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Changing Contours of the Social History of Science and Technology in Industrializing France - Robert Fox and George Weisz (eds.). The Organization of Science and Technology in France, 1808–1914. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cambridge University Press, 1980. x + 355 pp.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2017
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- Essay Review IV
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- Copyright © 1983 by History of Education Society
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Footnotes
1. The fragmentation and the underfinancing of the system are discussed in the influential account by Guerlac, Henry, “Science and French National Strength,” in Earle, Edward Mead, Modern France. (Princeton, N.J., 1951), pp 81–105. The often-cited survey by Caullery, Maurice, La science francaise depuis le XVIle siècle (Paris, 1933), emphasized the individualism of French scientists as well as their meager resources. The locus classicus for the argument that politics and administrative activities drained the energies of French scientists is Herivel, J. W., “Aspects of French Theoretical Physics in the Nineteenth Century,” British Journal for the History of Science, 3 (December, 1966): 109–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. One of the earliest studies, which saw the lead changing back and forth between France and Germany until 1850, is Rainoff, T. J., “Wave-like Fluctuations of Creative Productivity in the Development of West-European Physics in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries,” Isis, 12 (1929): 287–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3. See Prost, Antoine, L'enseignement en France: 1800–1967 (Paris, 1968), p. 305, who notes that this opinion had been held for at least a century. The argument was restated by Charles Kindleberger “Technical Education and the French Entrepreneur,” in Carter, Edward C. II, Forster, Robert, and Moody, Joseph N., eds., Enterprise and Entrepreneurs in Nineteenth-and Twentieth-Century France (Baltimore, 1976), pp. 13–14.Google Scholar
4. Pasteur, Louis, Le budget de la science (Paris, 1968); Gilpin, Robert, France in the Age of the Scientific State (Princeton, 1968), pp. 77–123.Google Scholar
5. Ben-David, Joseph, The Scientist's Role in Society (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1971), pp. 100–107.Google Scholar
6. Paul, Harry, “The Issue of Decline in Nineteenth-Century French Science,” French Historical Studies 7, no. 3 (Spring, 1972): 416–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7. Ibid., 419–420. See Gilpin, , France, pp. 124–150.Google Scholar
8. Zeldin, Theodore, “Higher Education in France, 1848–1940,” Journal of Contemporary History, 2 (1967): 53–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9. Paul, , “The Issue of Decline:” 421–429.Google Scholar
10. Cambridge University Press and Editons de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 1980.Google Scholar
11. The term “the University” thus referred to the entire complex of secondary and higher-level institutions administered by the Ministry of Public Instruction, including the various faculties, the lycées, the communally supported colléges, and the Ecole Normale. The term will be used in that sense in this article.Google Scholar
12. Zwerling, Craig, “The Emergence of the Ecole Normale Supérieure as a Centre of Scientific Education in the Nineteenth Century,” in Weisz, and Fox, , Organization, p. 39.Google Scholar
13. Ibid., 36.Google Scholar
14. Crosland, Maurice, “The Development of a Professional Career in Science in France,” Minerva 13 (1975): 38–57.Google Scholar
15. Zwerling, , “Ecole Normale Supérieure,” in Fox, and Weisz, , p. 41.Google Scholar
16. Ibid., 43.Google Scholar
17. Ibid., 31–32.Google Scholar
18. Fox, Robert, “The Savant Confronts His Peers: Scientific Societies in France, 1815–1914,” in Fox, and Weisz, , Organization, p. 269.Google Scholar
19. Ibid.Google Scholar
20. Crawford, Elisabeth, “The Prize System of the Academy of Sciences, 1850–1914,” in Fox, and Weisz, , Organization, p. 305.Google Scholar
21. Ibid., 298–299.Google Scholar
