Yankee Science in the Making: Science and Engineering in New England from Colonial Times to the Civil War

by Dirk Jan Struik

Thoughtful, readable survey explores "flowering" of science in New England from Colonial times to the Civil War. Describes contributions of scientists Benjamin Franklin and Eli Whitney, engineers George Washington Whistler and Cyrus Field, naturalists Gray, Agassiz, and Dana; medical accomplishments of Holmes, Morton and Jarvis, beginnings of Darwinism, much more.

Genres: History

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 14, 1992

About the author

Dirk Jan Struik (September 30, 1894 – October 21, 2000) was a Dutch mathematician and Marxian theoretician who spent most of his life in the United States.

Dirk Jan Struik was born in 1894 in Rotterdam, Netherlands, as a teacher's son, Struik attended the Hogere Burgerschool (HBS) in The Hague. It was in this school that he was first introduced to left-wing politics by some of his teachers. In 1912 Struik entered University of Leiden, where he showed great interest in mathematics and physics, influenced by the eminent professors Paul Ehrenfest and Hendrik Lorentz. In 1917 he worked as a high school mathematics teacher for a while, after which he worked as a research assistant for J.A. Schouten. It was during this period that he developed his doctoral dissertation, "The Application of Tensor Methods to Riemannian Manifolds." In 1922 Struik obtained his doctorate in mathematics from University of Leiden. He was appointed to a teaching position at University of Utrecht in 1923. The same year he married Ruth Ramler, a Czech mathematician with a doctorate from the Charles University of Prague. In 1924, funded by a Rockefeller fellowship, Struik traveled to Rome to collaborate with the Italian mathematician Tullio Levi-Civita. It was in Rome that Struik first developed a keen interest in the history of mathematics. In 1925, thanks to an extension of his fellowship, Struik went to Göttingen to work with Richard Courant compiling Felix Klein's lectures on the history of 19th-century mathematics. He also started researching Renaissance mathematics at this time. In 1926 Struik was offered positions both at the Moscow State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He decided to accept the latter, where he spent the rest of his academic career. He collaborated with Norbert Wiener on differential geometry, while continuing his research on the history of mathematics. He was made full professor at MIT in 1940.

Struik was a steadfast Marxist. Having joined the Communist Party of the Netherlands in 1919, he remained a Party member his entire life. When asked, upon the occasion of his 100th birthday, how he managed to pen peer-reviewed journal articles at such an advanced age, Struik replied blithely that he had the "3Ms" a man needs to sustain himself: Marriage (his wife, Saly Ruth Ramler, was not alive when he turned one hundred in 1994), Mathematics, and Marxism. It is therefore not surprising that Dirk suffered persecution during the McCarthyite era. He was accused of being a Soviet spy, a charge he vehemently denied. Invoking the First and Fifth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, he refused to answer any of the 200 questions put forward to him during the HUAC hearing. He was suspended from teaching for five years (with full salary) by MIT in the 1950s. Struik was re-instated in 1956. He retired from MIT in 1960 as Professor Emeritus of Mathematics. Aside from purely academic work, Struik also helped found the Journal of Science and Society, a Marxian journal on the history, sociology and development of science.

In 1950 Stuik published his Lectures on Classical Differential Geometry, which gained praise from Ian R. Porteous:

"Of all the textbooks on elementary differential geometry published in the last fifty years the most readable is one of the earliest, namely that by D.J. Stuik (1950). He is the only one to mention Allvar Gullstrand."

Struik's other major works include such classics as A Concise History of Mathematics, Yankee Science in the Making, The Birth of the Communist Manifesto, and A Source Book in Mathematics, 1200-1800, all of which are considered standard textbooks or references.

Struik died October 21, 2000, 21 days after celebrating his 106th birthday.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Jan...

Reviews

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the subtitle added in the Dover edition indicates, this is a history of science and engineering in New England up to the time of the Civil War. In fact, there is very little description of the actual technology, and even less of the actual science; rather it is a sociological account of the growth of science and technology and the socio-economic conditions which led to the development of one or another field at various times.

It begins with the gradual assimilation of English science and technology in the colonial period (the first part, one chapter). The second part (the Federalist Period) deals with the early republic, the assimilation of European science, the development of mathematics and astronomy in connection with navigation in the Federalist period (much about Nathaniel Bowditch), the first beginnings of civil engineering in connection with highway and canal building, the origins of mass production initially in the arms industry, the beginnings of the textile industry, and the beginnings of geology, chemistry and botany in relation to the new industrialization.

The third part (the Jacksonian Period) chronicles the beginnings of original science in the geological and botanical surveys of the 1820's, the expansion of manufacturing and the building of the railroads and steamships, and the increasing amount of original scientific work in the 1830's, 40's, and 50's, especially in geology and chemistry.

There are short biographies of the major figures — Benjamin Silliman, Louis Agassiz, Asa Gray, Benjamin Pearce, among others — and of many people who did important but minor work. The origins of scientific and technological studies at the Universities and schools and the development of scientific institutions are emphasized. There is only one black and white illustration (of types of bridge trusses.)

I had hoped for more of the actual science, but given what the book was, it was interesting and informative, and I intend to read more about some of these figures, particularly Bowditch and Agassiz of whom I already have biographies on my shelves.

[Robert Curet]

I love the history of technology, this book explains how a sparse population in a new land utilized technology to build a fledgling nation.