Technoscience in History

“The term ‘technoscience’ may feel futuristic, but Ursula Klein’s fascinating study shows that the phenomenon extends back centuries. She demonstrates in detail that mining, among other key fields, involved the kind of ‘useful knowledge’ that spurred modern science.” – Michael D. Gordin, Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, Princeton University “Technoscience in History imaginatively explores the role of useful sciences in Prussia’s knowledge economy. It recasts several canonical historical narratives: of industrialization, state expertise, and even Berlin University’s founding. It adds incredible historical depth to Bruno Latour’s Science in Action.” – Kathryn Olesko, Associate Professor, George Washington University

Ursula Klein is Permanent Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and coauthor of Materials in Eighteenth-Century Science- A Historical Ontology.