Article ID: CBB109553062

Science without Frontiers. Cosmopolitanism, National Interests, and Learned Culture, 1870-1940. (2016)

unapi

In the half-century before the Great War, collaborative international ventures in science became increasingly common. The trend, manifested in scientific congresses and attempts to establish agreement on physical units and systems of nomenclature, had important consequences. One was the fear of information overload. How were scientists to keep abreast of the growing volume of books, journals, and reports? How were they to do so in an era without a common language? Responses to these challenges helped to foster new departures in cataloguing, bibliography, and an interest in Esperanto and other constructed languages. By 1914 they had also become involved in wider movements that promoted communication as a force for peace. The Great War dealt a severe blow to these “universalist” aspirations, and the postwar reordering of international science did little to resurrect them. A “national turn” during the 1920s took a darker turn in the 1930s, as totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union, Italy, Germany, and Spain associated science ever more closely with national interests. Although the Second World War further undermined scientific internationalism, the vision of science as part of a world culture open to all soon resurfaced, notably in UNESCO. As an ideal, it remains with us today, in ventures for universal access to information made possible by digitization and the World Wide Web. The challenge in the twenty-first century is how best to turn ideal into reality.

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Authors & Contributors
Casalena, Maria Pia
Mogavero, Valeria
Paladini, Filippo Maria
Alfonso De Nardo
Simons, Massimiliano
Lacchè, Luigi
Concepts
Science and society
Science and politics
International relations
Congresses, conferences, and meetings
Science and war; science and the military
International cooperation
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
21st century
20th century
18th century
Modern
Places
Italy
Padua (Italy)
Venice (Italy)
Germany
Europe
Apennines
Institutions
School of Milan
Université de Strasbourg
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