Reviews
Extensively researched and replete with bibliographical citations, Scientists and Swindlers is a significant reference work for historians and will also be of interest to geologists, chemists, and other scientists interested in the history of their professions.
Gracefully written and well-researched study.
This will be an especially appropriate library resource for history of science and technology and history of geology collections. Highly recommended.
An insightful study of scientific consulting practices that integrates business, geology, and environmental issues with the larger context of the early history of the American 'fossil fuel' industry.
Scientists and Swindlers is a valuable addition to our understanding of the evolution of scientific practice in America. Lucier's work answers much and raises interesting questions. That makes it a worthy read.
This is a well-written study, and covers a lot of ground.
Required reading for anyone interested in American science or in the interplay of science and industrial society.
Scientists and Swindlers is a model of how the history of science and technology ought to be done. Drawing on materials gleaned from the scientific journal and the courtroom, the textbook and the business prospectus, Paul Lucier weaves an exciting and original narrative about geology's relations with commerce in the nineteenth century. He shows us how geologists' efforts to classify and understand their materials interdigitated with entrepreneurial ambitions, how the expertise and pretensions of science intersected with the needs of commerce and law, and how geologists struggled to define and walk a line between the ethics of an aspiring profession and the ethics of the marketplace. Lucier enriches our understanding of geology's history while giving us a new appreciation of the continuities between the nineteenth century and our own era of commercialized science. His book prompts pleasure and reflection.
In a remarkable piece of historical detective work, Paul Lucier shows how the search for coal, oil, and other resources that led to the industrial transformation of America also fueled the development of the modern scientific career. Filled with surprising stories and extraordinary characters, Scientists and Swindlers offers a fresh perspective on the troubled relations between commerce and intellectual life we face today.
Book Details
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Money for Science
Part I: Coal
1. Geological Enterprise
2. The Strange Case of the Albert Mineral
3. The American Sciences of Coal
4. Mining Science
Part II
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Money for Science
Part I: Coal
1. Geological Enterprise
2. The Strange Case of the Albert Mineral
3. The American Sciences of Coal
4. Mining Science
Part II: Kerosene
5. The Technological Science of Kerosene
6. The Kerosene Cases
Part III: Petroleum
7. The Rock Oil Report
8. The Elusive Nature of Oil and Its Markets
9. The Search for Oil and Oil-Finding Experts
10. California Crude
Epilogue: Americanization of Science
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index