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This book is the first complete biography of George Minchin Minchin (1845–1914), professor of applied mathematics at the Royal Indian Engineering College. Minchin's extraordinary range of accomplishments offers a unique inside view of the major technological and educational developments of late nineteenth century Britain. The scientific community's excitement during the early days of electromagnetic theory, wireless telegraphy, and x-rays are revealed by Minchin's letters to eminent friends (notably the Maxwellians, Oliver Lodge and George Francis Fitzgerald). This book also traces Minchin's little-known pioneering work on photoelectricity, which led to the first electrical measurements of starlight and laid the foundations for solar cells and television. Minchin's mathematical textbooks were praised for their lucidity, and his advanced pedagogical thinking underpinned his lifelong work on reforming science education. He explained scientific concepts for a general audience using science fiction poetry and critiqued contemporary society in sharp and humorous satires. These works provide fresh perspectives on the place of science in Victorian society. This book is for anyone fascinated by the late nineteenth century revolution in electrical technologies.This is also a valuable read for historians of science, and for those interested in technical education, and science and society in Victorian Britain.

The European Population, 1850-1945 is the first volume of two on demographics. The second volume will appear as part of the Societies of Europe series in 2003 and will cover changes until the year 2000. The European Population, 1850-1945 is a comparative and historical data handbook and accompanying CD-ROM presenting series data on demographic developments, population and household structures for the countries of Western and Central Europe. All major fields of demographic change are covered: fertility, mortality, marriage, and divorce. Population figures are given for each population census by sex, civil status and age. Major demographic developments within the family are described providing a commentary on the main population structures and trends in Europe since the 19th century.

The European discovery of the Americas in 1492 was one of the most important events of the Renaissance, and with it Christopher Columbus changed the course of world history. Now, five hundred years later, this 2-volume reference work will chart new courses in the study and understanding of Columbus and the Age of Discovery. Much more than an account of the man and his voyages, The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia is a complete A-Z look at the world during this momentous era. In two volumes, The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia contains more than 350 signed original articles ranging from 250 to more than 10,000 words, written by nearly 150 contributors from around the world. The work includes cross-references, bibliographies for each article, and a comprehensive index. The work is fully illustrated, with hundreds of maps, drawings and photographs.

From 1970 to 1977 a major project to uncover source material for students of contemporary British history and politics was undertaken at the British Library of Political and Economic Science. Fiananced by the Social Science Research Council, and under the direction of Dr Chris Cook, this project has attempted a unique and systematic operation to locate, and then to make readily available, those archives that provide the indispensable source material for the contemporary historian. This volume (the fifth in the series) provides a guide to the papers of propagandists who were influential in British public life. Included in this volume are the papers of such persons as newspaper editors, leading economists, social reformers, socialist thinkers, trade unionists, industrialists and a variety of theologians and philanthropists. In all, this volume not only completes the findings of the project but opens up the archive sources of a hitherto neglected area of research into contemporary social and political history.

In this biography, the acclaimed author of Sons of Providence, winner of the 2007 George Wash- ington Book Prize, recovers an immensely important part of the founding drama of the country in the story of Robert Morris, the man who financed Washington's armies and the American Revolution. Morris started life in the colonies as an apprentice in a counting house. By the time of the Revolution he was a rich man, a commercial and social leader in Philadelphia. He organized a clandestine trading network to arm the American rebels, joined the Second Continental Congress, and financed George Washington's two crucial victories—Valley Forge and the culminating battle at Yorktown that defeated Cornwallis and ended the war. The leader of a faction that included Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Washington, Morris ran the executive branches of the revolutionary government for years. He was a man of prodigious energy and adroit management skills and was the most successful businessman on the continent. He laid the foundation for public credit and free capital markets that helped make America a global economic leader. But he incurred powerful enemies who considered his wealth and influence a danger to public'virtue'in a democratic society. After public service, he gambled on land speculations that went bad, and landed in debtors prison, where George Washington, his loyal friend, visited him. This once wealthy and powerful man ended his life in modest circumstances, but Rappleye restores his place as a patriot and an immensely important founding father.