22. Paul, Harry, “Apollo Courts the Vulcans: The Applied Science Institutes in Nineteenth-Century French Science Faculties,” in Fox, and Weisz, , Organization, p. 156.Google Scholar
23. Ibid., 158–159.Google Scholar
24. Ibid., 165 Google Scholar
25. Sabatier's role has been studied by Nye, Mary Jo in “The Scientific Periphery in France: the Faculty of Sciencies at Toulouse (1880–1930),” Minerva, 13 (1975): 374–403 and “Nonconformity and Creativity: A Study of Paul Sabatier, Chemical Theory, and the French Scientific Community,” Isis, 69 (1977): 375–391.Google Scholar
26. Fox, , “The Savant Confronts His Peers,” 274–278.Google Scholar
27. Rod Day, C., “Education for the Industrial World” Technical and Modern Instruction in France under the Third Republic, 1879–1914,” in Fox, and Weisz, , Organization, p. 132.Google Scholar
28. Ibid., 139.Google Scholar
29. Paul, , “Apollo Courts the Vulcans,” pp. 179–181, and Fox, and Weisz, , “Introduction,” Organization, 14. Paul has also written on the University's stimulating rivalry with another set of institutions, the Catholic institutes, in “Science and the Catholic Institutes in Nineteenth-Century France,” Societas, 1 (1971): 271–285.Google Scholar
30. Day, , “Education for the Industrial World,” p. 153.Google Scholar
31. Crouzet, Franc̨ois, “French Economic Growth in the Nineteenth Century Reconsidered, History 59:196 (June, 1974); Caron, Franc̨ois, An Economic History of Modern France (New York, 1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
32. Fox, and Weisz, , “Introduction,” p. 10.Google Scholar
33. On enseignement spécial see Rod Day, C., “Technical and Professional Education in France: the Rise and Fall of l'Enseignement Secondaire Spécial, 1865–1902,” Journal of Social History, 6 (Winter, 1972–1973): 177–202, and Anderson, Robert D., Education in France: 1848–1870 (Oxford, 1975), pp. 206–224; on the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, see Clark, Terry N., Prophets and Patrons The French University and the Emergence of the Social Sciences (Cambridge, Mass., 1973), pp. 42–51.Google Scholar
34. Fox, and Weisz, , “Introduction,” p. 11.Google Scholar
35. Ibid., 19. By 1914 one-third of the universities' budgets came from sources outside the Ministry.Google Scholar
36. Ibid., 17.Google Scholar
37. Ibid., 18. Until the publication of George Weisz' forthcoming volume on French higher education, the clearest discussion of Liard's reforms is his article “The Anatomy of University Reform, 1863–1914,” in Baker, Donald N. and Harrigan, Patrick J., The Making of Frenchmen: Current Directions in the History of Education in France, 1679–1979 (Waterloo, Ontario, 1979), pp. 363–380.Google Scholar
38. Fox, and Weisz, , “Introduction,” p. 20.Google Scholar
39. Ibid.Google Scholar
40. Lundgreen, Peter, “The Organization of Science and Technology in France: a German Perspective,” in Fox, and Weisz, , Organization, pp. 311–332 and 10 where the editors “strongly endorse” this view of convergence. The growing similarities in the per capita research efforts in physics in the two countries can be examined in Forman, Paul, Heilbron, John L., and Weart, Spencer, “Physics circa 1900: Personnel, Funding, and Productivity of the Academic Establishments,” Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 5 (1975): 1–185, esp. 6, 13, 127.Google Scholar
41. Paul, , “Apollo Courts the Vulcans,” p. 173.Google Scholar
42. Ibid., 160. Cf. the somewhat higher totals for all science students given in Ringer, Fritz K., Education and Society in Modern Europe (Bloomington, Ind., 1979), p. 335.Google Scholar
43. Zwerling, , “Ecole Normale Supérieure,” p. 44.Google Scholar
44. Karady, Victor, “Educational Qualifications and University Careers in Science in Nineteenth-Century France,” in Weisz, and Fox, , Organization, pp. 121–122. The exceptions are the observatories, where the Normalien percentage declined from 38 to 23 between 1869 and 1890, and geology-mineralogy, where Ecole des Mines-Polytechnique graduates had a clear advantage.Google Scholar
45. Rod Day, C., “Education, Technology, and Social Change in France: The Short Unhappy Life of the Cluny School, 1866–1891,” French Historical Studies, 7 (1974): 427–444.Google Scholar
46. Shinn, Terry, “The French Faculty System, 1808–1914: Institutional Change and Research Potential in the Physical Sciences,” in McCormmach, Russell, Pyerson, Lewis, and Turner, Roy Steven, eds., Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, 10 (Baltimore, 1979): 319, 331.Google Scholar
