The long and short of it: The future writing of history of chemistry

Brock, William H.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128619 Copy

Description

Title

The long and short of it: The future writing of history of chemistry

Author(s)

Brock, William H.

Issue Date

2022-01-01

Keyword(s)

• Chemistry
• History
• Monographs

Abstract

Following reflections on the experience of writing a long, thick history of chemistry in 1992 and, some 24 years later, a short thin one in 2016, the author notes how quickly the historiography of chemistry changed in just two decades. He asks whether book-length histories of chemistry, whether long or short, have a future. While the writing of biographical articles may seem straightforward, journal articles present problems as contemporary chemistry becomes more and more bound up with its sister sciences, computing and engineering, and the history of science with social and cultural history. Probably the only way to tackle late-twentieth and twenty-first-century chemistry satisfactorily is through a collaboration between technically-trained chemists and historians of science who may (or may not) have studied chemistry in their early education. The author reflects on two of his recent experiences of such collaboration.

Publisher

Division of the History of Chemistry

ISSN

1053-4385

Type of Resource

text

Genre of Resource

article

Language

eng

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/128619

DOI

https://doi.org/10.70359/bhc2022v047p138

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Division of the History of Chemistry

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