41 - Latin America: A Commentary

Summary

The early twenty-first century is an interesting period for revisiting approaches to the writing of history, including the history of science. There has been a widely shared feeling that we are at a crossroad, at the end of a knowledge regime and the beginning of another that marks a change in the ways of grasping the world. A renewed panorama of science engagement with the natural world includes a much more extended range of actors and sources. This multi-polar and multi-actor scenario emerged organically from the concerns of Atlantic history since the sixteenth century, and moved beyond them, resulting in a broader approach to science in what were formerly considered colonial outposts.