Perspectives is an ever-growing library of podcasts, videos, and essays on the history of science, technology and medicine, along with resources for further learning and opportunities to engage in ongoing conversations.
Perspectives provides discussions with leading scholars, interviews with recent authors, and archival highlights from the exceptional collections of Consortium member institutions.
In this podcast, Rana Hogarth describes her background and her research on Eugenics and the Legacies of Slavery in Consortium collections.
Listen in as professor of History and Philosophy of Science Ofer Gal offers a peek into his exploration of science as a global cultural phenomenon.
Eugenia Lean explores the transformation of Chinese industry in the early twentieth century. Lean demonstrates the importance of culture and knowledge production to China's industrial, technological, and economic development.
Adam R. Shapiro examines the Scopes Trial and the antievolution movement in America from a new vantage point, turning to the early twentieth century science textbook industry and push for compulsory education to understand the battle over what was taught in America's schools.
Watch Peter Sachs Collopy, Michael Chwe, Ruth Lewin Sime, and Robert Marc Friedman and they discuss justice and injustice in science, with specific reference to the "Meitner Scandal" and the re-evaluation of Robert Millikan's troubling legacy. Susan Lindee moderates the panel, and Sue V. Rosser provides commentary and discussion.
Stephen Weldon discusses the history of the humanist movement in America and the ways in which its "scientific spirit" became central to American liberal culture and values.
Listen to this ongoing series of perspectives on the history of racial science from scholars in the humanities and social sciences. There are currently eight episodes in the series that investigate the intersections of science and race in the United States, Latin America, Western Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, and Australia.
Emily Merchant exlores the history of population growth modeling and the intellectual and ideological battles over the concept of overpopulation.
Douglas O'Reagan discusses the Allied effort to appropriate German science, technology, and industrial capability during and after World War II.
Eric Hintz explores the history of independent inventors, their complex relationship with corporate America, and their resurgence in the late 20th and 21st centuries.
Lucas Richert discusses the theory and practice of psychiatry in the 1960s and 1970s, exploring the ways that radical psychiatry and the counterculture changed the discipline.
Teasel Muir-Harmony discusses the political history of Project Apollo and the domestic and foreign policy considerations that went into trying to land a human on the Moon by the end of the 1960s.
Neeraja Sankaran provides a novel approach to the history of the development of medical virology by comparing the history of two groups of medically important viruses: bacteriophages and sarcoma agents.
Rachel Walker discusses race and science in early America, using archival images pertaining to phrenology and physiognomy to discuss the ways these techniques were used to prop up existing social hierarchies, and also to subvert them.
Listen to historian Alberto Martínez as he discusses the ways in which the visionary discoveries of Giordano Bruno were unfairly discredited and excised from history in a centuries-long campaign against the heterodox philosopher and cosmologist.
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Discussions with authors, often with several readers, with links to additional resources
Phrenology was the most popular mental science of the Victorian age. From American senators to Indian social reformers, this new mental science found supporters around the globe.
Dóra Vargha uses a series of polio epidemics in communist Hungary to understand the response to a global public health emergency in the midst of the Cold War.
In this podcast episode, we discuss the history of how biblical notions of race influenced European understandings of Africa.
In Bone Rooms, Samuel Redman explores the history of human remains collecting. The collection and display of bodily remains became central to debates about ethics, repatriation, and scientific authority that continue today.
In Routes of Power, Christopher Jones describes how the American energy industry grew into a vast network of canals, pipelines, and wires - fueling growth and consumption and leading to environmental problems associated with fossil fuels.
Join historian Melanie Kiechle as she delves into the history of health and sensory perception in 19th century urban environments.
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