Science and the Founding Fathers by I Bernard Cohen

Science and the Founding Fathers by I Bernard Cohen

Thomas Jefferson was the only president who could read and understand Newton's Principia. Benjamin Franklin is credited with establishing the science of electricity. John Adams had the finest education in science that the new country could provide, including "Pnewmaticks, Hydrostaticks, Mechanicks, Staticks, Opticks." James Madison, chief architect of the Constitution, peppered his Federalist Papers with references to physics, chemistry, and the life sciences. For these men science was an integral part of life—including political life. This is the story of their scientific education and of how they employed that knowledge in shaping the political issues of the day, incorporating scientific reasoning into the Constitution.

"Intellectually engaging…deftly written" -- Boston Globe
"Cohen's eye-opening, elegant study shows that America's Founding Fathers were true citizens of the Age of Reason who sought links between scientific principles and constitutional government." -- Publishers Weekly
"A fascinating study…the founding fathers appear in an interesting new light, thanks to Cohen's fresh, not to say iconoclastic, vision." -- Kirkus Reviews

I. Bernard Cohen (1914—2003) was Victor S. Thomas Professor, Emeritus, of the History of Science at Harvard University, where he taught from 1942 to 1984. He was the first American to receive the degree of Ph.D. in the History of Science. He was the author of many books, including Science and the Founding Fathers: Science in the Political Thought of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and James Madison; The Science of Benjamin Franklin; Revolution in Science; The Newtonian Revolution; The Birth of a New Physics; and, with Anne Whitman, Isaac Newtonís Principia: A New Translation of Newtonís Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. He edited several series of works, including Harvard Monographs in the History of Science, Three Centuries of Science in America, and the ongoing Studies & Texts in the History of Computing. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Royal Astronomical Society, the British Academy, and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780393315103
ISBN 10	039331510X
Title	Science and the Founding Fathers
Author	I Bernard Cohen
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	WW Norton & Co
Year published	1997-01-22
Number of pages	370
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.