Volta:
Science and Culture in the Age of Enlightenment
Giuliano Pancaldi

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ADDITIONAL REVIEWS:

"This is by far the best book about Volta in English. . . . It is also far more than just a biography. Based on this study of one individual's electrical activities, Pancaldi makes general arguments about the culture of science at the end of the enlightenment."--Patricia Fara, Chemical Heritage

"Giuliano Pancaldi's study of Alessandro Volta reveals the vast international trade in scientific knowledge that, by the end of the eighteenth century, had transformed the promotion of experiment. Pancaldi's treatment of Volta as a major figure in the revolutionary world of the late eighteenth century is an important addition to studies of a scientific public."--Larry Stewart, Business History Review

ADDITIONAL ENDORSEMENTS:

"Pancaldi's book is the best thing on Volta that has ever been written. The author's command of the scientific issues is impeccable, and his presentation of the contributions and reactions of Volta's contemporaries is equally successful."--Charles C. Gillispie, Princeton University

"This work is a splendid contribution to knowledge that will have wide appeal. It deals with a seminal figure in the development of science--an intellectual giant who was to some real extent a self-made scientist. Presenting the story in clear and dramatic terms, the book is a milestone in our understanding of Enlightenment science and of the ways that science is related to its social and cultural matrix."--I. Bernard Cohen, Harvard University

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File created: 11/5/2009

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