United States
£ GBP
Hermann von Helmholtz was a towering figure of nineteenth-century scientific and intellectual life. Best known for his achievements in physiology and physics, he also contributed to other disciplines such as ophthalmology, psychology, mathematics, chemical thermodynamics, and meteorology. With Helmholtz: A Life in Science, David Cahan has written a definitive biography, one that brings to light the dynamic relationship between Helmholtz's private life, his professional pursuits, and the larger world in which he lived. Utilizing all of Helmholtz's scientific and philosophical writings, as well as previously unknown letters, this book reveals the forces that drove his life – a passion to unite the sciences, vigilant attention to the sources and methods of knowledge, and a deep appreciation of the ways in which the arts and sciences could benefit each other. By placing the overall structure and development of his scientific work and philosophy within the greater context of nineteenth-century Germany, Helmholtz also serves as cultural biography of the construction of the scientific community: its laboratories, institutes, journals, disciplinary organizations, and national and international meetings. Helmholtz's life is a shining example of what can happen when the sciences and the humanities become interwoven in the life of one highly motivated, energetic, and gifted person.
David Cahan is the Charles Bessey Professor of History at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is the editor of both Hermann von Helmholtz's Science and Culture: Popular and Philosophical Essays and From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences: Writing the History of Nineteenth-Century Science, both published by the University of Chicago Press.
"By far the most in-depth, culturally situated, and well written analysis of Helmholtz to date – no one knows Helmholtz as well or as thoroughly as David Cahan."
– Frederick Gregory, University of Florida
"David Cahan has written a masterful biography whose implicit argument is to present Hermann von Helmholtz as a grand unifier. He does this by following the thread of culture that bound together the life, work, and context of his subject. Given the centrifugal tendencies in each of these realms – the ultimate dissolution of a shared German identity, the increasing specialization of scientific research, and the modern fracture of the self, Cahan's achievement is impressive. By bringing so many disparate sources and topics into coherence, Helmholtz mirrors the very figure it portrays."
– Gabriel Finkelstein, History, University of Colorado Denver
