ABSTRACT

Science, Enlightenment and Revolution brings together thirteen papers by renowned historian Dorinda Outram. Published between 1976 and 2019 and scattered in a variety of journals and collected volumes, these articles are published together here for the first time.

During her distinguished career, Outram has made significant contributions to the history of science, to the history and historiography of the Enlightenment, to gender history, to the history of geographical exploration, and to the historical uses of language. This volume also includes other writings by Outram, comprising an unpublished introduction in the form of an intellectual autobiography. Placing this together with her collected academic papers offers readers an overview of her development as an historian and a writer.

This book is important reading for scholars and students of early modern Europe, as well as those interested in the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and gender studies. (CS 1101).

chapter |24 pages

Introduction

Reflections on an intellectual life

chapter 2|27 pages

The Language of Natural Power

The “éloges” of Georges Cuvier and the public language of nineteenth century science

chapter 3|18 pages

Politics and Vocation

French science, 1793–1830

chapter 4|24 pages

The Ordeal of Vocation

The Paris Academy of Sciences and the Terror, 1793–95

chapter 5|14 pages

Before Objectivity

Wives, patronage, and cultural reproduction in early nineteenth-century French science

chapter 6|16 pages

‘Le Langage Mâle de la Vertu’

Women and the discourse of the French Revolution

chapter 7|17 pages

Life-Paths

Autobiography, science and the French Revolution

chapter 8|12 pages

New Spaces in Natural History

chapter 9|12 pages

On being Perseus

New knowledge, dislocation, and enlightenment exploration

chapter 10|8 pages

The Enlightenment our Contemporary

chapter 11|7 pages

Heavenly Bodies and Logical Minds1

John Banville's astronomical novels

chapter 12|5 pages

Negating the Natural

Or why historians deny Irish science

chapter 13|22 pages

Enlightenment Struggles