Positions

Research Areas research areas

Overview

  • Jan Golinski is a professor in the Department of History and the Humanities Program. He came to UNH in 1990, after completing a Ph.D. at the University of Leeds and a postdoctoral fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge. He teaches courses on the history of science since the Renaissance, European intellectual history, and historiography.

    Professor Golinski's research focus is on the sciences of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment. He is the author of three books: Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760-1820 (Cambridge University Press, 1992); Making Natural Knowledge: Constructivism and the History of Science (University of Chicago Press, 2005); and British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press, 2007). He also edited, with William Clark and Simon Schaffer, The Sciences in Enlightened Europe (University of Chicago Press, 1999). He is currently working on a biographical study of the English chemist Humphry Davy, and on the sciences of the environment in the era of Romanticism.

    Professor Golinski has held distinguished fellowships at the Huntington Library (California) and the Chemical Heritage Foundation (Philadelphia); he has also been a visiting fellow at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science at MIT, at the University of Wisconsin, and at the Universities of Cambridge and Salford in the United Kingdom. At UNH, he has been recognized by the Outstanding Faculty Award (Associate Professor) in 1998, and the Lindberg Award for Excellence in Teaching and Research in the College of Liberal Arts in 2012.

    • Selected Publications

    Academic Article

    Year Title
    2019 The Industrious Tyndall.  Isis: international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences.  110:137-141. 2019
    2019 "The Fitness of Their Union": Travel and Health in the Letters of Humphry and Jane Davy..  Ambix.  66:181-194. 2019
    2017 Naturalization/humanization.  Metascience: an international review journal for the history, philosophy and social studies of science.  2017
    2017 Sublime Astronomy: The Eidouranion of Adam Walker and His Sons.  Huntington Library Quarterly: studies in English and American history and literature.  80:135-157. 2017
    2016 Richard Kirwan and the Royal Irish Academy: Provincial metropolitanism and the crisis of the 1790s.  History of Science: review of literature and research.  54:257-275. 2016
    2016 The Cradle of Chemistry: The Early Years of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh..  Ambix.  63:189-190. 2016
    2016 DEBATING THE ATMOSPHERIC CONSTITUTION: YELLOW FEVER AND THE AMERICAN CLIMATE.  Eighteenth-Century Studies.  49:149-+. 2016
    2016 Review of: Hjalmar Fors, The Limits of Matter: Chemistry, Mining, and Enlightenment.  Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society.  2016
    2016 Review of: Robert G. W. Anderson, ed., Cradle of Chemistry: The Early Years of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh.  Ambix.  2016
    2016 Review of: Thomas Apel, Feverish Bodies, Enlightened Minds: Science and the Yellow Fever Controversy in the Early American Republic.  H-SHEAR.  2016
    2015 Review of: Robert Mitchell, Experimental Life: Vitalism in Romantic Science and Literature.  The BARS Review.  2015
    2014 Review of: Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Enlightenment’s Frontier: The Scottish Highlands and the Origins of Environmentalism.  Journal of British Studies.  2014
    2014 Review of: Nathaniel Wolloch, History and Nature in the Enlightenment.  American Historical Review.  2014
    2013 Review of: Sorana Corneanu, Regimens of the Mind.  Renaissance Quarterly.  2013
    2012 Historiography in a metaphysical mode.  Metascience: an international review journal for the history, philosophy and social studies of science.  2012
