Scientific Biography: History of Science by Another Means?

Isis 97 (2):322-329 (2006)
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Abstract

Biography is one of the most popular categories of books—and indeed the most popular category among nonfiction books, according to one British poll. Thus, biography offers historians of science an opportunity to reach a potentially broad audience. This essay examines approaches typical of different genres of scientific biography, including historians’ motivations in their choices of biographical subject and their decisions about strategies for reconstruction of the biographical life. While historians of science often use biography as a vehicle to analyze scientific processes and scientific culture, the most compelling scientific biographies are ones that portray the ambitions, passions, disappointments, and moral choices that characterize a scientist’s life

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10.1086/504738

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Citations of this work

Writing Scientific Biography.Mott T. Greene - 2007 - Journal of the History of Biology 40 (4):727 - 759.
What oral historians and historians of science can learn from each other.Paul Merchant - 2019 - British Journal for the History of Science 52 (4):673-688.

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