Benjamin Silliman and His Circle: Studies on the Influence of Benjamin Silliman on Science in America

Wilson, Leonard G., ed.

Benjamin Silliman played a unique role in American science before the Civil War. In his various roles as a professor at Yale, as editor of the American Journal of Science, and as a public lecturer in every major city, he taught science to the whole nation. He established science as a regular part of college education and helped to found graduate education to train professional scientists for the new nation. Primarily a teacher, Silliman exerted his influence through a remarkable circle of students, colleagues, and friends. In Benjamin Silliman and His Circle several historians have joined to write fascinating and scholarly essays on Silliman and some of his associates to illustrate their aims and ideals and the historical process by which they worked to create a scientific community in the United States. The book reveals the interactions among a remarkable group of American scientists and is essential reading for those interested in the history of American science, or American history.