    2012 Is It Time to Forget Science? Reflections on Singular Science and Its History.  Osiris.  27:19-36. 2012
    2012 Review of: Paul A. Elliott, Enlightenment, Modernity and Science.  Medical History: An International Journal for the History of Medicine and Related Sciences.  2012
    2012 Review of: Peter Howlett and Mary S. Morgan, eds., How Well Do Facts Travel?.  Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society.  2012
    2011 SCIENCE IN THE ENLIGHTENMENT, REVISITED.  History of Science: review of literature and research.  49:217-231. 2011
    2011 HUMPHRY DAVY: THE EXPERIMENTAL SELF.  Eighteenth-Century Studies.  45:15-+. 2011
    2010 Review of: Joe Bord, Science and Whig Manners, and Diarmid A. Finnegan, Natural History Societies and Civic Culture in Victorian Scotland.  Victorian studies.  2010
    2010 Review of: Michael Hunter, Boyle: Between God and Science.  American Scientist: the Magazine of Sigma XI, the Scientific Research Society.  2010
    2010 Review of: Neil Safier, Measuring the New World.  The Journal of Modern History.  2010
    2010 Review of: Peter M. Jones, Industrial Enlightenment, and Paul A. Elliott, The Derby Philosophers.  Reviews in History.  2010
    2009 Review of: Charles W. J. Withers, Placing the Enlightenment.  The British Journal for the History of Science.  2009
    2009 Review of: Craig Ashley Hanson, The English Virtuoso.  Times Higher Education.  2009
    2009 Review of: Isabel Rivers and David L. Wykes, eds., Joseph Priestley.  Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies.  2009
    2009 Review of: Lissa Roberts, Simon Schaffer, Peter Dear, eds., The Mindful Hand.  Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society.  2009
    2008 Review of: Deborah E. Harkness, The Jewel House.  H-Albion, H-Net Reviews.  2008
    2008 Review of: Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, Objectivity.  American Scientist: the Magazine of Sigma XI, the Scientific Research Society.  2008
    2008 Review of: Rebecca Stott, Ghostwalk: A Novel.  Science.  2008
    2007 Focus: History of science and historical novels.  Isis: international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences.  98:755-759. 2007
    2007 Review of: Hazel Rossotti, ed., Chemistry in the Schoolroom: 1806.  Ambix.  2007
    2007 Review of: James Delbourgo, A Most Amazing Scene of Wonders.  Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society.  2007
    2007 Review of: James Rodger Fleming, Vladimir Jankovic, and Deborah R. Coen, eds., Intimate Universality.  Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society.  2007
    2006 Review of: Margaret C. Jacob and Larry Stewart, Practical Matter.  Journal of British Studies.  2006
    2006 Review of: Peter H. Reill, Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment.  American Historical Review.  2006
    2006 Review of: Peter J. Bowler and Iwan Rhys Morus, Making Modern Science.  Nuncius.  2006
    2006 Review of: Robert E. Schofield, The Enlightened Joseph Priestley.  Ambix.  2006
    2004 Review of: Charles W. J. Withers and Paul Wood, eds., Science and Medicine in the Scottish Enlightenment.  Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies.  2004
    2004 Review of: Giuliano Pancaldi, Vol.  American Historical Review.  2004
    2004 Review of: William R. Newman and Lawrence M. Principe, Alchemy Tried in the Fire.  Eighteenth-Century Thought.  2004
    2003 A legacy of enlightenment.  History of Science: review of literature and research.  2003
    2003 Producción de conocimiento natural: paradigmas, laboratorios y mapas.  Istor: Revista de Historia Internacional.  2003
    2003 Review of: David Philip Miller, Discovering Water.  Metascience: an international review journal for the history, philosophy and social studies of science.  2003
    2003 Review of: Julia V. Douthwaite, The Wild Girl, Natural Man and the Monster.  American Historical Review.  2003
