Total knowledge? Encyclopedic handbooks in the twentieth-century chemical and life sciences

Bibliographic Data

ID21877460
AuthorsMathias Grote (0000-0001-6991-2858, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume5
Pages187-203
Publication date2020-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBJHS Themes (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2056-354X • E-ISSN: 2058-850X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/bjt.2020.11
OpenAlexW3111480637
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited14

Encyclopedic handbooks have been household names to scientists – Gmelins Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie to chemists, Bergey's Manual of Determinative Bacteriology to microbiologists. Their heavy tomes were consulted for reference, and their contents taken as authoritative. This paper analyses the development of this genre as well as of ‘handbook science’. Handbooks and their claim to provide comprehensive factual knowledge on a subject should be understood as a reaction to the scattering of knowledge in modern periodical print as discussed by Wilhelm Ostwald or Ludwik Fleck. A comparative analysis of the actors, the institutions and practices of compiling and editing a German and an American handbook project around mid-century reveals commonalities and differences in how twentieth-century sciences have attempted to cope with the acceleration and dispersion of knowledge generation before computing. These attempts have resulted in different conceptions of a book, from compilation to organic whole. Moreover, the handbook's claim to comprise lasting facts makes it a fitting case in point to reflect on the temporality of knowledge and the relevance of books to the sciences

Archaeology · Determinative · Epistemology · German · Library science · Political science · Sociology · Sociology of scientific knowledge · Temporality · Computer Science · Historical and Literary Studies · History · History of Science and Natural History · Law · Philosophy · Philosophy, Science, and History

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