. in history of science from Cornell. He received an honorary D.Sc. degree from the University of Westminster (London) in 2008. Kargon taught at the University of Illinois 1964-65 before moving to Johns Hopkins University where he is now Willis K. Shepard Professor of the History of Science.
His first book, Atomism in England from Hariot to Newton (1966), dealt with the Scientific Revolution. Subsequently his historical interests broadened and moved forward in time. His other books include The Maturing of American Science (1974), Science in Victorian Manchester: Enterprise and Expertise (1977), The Rise of Robert Millikan (1982), Invented Edens: Techno-Cities of the 20th Century [with Arthur Molella] (2008), Urban Modernity: Cultural Innovation in the Second Industrial Revolution [with Miriam Levin et al.] (2010), and World’s Fairs on the Eve of War: Science, Technology and Modernity [with Karen Fiss et al.] (2015).
Kargon organized (with Paul Hanle of the Air and Space Museum) the Space Telescope History Project, with NASA’s support, and placed a “combat historian” on the Hubble Space Telescope Project headed by Riccardo Giacconi while the project was developing. Kargon was a contributor to the resulting book The Space Telescope (1989) by Robert Smith that was published before the launch in 1990.
He lives in Baltimore with his wife and near his two adult children.
His first book, Atomism in England from Hariot to Newton (1966), dealt with the Scientific Revolution. Subsequently his historical interests broadened and moved forward in time. His other books include The Maturing of American Science (1974), Science in Victorian Manchester: Enterprise and Expertise (1977), The Rise of Robert Millikan (1982), Invented Edens: Techno-Cities of the 20th Century [with Arthur Molella] (2008), Urban Modernity: Cultural Innovation in the Second Industrial Revolution [with Miriam Levin et al.] (2010), and World’s Fairs on the Eve of War: Science, Technology and Modernity [with Karen Fiss et al.] (2015).
Kargon organized (with Paul Hanle of the Air and Space Museum) the Space Telescope History Project, with NASA’s support, and placed a “combat historian” on the Hubble Space Telescope Project headed by Riccardo Giacconi while the project was developing. Kargon was a contributor to the resulting book The Space Telescope (1989) by Robert Smith that was published before the launch in 1990.
He lives in Baltimore with his wife and near his two adult children.
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