47. Ibid.: 328.Google Scholar
48. In her memoirs from inside the top French science circles, Camille Marbo [ Borel, Marguérite], A travers deux siècles: souvenirs et rencontres, 1883–1967 (Paris, 1968), p. 92, reports how the health of Paul Langevin, a top physicist, broke down under the constant pressure from his mother-in-law to stop declining the employment offers from industry that would have earned him four times his university salary.Google Scholar
49. Shinn, , “French Science Faculty System,” p. 318, based on the records of faculty council meetings at Lyons and Montpellier.Google Scholar
50. Shinn, Terry, “From ‘Corps’ to ‘Profession’: The Emergence and Definition of Industrial Engineering in Modern France,” in Fox, and Weisz, , Organization, p. 206.Google Scholar
51. Day, , “Education for the Industrial World,” p. 153.Google Scholar
52. Fox, and Weisz, , “Introduction,” p. 26.Google Scholar
53. Ben-David, , The Scientist's Role in Society, pp. 104–105.Google Scholar
54. Limoges, Camille, “The Development of the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris, c. 1800–1914,” in Fox, and Weisz, , Organization, p. 225.Google Scholar
55. Ibid., p. 228.Google Scholar
56. Hundreds of Frenchmen, most of whom went on to careers in industry, learned basic chemical techniques in the laboratory of Edmond Fremy at the Museum. Such men did not receive diplomas, so they seldom show up in totals of “trained manpower,” but their positions, as shown on the lists of the Association of Former Students of Edmond Fremy, indicate clearly how important was that training for French industrial growth.Google Scholar
57. Ibid., pp. 236–239.Google Scholar
58. Fox, and Weisz, , “Introduction,” p. 26.Google Scholar
59. This theme is especially prominent in the articles by Day, Fox, Paul, and Zwerling. Counter-evidence for scientific education in the twentieth century is provided by de Saint Martin, Monique, Les fonctions sociales de l'enseignement scientifique (Paris, 1971).Google Scholar
60. Zwerling, , “Ecole Normale Supérieure,” p. 60.Google Scholar
61. Fifty-three percent of Polytechnicians entered army engineering or artillery in the period 1830–1847; 68 percent did so in 1880–1914. Shinn, Terry, L'Ecole Polytechnique 1794–1914: savoir scientifique et pouvoir social (Paris, 1980), p. 185.Google Scholar
62. Taped interview with Francois LeChatelier, Nancy, 10 April 1969.Google Scholar
63. Zwerling, basing himself on Shinn's data, finds only 106 Polytechnician scientists, whose social origins are not very different from other Polytechnicians. Among those who had already entered that school, then, a scientific career was no less attractive for the higher-born. Yet the Shinn-Zwerling sample clearly needs extension. According to Marielle, C.-P., Répertoire de l'Ecole Impériale Polytechnique (Paris, 1855), (a), as early as 1853 at least 271 Polytechnicians has entered “Public Instruction,” the vast majority in the sciences (a), as early as 1853 at least 271 Polytechnicians has entered “Public Instruction,” the vast majority in the sciences.Google Scholar
64. Zwerling, , “Ecole Normale Supérieure,” pp. 38–39.Google Scholar
65. Limoges, , “Museum,” p. 229.Google Scholar
66. A work of Harry Paul's dealing with the question is “The Debate over the Bankruptcy of Science in 1895,” French Historical Studies, 5 (1967): 299–327.Google Scholar
67. Clark, , Prophets and Patrons, pp. 190–194 and Stock, Phyllis, “Students versus the University in Pre-World War Paris,” French Historical Studies, 7 (1971–1972): 93–110.Google Scholar
68. An extremely useful volume presenting the results of research in the history of French education up to 1979 is Baker, Donald N. and Harrigan, Patrick J., eds., The Making of Frenchmen (Waterloo, Ontario, 1979), with contributions by thirty-seven scholars and a perceptive state-of-the-art essay by Harrigan containing a number of suggestions for future research.Google Scholar
69. Fox, and Weisz, , “Introduction,” p. 15.Google Scholar
70. Ibid.Google Scholar
71. Ibid., p. 16. That the research ideal can be just as “professional” as those latter goals, fitting well into a group-interest explanation, is pointed out by Bledstein, Burton, The Culture of Professionalism (New York, 1976), pp. 326–331, and Collins, Randall, The Credential Society, (New York, 1979), pp. 122–127.Google Scholar
