Mary Somerville : science, illumination, and the female mind / Kathryn A. Neeley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Neeley, Kathryn A. (Kathryn Angelyn), 1954- author.

Series:

Cambridge science biographies.

Cambridge science biographies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Somerville, Mary, 1780-1872.

Somerville, Mary.

Women scientists--Great Britain--Biography.

Women scientists.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 263 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In an era when science was perceived as a male domain, Mary Somerville (1780-1872) became both the leading woman scientist of her day and an integral part of the British scientific community. She achieved this status through careful management of her gender identity and by creating rich, readable, and authoritative accounts of science that were rhetorically compelling, aesthetically satisfying, and valuable to the scientific community in the UK and abroad. This biography offers detailed analysis of the underlying patterns, themes, and rhetorical strategies of her major works and argues that Somerville employed a transcendent feminine style that retained the advantages but transcended the limitations usually associated with women's ways of knowing. The book advocates a new narrative for women's participation in science and demonstrates the many ways that gender relates to science and science functions in culture.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Author's Preface

Key to Parenthetical References to the Works of Mary Somerville

Perceiving What Others Do Not Perceive

1 Head Among the Stars, Feet Firm Upon the Earth

2 Creating a Room of Her Own in the World of Science

3 Science as Exact Calculation and Elevated Meditation

4 The Earth, the Sea, the Air, and Their Inhabitants

5 Mary Somerville on Mary Somerville

6 Memory and Mary Somerville

Epilogue Science, Voice, and Vision

Selected Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 241-251) and index.

ISBN:

0-511-15652-9

0-511-61332-6

0-511-01965-3

OCLC:

923616444