Working Knowledge

About the Book

Collects key articles by Simon Schaffer, one of the most important historians of science working today.

Working Knowledge is the first English-language collection of essays by Simon Schaffer, coauthor of Leviathan and the Air-Pump, a landmark text in the history of science. Though the latter may be his most famous book, Schaffer is also renowned for seminal articles on Isaac Newton and the cultures of popular spectacle, nineteenth-century physics and its practices of labor discipline and standardization, the history of anthropology and collecting, and the globe-spanning cultural interactions that have shaped modern science. Working Knowledge compiles these well-known pieces alongside newer selections, making them accessible in a single place and representing the huge scope and impact of Schaffer's oeuvre.

The Reader divides sixteen of Schaffer's articles across five thematic sections, which take up timely issues like the turn toward global histories of science; the intersection of science and capitalism; the interaction between bodies and machines; and the connection between science, politics, and the environment. Eight new essays by notable historians such as Adrian Johns, Lissa Roberts, and Steven Shapin bring Schaffer's pieces into discussion with current scholarship. Illustrations and brief commentaries by Schaffer and the artist Adam Lowe, a longtime collaborator, are included throughout the volume.

Bringing together essential articles that were previously scattered across several publications, Working Knowledge is an insightful introduction to Schaffer and his ever-relevant writing.

About the Author :
Simon Schaffer, fellow of the British Academy and professor of history and philosophy of Science at Cambridge University since 1985, is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books, among them, with Steven Shapin, the classic Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Boyle, Hobbes, and the Experimental Life. Schaffer's work has been awarded the Erasmus Prize, the George Sarton Medal from the History of Science Society, the Dan David Prize, the Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum, and the Paul Bunge Award from the German Chemical Society. Charlotte Bigg is a research fellow at the Centre Alexandre Koyré and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. John Tresch is professor in the history of art, science, and folk practice at The Warburg Institute at the University of London. Simon Werrett is professor of the history of science at the University College London.

Review :

"Both a delight and a necessity: a collection of marvels by the field's foremost fashioner of academic articles. To say that Schaffer is one of the world's leading historians of science is to put it blandly. Schaffer famously reoriented the history of scientific knowledge-making around its collective labor, and he has been the field's most exuberant worker in this vein. Each of the five thematic introductions shows how he has practiced what he preaches about practice: how his craftwork emerged from his pedagogy, his after-hours sociability (notably in the pub), his performances as a telly don, and his curated exhibits. Steven Shapin's conclusion is reason alone this volume was worth assembling. The book conveys something of the measure of the man."

--Ken Alder, Northwestern University "Schaffer writes history as if ideas have gravity, drawing institutions, instruments, and empires into converging orbits. His scholarship reveals not only how science operates and is performed, but how it travels across oceans, through social orders, and between minds. With a gift for uncovering the improbable connections between seemingly minor details and vast intellectual structures, Schaffer transforms footnotes into revelations. Framed by illuminating introductions from leading historians of science, Working Knowledge foregrounds Schaffer's rare capacity to elucidate the material and conceptual architecture of science in ways that are both vivid and broadly accessible."--Jean-François Gauvin, Université Laval