The period of time around the American
Revolution coincided with the Enlightenment.
In Gentleman Scientists and
Revolutionaries, Tom
Schachtman endeavors to present a history
of American science
during this time and show how scientific ideas influenced the founding
fathers.
Shachtman starts with the colonial
period. Because many of the formally
educated people in America,
including clergyman,
had studied in Europe,
Enlightenment science was taught to many of the founding fathers to some degree
in their youths. As frontiersman, even in American cities and upper class,
practical knowledge was considered to be an acceptable subject along with classical
subjects. At the time, they wouldn’t have used the word “science,” nor would
they have strongly distinguished the study of science from the professions of engineering,
architecture
and medicine
or even agriculture
and skilled trades.
Americans were well-read, and the many newspapers of
the time introduced common people to scientific debate. In particular, Philadelphia
newspapers (including one operated by Benjamin
Franklin’s brother) sensationalized the debate over variolation
(inoculation) to prevent small pox. The American reputation for science was
slow to develop in the colonial period, but Franklin’s success in studying electricity
proved that the colonies could produce scientists to match the European adepts.
The Revolutionary
War did not bring scientific study to a stop, but it necessarily diverted a
lot of attention. Even so, people continued to seek scientific and technological
advances, especially if they might help the war effort.
After the war, the United States
continued to develop its scientific talent. Schacthman culminates his book in
the presidency
of Thomas
Jefferson and the period shortly after it. By this time, the nation had a
depth of scientific talent and could mount and expedition to the western edge
of the continent, start a steamboat line, and demonstrate that meteors
originated in outer space.
Scientific ideas of the time shaped the founders’ political
thinking. In particular, the Enlightenment was a period when many people
abandoned the notion that knowledge was received from authorities. Knowledge
could be discovered through observation of nature and the application of
reason. In particular, people might discover the laws of effective government
in much the way that Isaac Newton
discovered the laws of motion.
A related idea was that knowledge was tested, adjusted and improved by
experimentation. They did not imagine that they were creating a perfect
government, they were instead applying the lessons they learned from previous
experiments in ancient and European governments to a new experiment that may or
may not produce the results they hoped for. In some ways, Americans are
still participating in that same experiment.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Schachtman, Tom. Gentleman
Scientists and Revolutionaries: The Founding Fathers in the Age of
Enlightenment. New York: Palgrave
MacMillan, 2014.
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