91É«Ç鯬

Review special : Only connect

Science is to a large extent dependent on the culture from which it rises,
the progress of technology even more transparently so. This is the thesis
expressed in a series of case studies edited by Hamilton Cravens, Alan Marcus
and David Katzman, all three American historians, in Technical Knowledge in
American Culture (University of Alabama Press, £17.95\$19.95, ISBN
0 8173 0793 1). Their goal is to make the study of science, medicine and
technology “more accessible to scholars trained in the humanities and social
sciences�. Airports, cattle feed and medical practice are among the topics
covered, but the style of the book does demand that scholarly attention.