72. Fox, and Weisz, , “Introduction,” p. 16.Google Scholar
73. Weisz, George, “Reform and Conflict in French Medical Education, 1870–1914,” in Fox, and Weisz, , Organization, pp. 61–94.Google Scholar
74. Shinn, , “From ‘corps’ to ‘profession,’” p. 196.Google Scholar
75. Such attempts could even result in revolts against science. Weisz, , “French Medical Education,” p. 90, notes the “marked anti-scientific character” of opposition to upgrading the medical agrégation. Google Scholar
76. Twenty-three engineering schools were founded between 1900 and 1918. The annual number of engineering students receiving diplomas increased from 1000 in 1900 to 4000 in 1920. Boltanski, Luc, “Taxonomies sociales et luttes de classes,” Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales (29): 97, 1979.Google Scholar
77. Ibid., 88; Shinn, , L'Ecole Polytechnique, pp. 101–121.Google Scholar
78. Fox, , “The Savant Confronts His Peers,” p. 243; Thackray, Arnold, “Natural Knowledge in Its Cultural Context: The Manchester Model,” American Historical Review, 79 (1974): 672–709.Google Scholar
79. Fox, , “The Savant Confronts His Peers,” p. 255.Google Scholar
80. Fox, Robert, “Learning, Politics, and Polite Culture in Provincial France: The Sociétés Savantes in the Nineteenth Century,” in Baker, and Harrigan, , The Making of Frenchmen, p. 544.Google Scholar
81. Fox, , “The Savant Confronts His Peers.” p. 254.Google Scholar
82. Webb, Robert K., The British Working-Class Reader, 1790–1848: Literacy and Social Tension (London, 1955). Shapin, Steven and Barnes, Barry, “Science, Nature, and Control: Interpreting Mechanics' Institutes,” “Social Studies of Science 7:1 (February, 1977): 31–74.Google Scholar
83. Fox, Robert, “Education for a New Age: The Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, 1815–1830,” in Cardwell, D.S.L., ed., Artisan to Graduate (Manchester, 1974), pp. 23–38.Google Scholar
84. Fox, , “The Savant Confronts His Peers,” p. 255.Google Scholar
85. The best example of such analyses to date is probably Outram, Dorinda, “The Language of Natural Power: The ‘Eloges’ of Georges Cuvier and the Public Language of Nineteenth-Century Science,” History of Science, 16 (1978): 153–178. Scientific themes are also discussed in the analysis of Prize Day speeches by Viviane Isambert-Jamati: Crises de la société, crises de l'enseignement (Paris, 1970).Google Scholar
86. Boltanski, Luc, Prime éducation et morale de classe (Paris, 1969). See also Donzelot, Jacques, The Policing of Families (New York, 1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
87. The French response to Taylorism can be followed in the writings of Henry Le Chatelier and in the pages of the Bulletin de la Société d'Encouragement pour l'Industrie nationale. Coriat, Benjamin, L'atelier et le chronomètre (Paris, 1979) is a recent general treatment. See also two articles by Moutet, Aimée, “Les origines du système Taylor en France. Le point de vue patronal (1907–1914),” Le mouvement social, 93 (Oct-Dec 1975): 15–49 and “Ingénieurs et rationalisation en France de la guerre à la crise, 1914–1929, “Colloque Ingénieurs et Société (Le Creusot, 1980). An important recent comparative treatment of the impact of Scientific Management, which includes a chapter on France as well as others on America, Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union, is Merkle's, Judith Management and Ideology: The Legacy of the International Scientific Management Movement (Berkeley, 1980).Google Scholar
88. See Ben-David, , The Scientist's Role in Society, p. 78.Google Scholar
89. For a defense of the Republican Positivists see Eros, John, “The Positivist Generation of French Republicanism,” Sociological Review, 3 (1955): 255–273; Legrand, Louis, L'influence du positivisme dans l'oeuvre scolaire de Jules Ferry (Paris, 1961).Google Scholar
90. See the articles by Peter Kropotkin and others in Le Révolte and La Révolte, Kropotkin's Fields Factories and Workshops, and Grave, Jean, La société future (Paris, 1895).Google Scholar
91. Weiner, Dora, Raspail: Scientist and Reformer (New York, 1968), esp. 135–292.Google Scholar
92. Fox, and Weisz, , “Introduction,” pp. 27–28.Google Scholar