Working Knowledge

“Both a delight and a necessity: a collection of marvels by the field’s foremost fashioner of academic articles. To say that Schaffer is one of the world’s leading historians of science is to put it blandly. Schaffer famously reoriented the history of scientific knowledge-making around its collective labor, and he has been the field’s most exuberant worker in this vein. Each of the five thematic introductions shows how he has practiced what he preaches about practice: how his craftwork emerged from his pedagogy, his after-hours sociability (notably in the pub), his performances as a telly don, and his curated exhibits. Steven Shapin’s conclusion is reason alone this volume was worth assembling. The book conveys something of the measure of the man.”

–Ken Alder, Northwestern University“Schaffer writes history as if ideas have gravity, drawing institutions, instruments, and empires into converging orbits. His scholarship reveals not only how science operates and is performed, but how it travels across oceans, through social orders, and between minds. With a gift for uncovering the improbable connections between seemingly minor details and vast intellectual structures, Schaffer transforms footnotes into revelations. Framed by illuminating introductions from leading historians of science, Working Knowledge foregrounds Schaffer’s rare capacity to elucidate the material and conceptual architecture of science in ways that are both vivid and broadly accessible.”–Jean-François Gauvin, Université Laval

Simon Schaffer, fellow of the British Academy and professor of history and philosophy of Science at Cambridge University since 1985, is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of several books, among them, with Steven Shapin, the classic Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Boyle, Hobbes, and the Experimental Life. Schaffer’s work has been awarded the Erasmus Prize, the George Sarton Medal from the History of Science Society, the Dan David Prize, the Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum, and the Paul Bunge Award from the German Chemical Society.

Charlotte Bigg is a research fellow at the Centre Alexandre Koyré and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

John Tresch is professor in the history of art, science, and folk practice at The Warburg Institute at the University of London.

Simon Werrett is professor of the history of science at the University College London.