English is the language of science today. No matter which languages you know, if you want your work seen, studied, and cited, you need to publish in English. But that hasn't always been the case. Though there was a time when Latin dominated the field, for centuries science has been a polyglot enterprise, conducted in a number of languages whose importance waxed and waned over time--until the rise of English in the twentieth century. So how did we get from there to here? How did French, German, Latin, Russian, and even ...
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English is the language of science today. No matter which languages you know, if you want your work seen, studied, and cited, you need to publish in English. But that hasn't always been the case. Though there was a time when Latin dominated the field, for centuries science has been a polyglot enterprise, conducted in a number of languages whose importance waxed and waned over time--until the rise of English in the twentieth century. So how did we get from there to here? How did French, German, Latin, Russian, and even Esperanto give way to English? And what can we reconstruct of the experience of doing science in the polyglot past? With Scientific Babel , Michael D. Gordin resurrects that lost world, in part through an ingenious mechanism: the pages of his highly readable narrative account teem with footnotes--not offering background information, but presenting quoted material in its original language. The result is stunning: as we read about the rise and fall of languages, driven by politics, war, economics, and institutions, we actually see it happen in the ever-changing web of multilingual examples. The history of science, and of English as its dominant language, comes to life, and brings with it a new understanding not only of the frictions generated by a scientific community that spoke in many often mutually unintelligible voices, but also of the possibilities of the polyglot, and the losses that the dominance of English entails. Few historians of science write as well as Gordin, and Scientific Babel reveals his incredible command of the literature, language, and intellectual essence of science past and present. No reader who takes this linguistic journey with him will be disappointed.
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Add this copy of Scientific Babel: How Science Was Done Before and After to cart. $9.50, very good condition, Sold by Orrin Schwab - BOOKS rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Providence, UT, UNITED STATES, published 2015 by University of Chicago Press.
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Very Good-in Very Good-dust jacket. 022600029X. Slight shelf wear to the spine edges and corners. The dust jacket has some wear to the edges.; 1.3 X 6.2 X 9.1 inches; 424 pages.
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Good in Good jacket. Size: 1x6x9; Copyright 2015 with full number line. A good hardcover with a very good DJ, from a personal collection (NOT ex-library). Binding is tight, sturdy, and square; very light wear to blue cloth boards, silver gilt titling on spine remains bright and bold. Marginalia and some underlining on several pages scattered throughout, text is always readable. Unclipped dust jacket is very good with very light shelfwear. Ships from Dinkytown in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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Fine. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 424 p. Contains: Illustrations. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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