Skip to Content
Home » Courses » History of Science

History of Science

Courselist

  • HSCI E-101 The Darwinian Revolution (Fall)
  • HSCI E-112 Science and Technology in Modern America (Spring)
  • HSCI E-125 Medicine and Society in America (Spring)
  • HSCI E-146 Medicine and the Body in East Asia and in Europe (Fall)
  • HSCI E-200 Crusades, Plagues, and Hospitals: Medicine, Religion, and Society in the Medieval Mediterranean (Fall)
HSCI E-101 The Darwinian Revolution
Fall term (13820)
Janet Browne, PhD, Aramont Professor of the History of Science and Harvard College Professor, Harvard University.
Alistair Sponsel, PhD, Lecturer on the History of Science, Harvard University.
Course tuition: noncredit $1,025, undergraduate credit $1,025, graduate credit $1,950.
Online only, beginning Sept. 1. Lecture 1 video.
Website Printable version
Why is evolutionary theory so controversial in the public sphere? This course looks to the history of cultural changes in the West for answers. We cover the intellectual structure and social context of evolutionary ideas as they emerged in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular emphasis on Darwinism as a major transformation in Western thought. Topics include an introduction to origin stories in different cultures; the natural history tradition in the West; evolutionary thought before Darwin; key aspects of Darwin's ideas; the comparative reception of Darwinism in Britain, the US, Germany, Russia, and France; social Darwinism, eugenics, and racial theories; early genetics and the search for the gene; religious controversy then and now. The recorded lectures are from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences course Culture and Belief 47. (4 credits)
HSCI E-112 Science and Technology in Modern America
Spring term (23601)
Nadine Weidman, PhD, Lecturer in Extension, Harvard University.
Tuesdays beginning Jan. 24, 5:30-7:30 pm.
Course tuition: noncredit $650, undergraduate credit $975, graduate credit $1,900.
Website Printable version
From the birth control pill to the atom bomb, from the IQ test to the personal computer, science and technology have touched every aspect of American life in the twentieth century, for better or worse. This course examines the mutual shaping of scientific and technological development and national experience, focusing on the ways that scientific authority has been constructed, deployed, and challenged in intellectual, political, social, and religious contexts. Topics include the cultural impact of scientific ideas (the mechanistic conception of life, eugenics, quantum theory, cybernetics); the role of scientists in social movements, from progressivism to civil rights; the ways that scientists (physicists, biologists, psychologists, and anthropologists) have furthered and criticized American military and political objectives in wars both hot and cold; the growth of Big Science through funding structures and institutions; and critiques of science at century's end especially in response to environmental crisis. (4 credits)
HSCI E-125 Medicine and Society in America
Spring term (23670)
Jeremy A. Greene, PhD, MD, Assistant Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University and Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
Course tuition: noncredit $1,025, undergraduate credit $1,025, graduate credit $1,950.
Online only, beginning January 25. Optional sections to be arranged. Lecture 1 video.
Website Printable version
This course surveys major developments in the history of American medicine since 1500. Emphasis is on setting the practice of medicine and the experience of health and disease into broad social, cultural, and political contexts. Topics include the social and cultural impact of epidemic disease, the nature of demographic and epidemiological change, the development of medical therapeutics and technologies, the growth of health care institutions, the rise of the medical profession, and debates about the allocation of health care resources. The course evaluates the role of medicine in addressing social needs as well as the social and economic determinants of patterns of health and disease. The recorded lectures are from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences course United States in the World 13. (4 credits)
HSCI E-146 Medicine and the Body in East Asia and in Europe
Fall term (13783)
Shigehisa Kuriyama, PhD, Reischauer Institute Professor of Cultural History, Harvard University.
Course tuition: noncredit $1,025, undergraduate credit $1,025, graduate credit $1,950.
Online only, beginning Sept 1. Required sections to be arranged. Lecture 1 video.
Website Printable version
This course is a comparative historical exploration of the striking differences and unexpected similarities between traditional conceptions of the body in East Asian and European medicine; the evolution of beliefs within medical traditions; and the relationship between traditional medicine and contemporary experience. The recorded lectures are from the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences course Culture and Belief 11. (4 credits)
HSCI E-200 Crusades, Plagues, and Hospitals: Medicine, Religion, and Society in the Medieval Mediterranean
Fall term (13816)
Ahmed Ragab, MD, PhD, Richard T. Watson Assistant Professor of Science and Religion and Assistant Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University.
Mondays beginning Aug. 29, 5:30-7:30 pm.
Course tuition: graduate credit $1,900.
Graduate seminar. Limited enrollment.
Website Printable version
This seminar traces the history of the crusades from a sociocultural perspective, lending a careful ear to the society, its changes, and its development. We use medicine as a lens to analyze the cultural, religious, and scientific life of the Middle East, with its Latin, Byzantine, and Islamic domains, from the eleventh to the thirteenth century. (4 credits)

Browse courses by subject