    2003 Review of: Mary B. Campbell, Wonder and Scien.  1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era.  2003
    2002 Review: Science Peace?.  American Scientist: the Magazine of Sigma XI, the Scientific Research Society.  2002
    2002 The care of the self and the masculine birth of science.  History of Science: review of literature and research.  2002
    2001 Exquisite atmography’: Theories of the world and experiences of the weather in a diary of 1703.  The British Journal for the History of Science.  2001
    2001 Review of: June Z. Fullmer, Young Humphry Da.  Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies.  2001
    2000 Review of: Christopher Lawrence and Steven Shapin, eds., Science Incarna.  Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences.  2000
    2000 Review of: Mario Biagioli, ed., The Science Studies Reader.  Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society.  2000
    1999 Humphry Davy's Sexual Chemistry.  Configurations.  7:15-41. 1999
    1997 Robert Boyle’s coat of many colours.  Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A.  1997
    1994 Precision instruments and the demonstrative order of proof in Lavoisier’s chemistry.  Osiris.  1994
    1993 The rhetorical maelstrom.  Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society.  1993
    1992 ARTIFICIAL EXPERTS - SOCIAL KNOWLEDGE AND INTELLIGENT MACHINES - COLLINS,HM.  Isis: international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences.  83:371-372. 1992
    1992 The Chemical Revolution and the politics of language.  The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation.  33:238-251. 1992
    1991 L’entrée du temps dans la vie quotidienne.  Les cahiers de science et vie.  1991
    1990 Essay Review: Experiment in Scientific Practice, the Uses of Experiment: Studies in the Natural Sciences.  History of Science: review of literature and research.  1990
    1990 The theory of practice and the practice of theory: Sociological approaches in the history of science.  Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society.  1990
    1989 A NOBLE SPECTACLE - PHOSPHORUS AND THE PUBLIC CULTURES OF SCIENCE IN THE EARLY ROYAL SOCIETY.  Isis: international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences.  80:11-39. 1989
    1989 Lost in mediation: The social component of Darwin’s science.  History of the Human Sciences.  1989
    1988 Utility and audience in eighteenth-century chemistry: case studies of William Cullen and Joseph Priestley..  British Journal for the History of Science.  21:1-31. 1988
    1987 Hélène Metzger and the interpretation of seventeenth-century chemistry.  History of Science: review of literature and research.  1987
    1987 WILLIAM HUNTER AND THE 18TH-CENTURY MEDICAL WORLD - BYNUM,WF, PORTER,R.  British Journal for the History of Science.  20:103-103. 1987
    1986 A HOTBED OF GENIUS - THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT, 1730-90 - DAICHES,D, JONES,P, JONES,J.  Nature.  323:678-678. 1986
    1986 Essay Review: Science in the Enlightenment: Science and the Enlightenment.  History of Science: review of literature and research.  1986
    1983 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ALCHEMY - FRENCH - HALLEUX,R.  British Journal for the History of Science.  16:97-97. 1983
    1983 MEMOIR ON HEAT - READ TO THE ROYAL-ACADEMY-OF-SCIENCES, JUNE 28, 1783, BY LAVOISIER AND DELAPLACE OF THE SAME ACADEMY - LAVOISIER,AL, DELAPLACE,PSM.  Isis: international review devoted to the history of science and its cultural influences.  74:288-289. 1983
    1983 Peter Shaw: Chemistry and communication in Augustan England.  Taylor & Francis.  1983
    1982 The spreading of the word: new directions in the historiography of chemistry 1600-1800..  History of Science: review of literature and research.  50:235-266. 1982
    1981 Library and archive resources in the history of science and medicine at the University of Leeds..  British Journal for the History of Science.  14:263-281. 1981

