Everyday Nature
Subtitle: Knowledge of the Natural World in Colonial New York
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: April 15, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 261
ISBN-13: 9780813540245
Subjects: American history: c 1500 to c 1800; History of science; Impact of science & technology on society; c 1600 to c 1700; c 1700 to c 1800; Science; History - General History; Science/Mathematics; USA; United States - State & Local - General; History; Natural history; Nature and civilization; New York (State); Philosophy of nature
Description: "In Everyday Mature, Sara Gronim shows how scientific advances were received in the early modern world, from the time Europeans settled in America until just before the American Revolution. Settlers approached a wide range of innovations, such as smallpox inoculation, maps and surveys, Copernican cosmology, and Ben Franklin's experiments with electricity, with great skepticism. New Yorkers in particular were distrustful because of the chronic political and religious factionalism in the colony. Those discoveries that could be easily reconciled with existing beliefs about healing the sick, agricultural practices, and the revolution of the planets were more readily embraced." "A portrait of colonial life, this book traces a series of innovations that were disseminated through-out the Atlantic world during the Enlightenment, and shows how colonial New Yorkers integrated new knowledge into their lives."--BOOK JACKET.