STEM in the EAR

Situate science and STEM in the early republic, doing so can be challenging. What our historical subjects meant by words like “science” and “medicine” can be profoundly different from their use in the twenty-first century. Several phenomena of the early republic engage science in important and inter...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of the early Republic Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 1 - 4
Main Author Johnson, Ann
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press 01.04.2016
Subjects
20th century
Auditory system
Engineering
Historians
Historiography
Industrial development
Introduction
Land surveys
Mathematics
Medicine
Natural history
Nature
Politics
Roles
Science
Science education
STEM education
United States > US
Chicago Illinois
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Summary:Situate science and STEM in the early republic, doing so can be challenging. What our historical subjects meant by words like “science” and “medicine” can be profoundly different from their use in the twenty-first century. Several phenomena of the early republic engage science in important and interesting ways, and overlooking science results in a skewed account. Ubiquity, as much as its poor resemblance to post-WWII science, helps account for both its invisibility and importance in the historiography of early America. A renewed attention to the roles of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in the early republic will enrich the classic questions of the period, offering new insights about political formation and commercial development. A key consideration is not to ask “what was science?” but rather to ask “what counted as science?” Why did a particular activity or body of knowledge count as science, and what was at stake in making a claim of being scientific?
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ISSN:0275-1275
1553-0620
1553-0620
DOI:10.1353/jer.2016.0008