It is good to mark the new Millennium by looking back as well as forward. Whatever Shines Should Be Observed looks to the nineteenth century to celebrate the achievements of five distinguished women, four of whom were born in Ireland while the fifth married into an Irish family, who made pioneering contributions to photography, microscopy, astronomy and astrophysics. The women featured came from either aristocratic or professional families. Thus, at first sight, they had many material advantages among their peers. In the ranks of the aristocracy there was often a great passion for learning, and the mansions in which these families lived contained libraries, technical equipment (microscopes and telescopes) and collections from the world of nature. More modest professional households of the time were rich in books, while activities such as observing the stars, collecting plants etc. typically formed an integral part of the children's education. To balance this it was the prevailing philosophy that boys could learn, in addition to basic subjects, mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry and classical languages, while girls were channelled into'polite'subjects like music and needlework. This arrangement allowed boys to progress to University should they so wish, where a range of interesting career choices (including science and engineering) was open to them. Girls, on the other hand, usually received their education at home, often under the tutelage of a governess who would not herself had had any serious contact with scientific or technical subjects. In particular, progress to University was not during most of the nineteenth century an option for women, and access to scientific libraries and institutions was also prohibited. Although those women with aristocratic and professional backgrounds were in a materially privileged position and had an opportunity to'see'through the activities of their male friends and relatives how professional scientific life was lived, to progress from their places in society to the professions required very special determination. Firstly, they had to individually acquire scientific and technical knowledge, as well as necessary laboratory methodology, without the advantage of formal training. Then, it was necessary to carve out a niche in a particular field, despite the special difficulties attending the publication of scientific books or articles by a woman. There was no easy road to science, or even any well worn track. To achieve recognition was a pioneering activity without discernible ground rules. With the hindsight of history, we recognise that the heroic efforts which the women featured in this volume made to overcome the social constraints that held them back from learning about, and participating in, scientific and technical subjects, had a consequence on a much broader canvas. In addition to what they each achieved professionally they contributed within society to a gradual erosion of those barriers raised against the participation of women in academic life, thereby assisting in allowing University places and professional opportunities to gradually become generally available. It is a privilege to salute and thank the wonderful women of the nineteenth century herein described for what they have contributed to the women of today. William Herschel's famous motto quicquid nitet notandum (whatever shines should be observed) applies in a particular way to the luminous quality of their individual lives, and those of us who presently observe their shining, as well as those who now wait in the wings of the coming centuries to emerge upon the scene, can each see a little further by their light.

This study has grown out of an interest in French education and cul­ ture that dates from fondly remembered student days in France. Specifically, it is an attempt to explain the educational thought of Claude Fleury, a literate, responsible homme de leUres who analyzed the historical origins of public education as it existed in seventeenth-cen­ tury France and, on that basis, proposed what he considered to be a more generally useful program of studies. Generous space has been devoted to historical, social, and pedagogical background in an effort to place Fleury's thought in its proper cultural context; namely, that of the decline of the Classical Age and the dawn of the Age of Reason. This background material represents also an attempt to explain, at times in detail, the origin of Fleury's Traite du Choix et de la Methode des Etudes and his rise to scholarly and pedagogical prominence at court. It is possible that Fleury's thought, while of most immediate interest to students of seventeenth-century cultural history, will be of interest also to a more general audience. In particular, those charged with providing education that must respond to the ever increasing practical needs of society and at the same time give to contemporary man a of his cultural heritage may find in Fleury's thought some useful sense historical perspective. It is a pleasure to acknowledge that this study would not have been possible without the encouragement and guidance of Dr. William W.

For the 21st century, the often-quoted citation ‘past is prologue'reads the other way around: The global present lacks a historical narrative for the global past. Focussing on a transcultural history, this book questions the territoriality of historical concepts and offers a narrative, which aims to overcome cultural essentialism by focussing on crossing borders of all kinds. Transcultural History reflects critically on the way history is constructed, asking who formed history in the past and who succeeded in shaping what we call the master narrative. Although trained European historians, the authors aim to present a useful approach to global history, showing first of all how a Eurocentric but universal historiography removed or essentialised certain topics in Asian history. As an empirical discipline, history is based on source material, analysed according to rules resulting from a strong methodological background. This book accesses the global past after World War I, looking at thewell known stage of the Paris Peace Conferences, observing the multiplication of new borders and the variety of transgressing institutions, concepts, actors, men and women inventing themselves as global subjects, but sharing a bitter experience with almost all local societies at this time, namely the awareness of having relatives buried in far distant places due to globalised wars.

From 1970 to 1977 a major project to uncover source material for students of contemporary British history and politics was undertaken at the British Library of Political and Economic Science. Fiananced by the Social Science Research Council, and under the direction of Dr Chris Cook, this project has attempted a unique and systematic operation to locate, and then to make readily available, those archives that provide the indispensable source material for the contemporary historian. This volume (the fifth in the series) provides a guide to the papers of propagandists who were influential in British public life. Included in this volume are the papers of such persons as newspaper editors, leading economists, social reformers, socialist thinkers, trade unionists, industrialists and a variety of theologians and philanthropists. In all, this volume not only completes the findings of the project but opens up the archive sources of a hitherto neglected area of research into contemporary social and political history.

From 1970 to 1977 a major project to uncover source material for students of contemporary British history and politics was undertaken at the British Library of Political and Economic Science. Fiananced by the Social Science Research Council, and under the direction of Dr Chris Cook, this project has attempted a unique and systematic operation to locate, and then to make readily available, those archives that provide the indispensable source material for the contemporary historian. This volume (the fifth in the series) provides a guide to the papers of propagandists who were influential in British public life. Included in this volume are the papers of such persons as newspaper editors, leading economists, social reformers, socialist thinkers, trade unionists, industrialists and a variety of theologians and philanthropists. In all, this volume not only completes the findings of the project but opens up the archive sources of a hitherto neglected area of research into contemporary social and political history.