stained class window showing mathematical instruments with the legend "numero pondere et mensura"

In 1996, Steven Shapin began his book on the scientific revolution by declaring: “There was no such thing as the Scientific Revolution, and this is a book about it.” Over the last several decades, research on the history of science has exploded earlier twentieth century notions about a seventeenth-century revolution in the sciences that focused especially on elite practitioners of astronomy, botany, mathematics, and physics and instead begun to reveal the sprawling, complex, and contested reality of early modern scientific practices. This reading course will explore developments in the history of science and knowledge in early modern Europe and the Americas through the lens of recent scholarship on everything from alchemy and cooking to engineering and navigation, to build a nuanced understanding of the scientific revolution(s) that occurred across the early modern era and throughout the Atlantic world.