Historians are showing increasing interest in scientific internationalism, the notion that science transcends national differences and hence advances peace and cooperation. This notion became particularly popular in the decades around 1900, the heyday of the universal expositions and the so-called first era of globalization. In this article I argue that in order to properly historicize scientific internationalism, it is imperative to understand how actors imagined science to have pacifist effects, and to relate their technoscientific to their geopolitical imaginaries. To illustrate this, I analyze the 1911 novel Der Menschheit Hochgedanken (translated as When Thoughts Will Soar) by the famous Austrian pacifist Baroness Bertha von Suttner. It tells the story of a scientific conference whose participants, by the sheer brilliance of their thought, ward off war and preserve world peace. Relating the novel to von Suttner’s own life experiences, I situate her internationalism in the social texture and international relations of the late Habsburg Empire. It appears that Von Suttner mobilized notions of the pacific effects of science with an eye to preserving both the European system of states and the position of the aristocracy.
...More
Book
Ash, Mitchell G.;
Surman, Jan;
(2012)
The Nationalization of Scientific Knowledge in the Habsburg Empire, 1848--1918
(/isis/citation/CBB001252481/)
Article
Lepistö, Antti;
(2015)
Revisiting the Left-Wing Response to Sociobiology: The Case of Finland in a European Context
(/isis/citation/CBB001422101/)
Book
Suzanne Sutherland;
(2022)
The Rise of the Military Entrepreneur: War, Diplomacy, and Knowledge in Habsburg Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB081583261/)
Article
Ashkenazi, Ofer;
(2011)
Reframing the Interwar Peace Movement: The Curious Case of Albert Einstein
(/isis/citation/CBB001231381/)
Book
Laurent Mazliak;
Rossana Tazzioli;
(2021)
Mathematical Communities in the Reconstruction After the Great War 1918–1928: Trajectories and Institutions
(/isis/citation/CBB875170225/)
Thesis
Ellison, Brooke Mackenzie;
(2012)
Life Lines: Stem Cell Research in a Globalized World
(/isis/citation/CBB001562809/)
Book
Wolfram Kaiser;
J. W. Schot;
(2014)
Writing the Rules for Europe: Experts, Cartels, and International Organizations
(/isis/citation/CBB610275200/)
Article
Bryan E. Denham;
(2021)
Determinants of Attitudes Toward the Scientific Community: Confidence in the Press as a Mediator of Political Party Affiliation
(/isis/citation/CBB703347730/)
Book
Cornelia Knab;
(2022)
Pathogens Crossing Borders: Global Animal Diseases and International Responses, 1860–1947
(/isis/citation/CBB621181167/)
Book
Aihwa Ong;
(2016)
Fungible Life: Experiment in the Asian City of Life
(/isis/citation/CBB251092384/)
Article
Jan-Peter Voß;
Jannik Schritt;
Volkan Sayman;
(February 2022)
Politics at a distance: Infrastructuring knowledge flows for democratic innovation
(/isis/citation/CBB229106240/)
Article
Jeanne Oui;
(January 2022)
Commodifying a “Good” Weather Data: Commercial Meteorology, Low-cost Stations, and the Global Scientific Infrastructure
(/isis/citation/CBB187970354/)
Book
David J. Hess;
(2016)
Undone Science: Social Movements, Mobilized Publics, and Industrial Transitions
(/isis/citation/CBB272081586/)
Article
Colleen Lanier-Christensen;
(September 2021)
Creating Regulatory Harmony: The Participatory Politics of OECD Chemical Testing Standards in the Making
(/isis/citation/CBB606231580/)
Book
William Beinart;
(2021)
The Scientific Imagination in South Africa
(/isis/citation/CBB421582004/)
Article
Nile Green;
(2016)
Fordist Connections: The Automotive Integration of the United States and Iran
(/isis/citation/CBB165106840/)
Book
Kumar, Deepak;
Damodaran, Vinita;
D'Souza, Rohan;
(2011)
The British Empire and the Natural World: Environmental Encounters in South Asia
(/isis/citation/CBB001201905/)
Article
Petitjean, Patrick;
(2008)
The Joint Establishment of the World Federation of Scientific Workers and of UNESCO after World War II
(/isis/citation/CBB000932235/)
Chapter
Ilaria Zamburlini;
(2020)
Scienziati sovietici e diritti umani. Il dialogo transatlantico dopo Helsinki (1975-1979)
(/isis/citation/CBB159506658/)
Book
Filiberto Agostini;
(2020)
Università E Grande Guerra In Europa. Medicina Scienze E Diritto
(/isis/citation/CBB012551012/)
Be the first to comment!