A meticulously researched history on the development of American mathematics in the three decades following World War I As the Roaring Twenties lurched into the Great Depression, to be followed by the scourge of Nazi Germany and World War II, American mathematicians pursued their research, positioned themselves collectively within American science, and rose to global mathematical hegemony. How did they do it? The New Era in American Mathematics, 1920–1950 explores the institutional, financial, social, and political forces that shaped and supported this community in the first half of the twentieth century. In doing so, Karen Hunger Parshall debunks the widely held view that American mathematics only thrived after European émigrés fled to the shores of the United States. Drawing from extensive archival and primary-source research, Parshall uncovers the key players in American mathematics who worked together to effect change and she looks at their research output over the course of three decades. She highlights the educational, professional, philanthropic, and governmental entities that bolstered progress. And she uncovers the strategies implemented by American mathematicians in their quest for the advancement of knowledge. Throughout, she considers how geopolitical circumstances shifted the course of the discipline. Examining how the American mathematical community asserted itself on the international stage, The New Era in American Mathematics, 1920–1950 shows the way one nation became the focal point for the field.

Winner of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Prize In volume one of this landmark study, focusing on developments up to 1940, Margaret Rossiter describes the activities and personalities of the numerous women scientists—astronomers, chemists, biologists, and psychologists—who overcame extraordinary obstacles to contribute to the growth of American science. This remarkable history recounts women's efforts to establish themselves as members of the scientific community and examines the forces that inhibited their active and visible participation in the sciences.

Henry Rowland (1848-1901) was one of the most important figures in the founding of modern physics in the U.S. A principal founder and first pres. of the Amer. Physical Soc., he is best known for his invention of the concave spectral grating for which he won a gold medal and grand prize at the 1890 Paris Exposition. A grad. of Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst. in civil engineering, Rowland was prof. of physics at Johns Hopkins Univ., where he had the principal part in forming the first school of Amer. physicists to be professionally trained in the U.S. In this vol., Sweetnam, using Rowland's papers and those of his colleagues and students, has written the first scholarly exposition of Rowland's work.

Scientific and personal autobiography of the greatest woman astronomer of all time. The most famous graduate from Newnham College.

This sixth book in the Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology Series preserves the diversity that has characterized earlier volumes as it brings to life psychologists who have made substantial contributions to the field of the history of psychology. These chapters illustrate the pioneering endeavors of such significant figures, and are written in a lively, engaging style by authors who themselves have achieved a reputation as excellent scholars in the history of psychology. Several of the chapters are based on the author's personal acquaintance with a pioneer, and new, previously unavailable information about these luminaries is presented in this volume. Each of these volumes provides glimpses into the personal and scholarly lives of 20 giants in the history of psychology. Prominent scholars provide chapters on a pioneer who made important contributions in their own area of expertise. A special section in each volume provides portraits of the editors and authors, containing interesting information about the relationship between the pioneers and the psychologists who describe them. Utilizing an informal, personal, sometimes humorous, style of writing, the books will appeal to students and instructors interested in the history of psychology. Each of the six volumes in this series contains different profiles, thereby bringing more than 120 of the pioneers in psychology more vividly to life.