IsisCB Explore

Thesis ID: CBB001561565

Benjamin Peirce and the Promotion of Research-Level Mathematics in America: 1830--1880 (2005)

University of Virginia
Parshall, Karen V. H.
Publication date: 2005
Language: English

Publication Date: 2005
Edition Details: Advisor: Parshall, Karen V. H.
Physical Details: 368 pp.

Outside Links

In the early nineteenth-century, no real mathematical community existed in America. Mathematics was primarily limited to undergraduate study, colleges did not aspire to train scientists, and Europe was both geographically and intellectually distant from the United States. An American mathematical research community nonetheless emerged by the beginning of the twentieth century. This study investigates the work of Benjamin Peirce---as an educator, a mathematician, and a public figure---to promote research-level mathematics in mid-nineteenth-century America. We trace Peirce's efforts to renovate the collegiate mathematics curriculum at Harvard; scrutinize his failed attempt to found a mathematical research journal; analyze his part in defining American mathematical identity; consider his activities and legacy as a government functionary; and examine his public role as a scientific expert. Focusing on mid-century scientific structure- building through the lens of Peirce magnifies the challenges involved in developing and defining support for specialized science in educational establishments, professional organizations, government institutions, and popular venues.

...More

Description Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 66/09 (2006): 3436. UMI pub. no. 3189297.

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB001561565

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Hogan, Edward R.; (2008)
Of the Human Heart: A Biography of Benjamin Peirce (/p/isis/citation/CBB000830865/)

Article Grattan-Guinness, I.; (1997)
Benjamin Peirce's Linear associative algebra (1870): New light on its preparation and “publication” (/p/isis/citation/CBB000078015/)

Chapter James, Mary Ann; (1992)
Engineering an environment for change: Bigelow, Peirce, and early 19th-century practical education at Harvard (/p/isis/citation/CBB000066283/)

Article Pycior, Helena M.; (1979)
Benjamin Peirce's Linear associative algebra (/p/isis/citation/CBB000008231/)

Article Hogan, Edward; (1991)
“A proper spirit is abroad”: Peirce, Sylvester, Ward, and American mathematics, 1829-1843 (/p/isis/citation/CBB000042157/)

Article Meier, Paul; Zabell, Sandy; (1980)
Benjamin Peirce and the Howland will (/p/isis/citation/CBB000009218/)

Article Elena Ausejo Martínez; Joaquín Comas Roqueta; (2016)
Matemáticas y náutica: Pedro José Rodríguez Riola (1802-1838) en la emergente Armada estadounidense (/p/isis/citation/CBB212592790/)

Article Jemma Lorenat; (2022)
An Okapi Hypothesis: Non-Euclidean Geometry and the Professional Expert in American Mathematics (/p/isis/citation/CBB066890396/)

Article Timmons, Todd; (2004)
A Prosopographical Analysis of the Early American Mathematics Publication Community (/p/isis/citation/CBB000771346/)

Article Sumiko すみ子 Masuda 益田; (2018)
[Shunkichi Kimuraʼs Understanding of Quaternions and His Proposal for an International Association] 木村駿吉の四元数理解と「万国四元法協会」の提案 (/p/isis/citation/CBB597324653/)

Book Robin Wilson; John J. Watkins; David J. Parks; (2023)
Graph Theory in America: The First Hundred Years (/p/isis/citation/CBB657680393/)

Article Bellhouse, David R.; (2009)
Karl Pearson's Influence in the United States (/p/isis/citation/CBB001033900/)

Article Kent, Deborah; (2008)
The Mathematical Miscellany and The Cambridge Miscellany of Mathematics: Closely Connected Attempts to Introduce Research-Level Mathematics in America, 1836--1843 (/p/isis/citation/CBB000774620/)

Book Sinclair, Nathalie; (2008)
History of the Geometry Curriculum in the United States (/p/isis/citation/CBB000830492/)

Article Atzema, Eisso J.; Buskes, Gerard; (2008)
“Engel's Ingenious Models”: On the Models of the Fresnel Wave Surface at the University of Mississippi (/p/isis/citation/CBB001021171/)

Book William Sheehan; Trudy E. Bell; Carolyn Kennett; Robert Smith; (2021)
Neptune: From Grand Discovery to a World Revealed: Essays on the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of John Couch Adams (/p/isis/citation/CBB762464222/)

Article Despeaux, Sloan Evans; (2008)
Mathematics Sent across the Channel and the Atlantic: British Mathematical Contributions to European and American Scientific Journals, 1835--1900 (/p/isis/citation/CBB000774403/)

Article Gao, Hongcheng; (2014)
Textual Research on the Date of the Master Copy of Daiweiji Shiji (/p/isis/citation/CBB001214105/)

Book Steve Batterson; (2017)
American Mathematics 1890-1913: Catching up to Europe (/p/isis/citation/CBB996384427/)

Article Caramalho Domingues, João; (2014)
The Repercussion of José Anastácio da Cunha in Britain and USA in the Nineteenth Century (/p/isis/citation/CBB001420034/)