Recreating Newton:

Newtonian Biography and the Making of Nineteenth-Century History of Science

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Rebekah Higgitt

Science and Culture in the Nineteenth Century

Higgitt examines Isaac Newton’s changing legacy during the nineteenth century. She focuses on 1820-70, a period that saw the creation of the specialized and secularized role of the ‘scientist’. At the same time, researchers gained better access to Newton’s archives. These were used both by those who wished to undermine the traditional, idealized depiction of scientific genius and those who felt obliged to defend Newtonian hagiography. Higgitt shows how debates about Newton’s character stimulated historical scholarship and led to the development of a new expertise in the history of science.

Sample pages

• Recreating Newton: Introduction
• Recreating Newton: Index

Readership

History of Science, Nineteenth-Century Studies, Newton Studies, Biographical Studies

Contents

Introduction
1 Jean-Baptiste Biot’s ‘Newton’ and its Translation (1822–29)
2 Brewster’s Life of Sir Isaac Newton (1831): Defending the Hero
3 Francis Baily’s Account of the Reverend John Flamsteed (1835)
4 Newtonian Studies and the History of Science 1835–1855
5 Brewster’s Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton (1855): The ‘Regretful Witness’
6 The ‘Mythical’ and the ‘Historical’ Newton
Conclusion

Reviews

'Higgitt’s well-researched study signals the rich resource that scientific biography offers to the historian of science'
– Adelene Buckland, British Society for Literature and Science Online Book Reviews
(read the full review here)

'throws interesting light on the growing knowledge of Newton’s involvement in alchemy among his biographers.'
– William Newman, Ambix

'Higgitt has produced a well-researched and carefully crafted book which will be of interest to historians of science, literature, religion and Victorian culture. It is indeed an excellent example of the truly interdisciplinary nature of much current research in the history of science.'
– Massimo Mazzotti, British Journal for the History of Science

'Reading this fine and fascinating book is a salutary experience.'
– John Henry, ISIS

'Higgitt's meticulously researched Recreating Newton explores an aspect of nineteenth-century Newtonianism that will reward scholars of Victorian science, historiography, biography, and literature.'
– Richard Noakes, Victorian Studies

Related titles

• Communicating Physics: The Production, Circulation and Appropriation of Ganot's Textbooks in France and England, 1851–1887
• Early Biographies of Isaac Newton, 1660–1885

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