Download American Astronomy Online Book
ByJohn Lankford,Ricky L. Slavings
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36
“Books support us in our solitude and keep us from being a burden to ourselves.” –Jeremy Collier
Synopsis
In this collective biography of the more than 1,200 individuals who engaged in astronomical research, teaching, or practice in the United States between 1859 and 1940, John Lankford paints a meticulously documented portrait of this community. He tallies the number with and without doctorates, the number that taught in colleges or universities versus those involved in industrial or government work, the number of women versus men, and so on. He also addresses the crucial question of power within the community—what it meant, which astronomers had it, and what they did with it. Drawing on more than a decade of archival research, Lankford attends to the numbers in concise tables and figures, and takes care to focus through biographical sketches on the human beings his data represent. This dual approach convincingly illustrates how the changing structure of a scientific community can alter both the career trajectories of its members and the nature of the scientific research they choose to pursue.
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