    Book

    Year Title
    2016 The Experimental Self: Humphry Davy and the Making of a Man of Science 2016
    2014 British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment 2014
    2005 Making Natural Knowledge: Constructivism and the History of Science 2005
    1999 The Sciences in Enlightened Europe 1999
    1992 Science as Public Culture: Chemistry and Enlightenment in Britain, 1760-1820 1992

    Chapter

    Year Title
    2019 Weather and Climate in the Age of Enlightenment.  111-127. 2019
    2018 Sniadecki's Theory of Organic Beings in the Context of European Science..  18-25. 2018
    2017 Enlightenment Science 2017
    2013 FROM CALCUTTA TO LONDON: JAMES DINWIDDIE'S GALVANIC CIRCUITS.  History of Science and Medicine Library. 75-94. 2013
    2011 Thomas Kuhn and interdisciplinary conversation: Why historians and philosophers of science stopped talking to one another 2011
    2010 Science and religion in postmodern perspective: The case of Bruno Latour 2010
    2009 The literature of the new sciences.  527-+. 2009
    2008 American Climate and the Civilization of Nature.  153-174. 2008
    2008 Jane Haldimand Marcet (1769-1858) 2008
    2008 Joseph Priestley and the chemical sublime in British public science.  117-127. 2008
    2004 Edward Peart (1756?-1824) 2004
    2004 Peter Shaw (1694-1763) 2004
    2004 Robert Harrington (1751-1837) 2004
    2004 William Nicholson (1753-1815) 2004
    2003 Chemistry 2003
    2003 Time, talk, and the weather in eighteenth-century Britain 2003
    2002 Conversations on chemistry: Talk about phlogiston in the Coffee House Society, 1780-87 2002
    2002 El tiempo en casa: los instrumentos meteorológicos en los hogares ingleses del siglo XVIII 2002
    2002 Esperimenti, strumenti e luoghi di lavoro 2002
    2000 ‘Fit instruments’: Thermometers in eighteenth-century chemistry 2000
    1999 Barometers of change: Meteorological instruments as machines of enlightenment 1999
    1995 ‘The nicety of experiment’: Precision of measurement and precision of reasoning in late eighteenth-century chemistry 1995
    1990 Chemistry in the Scientific Revolution: Problems of language and communication 1990
    1990 Humphry Davy and ‘the lever of experiment’ 1990
    1990 Language, discourse and science 1990
    1988 The secret life of an alchemist 1988
    1987 Robert Boyle: Scepticism and authority in seventeenth-century chemical discourse 1987

    Teaching Activities

  • Historiography Taught course 2022
  • Science in the Modern World Taught course 2022
  • Honors/Revolutions in Science Taught course 2022
  • Topics in History of Science Taught course 2022
  • Humanities and Science Taught course 2021
  • Science in the Modern World Taught course 2021
  • Honors/Revolutions in Science Taught course 2021
  • Honors/Revolutions in Science Taught course 2021
  • Intro to Historical Thinking Taught course 2021
  • Intro to Historical Thinking Taught course 2021
  • Historiography Taught course 2020
  • Origins of Modern Science Taught course 2020
  • Honors/Revolutions in Science Taught course 2020
  • Science in the Modern World Taught course 2020
  • Renaissance and Early Modern Taught course 2019
  • Topics Hist of Science/Weather Taught course 2019
  • Origins of Modern Science Taught course 2018
  • Origins of Modern Science Taught course 2018
  • Modern World Taught course 2018
  • Science in the Modern World Taught course 2018
  • Historiography Taught course 2017
  • Renaissance and Early Modern Taught course 2017
  • Expl/Cambridge Science Taught course 2017
  • Science in the Modern World Taught course 2017
  • Science in the Modern World Taught course 2017
  • Top/Science Magic Religion Taught course 2016
  • Independent Study Taught course 2016
  • Historiography Taught course 2016
  • Science in the Modern World Taught course 2016
  • Science in the Modern World Taught course 2016
  • 20th Century, 1900-1945 Taught course 2015
  • Top/Science & Enlightenment Taught course 2015
  • Expl/Hist of Human Nature Taught course 2015
  • Origins of Modern Science Taught course 2015
  • Renaissance and Early Modern Taught course 2014
  • Top/20th Century Science Taught course 2014
  • Historiography Taught course 2014
  • Science in the Modern World Taught course 2014

    • Education And Training

  • B.A. Natural Sciences, Cambridge University
  • M.A. Natural Sciences, Cambridge University
  • Ph.D. History of Science, University of Leeds

    • Full Name

  • Jan Golinski