Masculinity and Science in Britain, 1831–1918 PDF
Preview Masculinity and Science in Britain, 1831–1918
Genders and Sexualities in History Masculinity and Science in Britain, 1831-1918 HEATHER ELLIS Genders and Sexualities in History Series Editors John Arnold University of London Birkbeck College London, UK Sean Brady University of London Birkbeck College London, UK Joanna Bourke University of London Birkbeck College London, UK Palgrave Macmillan’s series, Genders and Sexualities in History, accom- modates and fosters new approaches to historical research in the fields of genders and sexualities. The series promotes world-class scholarship, which concentrates upon the interconnected themes of genders, sexuali- ties, religions/religiosity, civil society, politics and war. Historical studies of gender and sexuality have, until recently, been more or less discon- nected fields. In recent years, historical analyses of genders and sexualities have synthesised, creating new departures in historiography. The addi- tional connectedness of genders and sexualities with questions of religion, religiosity, development of civil societies, politics and the contexts of war and conflict is reflective of the movements in scholarship away from nar- row history of science and scientific thought, and history of legal processes approaches, that have dominated these paradigms until recently. The series brings together scholarship from Contemporary, Modern, Early Modern, Medieval, Classical and Non-Western History. The series pro- vides a diachronic forum for scholarship that incorporates new approaches to genders and sexualities in history. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15000 Heather Ellis Masculinity and Science in Britain, 1831–1918 Heather Ellis University of Sheffield Sheffield, United Kingdom Genders and Sexualities in History ISBN 978-1-137-31173-3 ISBN 978-1-137-31174-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-31174-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957768 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: © Brain light / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd. The registered company address is: The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London, N1 9XW, United Kingdom For my mother and for my daughter S e ’ P erieS ditorS reface In Masculinity and Science in Britain, 1831–1918, Heather Ellis tackles some of the most interesting questions in nineteenth- and early twentieth- century Britain: how did the relationship between masculinity and science change over the period and what do those shifts tell us about power, expert knowledge and professional identities? While there is a sophisticated litera- ture on the relationship between femininity and scientific knowledge and practices, there is relatively little on the gendered identity of male scientists and even less on their self-fashioning. In a nuanced analysis, Ellis shows that the ‘scientists’ were increasingly expected to cultivate certain moral qualities as well as serving as models of manly citizenship. In common with all the volumes in the ‘Genders and Sexualities in History’ series, Masculinity and Science in Britain is a multifaceted and meticulously researched scholarly study. It is an exciting contribution to our under- standing of gender and science in the past. John H. Arnold Joanna Bourke Sean Brady vii a cknowledgementS I owe thanks to many people for their encouragement and support during the researching and writing of this book. I am grateful for sev- eral opportunities to present papers based on research for this proj- ect: in particular, the 2013 conference of the Society for the History of Childhood and Youth, held at Nottingham; the 24th International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine, held at Manchester in July 2013; the research seminar of the Institute of Education and Society at the Université du Luxembourg (September 2014); ‘The Academic World in the Era of the Great War’, a conference held at Trinity College, Dublin in August 2014; ISCHE 2014, held at the Institute of Education, London; the IHR History of Education seminar (June 2015); History of Education Society UK annual confer- ences 2013, 2014 and 2015; the ‘Legacies of War’ seminar at Leeds (November 2015) and the Edinburgh Gender History Network (May 2016). Discussions with colleagues and students during these seminars and conferences were deeply thought-provoking and have contributed immeasurably to the finished product. In the time spent writing this book I have been lucky enough to work at three different universities where colleagues all gave valuable support at different stages of the project: I would like to thank colleagues at the Centre for British Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, for allowing me time and space to undertake the initial research for this book; colleagues at Liverpool Hope University for periods of consolidated research leave and interest in the project; and colleagues at the University of Sheffield, where I have been a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow since October 2015, for ix x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS their encouragement in the final stages of preparing the manuscript for publication. Special thanks are due to friends and colleagues in the History of Education Society UK for their interest and support. Thanks to Lottie Hoare, Stephanie Spencer, Cathy Burke, Mark Freeman, Nancy Rosoff, Melanie Keene, Sian Roberts, Jane Martin, Deirdre Rafferty, Jonathan Doney, Ruth Watts, Stephen Parker, Gary McCulloch, Tom Woodin, Susannah Wright and Rob Freathy. Other friends and colleagues who have given much-needed support and encouragement over the last five years are Stephanie Olsen, Rob Boddice, Tomás Irish, Charlotte Lerg, Simone Mueller, Laurence Brockliss, Stuart Jones, Amanda Wrigley, Christopher Stray, Mordechai Feingold, Stephen Harrison, Geert Thyssen, Roy McLeod, Georgia Christinidis, Sylvia Palatschek, Sara Wolfson, Claire Jones, Jonathan Reinarz, Louise Jackson, Iida Saarinen, David Pomfret, Rick Jobs, Heike Jöns and Tamson Pietsch. I am most grateful to the staff of the Radcliffe Science Library and Special Collections at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, especially Colin Harris who was instrumental in helping to locate hard-to-find sources. Likewise, to staff at the British Library and University of Glasgow Library and Archive. I would also like to thank the series editors, Sean Brady, John Arnold and Joanna Bourke for their support and encouragement. Also at Palgrave, thanks go to Jen McCall, Emily Russell, Rowan Milligan, Angharad Bishop and Clare Mence for seeing me through the publication process. My greatest debt, as always, is to my family: my husband, Alex; my sons, Leo and Finn; and my daughter, Romy. Together with my daughter, the book is dedicated to my mother, Hilary, who sadly passed away in 2009. Without her love and support over many years neither this book, nor anything else I have written, would have been possible. It is dedicated to her memory with love. c ontentS 1 Introduction: The ‘Man of Science’ as a Gendered Ideal 1 2 The Changing Public Image of the ‘Man of Science’, 1600–1830 19 3 New Masculine Heroes: Davy, Bacon and the Construction of the Gentleman-Scientist 49 4 ‘An Effete World’: Gendered Criticism and the British Association 85 5 T homas Carlyle, the X-Club and the Hero as Man of Science 117 6 T he Decline of the British Association? Marginalization, Masculinity and Marconi 149 xi
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