Imperialism and Science: Social Impact and Interaction (Science & Society S.)

A unique resource that synthesizes existing primary and secondary sources to provide a fascinating introduction to the development and dissemination of science within history’s great empires, as well as the complex interaction between imperialism and scientific progress over two centuries. From alchemy to the atom bomb, from penicillin to poison gas, the proliferation of Western science throughout the colonial world was driven by imperial imperatives. In 19th-century Greece, science was seen as a weapon in the independence struggle, while America’s transformation from colony to superpower can largely be attributed to its enthusiastic embrace of science and technology. Imperialism and Science is a scholarly yet accessible chronicle of the impact of imperialism on science over the past 200 years, from the effect of Catholicism on scientific progress in Latin America to the importance of U.S. government funding of scientific research to America’s preeminent place in the world. Spanning two centuries of scientific advance throughout the age of empire, Imperialism and Science sheds new light on the spread of scientific thought throughout the former colonial world. Science made enormous advances during this period, often being associated with anti-Imperialist struggle or, as in the case of the science brought to 19th-century China and India by the British, with Western cultural hegemony.