London Seminar: Fall 2008

INGENUITY AND EMPIRE:
Science and Society in England's Golden Age
(From Newton to Darwin)

Fall 2008

Led by Professor Larry Marschall
Gettysburg College Physics Department

����������� During the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th Centuries, England experienced a golden age. Its imperial presence felt around the globe, London became the hub of Western civilization, a global focal point for commerce and a coordinating center for the industrial revolution. While it is tempting to interpret its success primarily in economic terms, England's greatest accomplishment and greatest resource was in the realm of ideas, in the form of clear thinkers who found new ways to look at the natural world. These men (for they usually were men) often contributed directly to England's material success: Boyle and Wren, for instance, provided the architectural know-how for the rebuilding of London after the disastrous fire of 1666, John Harrison built a chronometer that made navigation safer, and Davy and Faraday were involved in the perfection of optical glass and a host of other chemical processes. But the greatest contributions were in providing new views of the universe, new ways of looking at the place of humans in the cosmos.

����������� It was England's great economic success that provided the social infrastructure that encouraged scientific speculation. In part it was the leisure provided by great wealth that supported institutions like the Royal Institution. In addition, Britain's imperial appetite fostered many journeys of exploration - like those of Halley, Cook, and Darwin - from which explorers returned with a broadened perspective. Expanding knowledge of the earth, it could also be argued, fostered an expansive view of the universe at large. Newton, Halley, Herschel, and Darwin all viewed nature as far larger than that of their modest island and far longer than the history of the British monarchy. Perhaps it was the knowledge that there were wonders beyond her shores that helped foster this: like Greece's golden age, the flowering of speculative thought was nourished by everyday commerce with exotic people from distant lands.

����������� Many of our students know little about the history of science, but it is a great way to introduce them to the intellectual and social life of a great nation at an important period of history. And what better place to learn about this time of ferment than in London, where so many of its movers and shakers lived and worked? This month-long course proposes to acquaint students with the history and major ideas of a sampling of the seminal thinkers of this period. They will visit sites that include places in which these innovators lived and worked, libraries and museums with materials on the history of the times, and other locations that figured prominently in the intellectual history of this period. By reading biographical works on these inventors and scientists, students will develop a sense of the intellectual and social climate of England in its Golden Age, as well as an appreciation of the great ideas of the time.