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9780226000299

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For centuries, scholars have written of their desire to read the Book of Nature, even as they composed their own books in a gaggle of tongues. Today, however, scientists share their work in just one: English. That unprecedented linguistic winnowing--driven as much by utopian dreams as by the shattering disruptions of war--reveals far-ranging changes in how, where, why, and by whom science has been done. Fascinating. --David Kaiser, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

For centuries, scholars have written of their desire to read the Book of Nature, even as they composed their own books in a gaggle of tongues. Today, however, scientists share their work in just one: English. That unprecedented linguistic winnowing--driven as much by utopian dreams as by the shattering disruptions of war--reveals far-ranging changes in how, where, why, and by whom science has been done. Fascinating. --David Kaiser, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massive, erudite, and engaging. --Nature Perceptive. . . . Gordin's scholarly assessment of these matters will not have Hollywood entrepreneurs scrambling for movie rights. But it is insightfully and engagingly written, a masterful mix of intelligence and style. He illuminates an important side of science with academic rigor, but without a trace of academic obfuscation. It's a very pleasant example of the skillful use of language. --Science News A book that no one with an interest in scientific communication or in the nature of disciplinary language can afford to ignore. --Metascience This book proffers a coherent and theoretically well-founded overview with a wealth of illuminating empirical details from the author's own rigorous archival investigations, thus shedding bright light on the history of the languages of science. Gordin's book is an absolute must for anyone interested in the languages of science, because it pictures and explains their development with unrivalled conclusiveness and precision. --Ulrich Ammon Language Problems and Language Planning

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Michael D. Gordin is the Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Princeton University and the author of The Pseudoscience Wars, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

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