History of Science in the United States: A Chronology and Research Guide, by Clark A. Elliott, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities Vol. 1711, Garland Publishing, New York. 1996

• Main Author: Andrew L. Christenson
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ubiquity Press 1996-11-01
• Series: Bulletin of the History of Archaeology
• Online Access: http://www.archaeologybulletin.org/article/view/348
• ISSN: 1062-4740; 2047-6930

There are four parts to this volume - a chronology of events by year, a chronology of leading scientists grouped by the decade in which they reached 25 years of age? a research guide, and a research bibliography. The author has written extensively on American science, including co-editing the volume Science at Harvard University (reviewed in BHA 2(1):17-19). The volume covers mostly what are termed the "hard" sciences (-.e., chemistry. biology, geology, etc.) and touches upon the social sciences only rarely. The chronology. that takes up two thirds of the book, extends from ca. 1493 to 1990 and includes only three archaeological events. An example of these entries follows: "1877. ARCHAEOLOGY Ephraim George Squier (1821-1888) published Peru: Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas (New York and London). Herelated his discovery of Latin American civilizations that predated the Inca. (p. 114)" The scientist cohorts by decade also focuses upon the hard sciences, although three men are singled out from archaeology F. W. Putnam, N. H. Winchell, and T. M. Prodden - a peculiar sample of American archae­ologists indeed!