Science in the 20th Century and Beyond

interest the scholar, the historian and the enquiring mind of any discipline." Network Computing "A synthetic history of a subject as big, broad and diverse as twentieth-century science is a major achievement. But Agar has given us something more than that: his book is an innovative model of how one might think about scientific practices at temporal and institutional scales much larger than those to which modern historical writing has become accustomed." Steven Shapin, Harvard University, and author of The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation "Science in the Twentieth Century and Beyond is the book historians of modern science have been waiting for. It offers an ambitious yet masterly synthesis of the vast historical literature on twentieth-century and contemporary science. Through the concept of the 'working worlds' of science, it provides a unified and compelling analytical framework within which to interpret and illuminate this ever expanding literature and the development of the sciences from 1900 to the present. Jon Agar is a sure-footed and informative guide over this complex terrain; what results is a clear and comprehensive work of breadth and vision that few other scholars could have produced. Superbly crafted, elegantly written, inventive and thought-provoking, the book makes an absolutely invaluable contribution to the history of science. It will be indispensable to anyone who teaches, researches or is just interested in the history of modern science and the contemporary world." Jeff Hughes, University of Manchester "A fine chronological survey of the multiple worlds in which scientists worked in the twentieth century, responding to their demands by seeking to understand, to manipulate and to transform them." John Krige, Georgia Institute of Technology "A tour-de-force, covering a period of over a hundred years in which the growth of science has been exponential, and astonishing in its coverage of the various branches of science and their inosculations. There is no other book with the same range, and command of material and recent scholarship." David Knight, Durham University

full story. Jon Agar has set this to rights with this book, which will interest the scholar, the historian and the enquiring mind of any discipline."
Network Computing
"A synthetic history of a subject as big, broad and diverse as twentieth-century science is a major achievement. But Agar has given us something more than that: his book is an innovative model of how one might think about scientific practices at temporal and institutional scales much larger than those to which modern historical writing has become accustomed."
Steven Shapin, Harvard University, and author of The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation
 
"Science in the Twentieth Century and Beyond is the book historians of modern science have been waiting for. It offers an ambitious yet masterly synthesis of the vast historical literature on twentieth-century and contemporary science. Through the concept of the 'working worlds' of science, it provides a unified and compelling analytical framework within which to interpret and illuminate this ever expanding literature and the development of the sciences from 1900 to the present. Jon Agar is a sure-footed and informative guide over this complex terrain; what results is a clear and comprehensive work of breadth and vision that few other scholars could have produced. Superbly crafted, elegantly written, inventive and thought-provoking, the book makes an absolutely invaluable contribution to the history of science. It will be indispensable to anyone who teaches, researches or is just interested in the history of modern science and the contemporary world."
Jeff Hughes, University of Manchester
 
"A fine chronological survey of the multiple worlds in which scientists worked in the twentieth century, responding to their demands by seeking to understand, to manipulate and to transform them."
John Krige, Georgia Institute of Technology
 
"A tour-de-force, covering a period of over a hundred years in which the growth of science has been exponential, and astonishing in its coverage of the various branches of science and their inosculations. There is no other book with the same range, and command of material and recent scholarship."
David Knight, Durham University
"Key ideas are articulated and linked in interesting and surprising ways, key contexts described and a few explored in detail, and the demands of these contexts are linked to ideas. This is a trope which offers the prospect of addressing the scale of twentieth-century science and rendering it in exemplary narratives which convey meaning to the reader in the recognisable form of human lives and work."
Robert Bud, The Science Museum, London