British Society For The History of Science

The British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) was founded in 1947. It is Britain's largest learned society devoted to the history of science, technology, and medicine. The society's aim is to bring together people with interests in all aspects of the field, and to publicise relevant ideas within the wider research and teaching communities and the media. Its mission statements states the society will strive "to foster the understanding of the history and social impact of science, technology and medicine in all their branches in the academic and the wider communities, and to provide a national focus for the discipline."

Publications are a key feature of the Society's professional activity. Print publications include:

  • The British Journal for the History of Science (BJHS): a peer-reviewed quarterly academic journal, including articles and reviews of the latest books in the history of science, technology and medicine
  • Viewpoint: newsletter of the Society, published three times a year and featuring news and views from across the field
  • BSHS Monographs: work of lasting scholarly value that might not otherwise be made available, and aids the dissemination of innovative projects advancing scholarship or education in the field

Other publications are online, including the BSHS List of Theses, and the BSHS Guide to Institutions.

Famous quotes containing the words british, society, history and/or science:

    “In New York—whose subway trains in particular have been “tattooed” with a brio and an energy to put our own rude practitioners to shame—not an inch of free space is spared except that of advertisements.... Even the most chronically dispossessed appear prepared to endorse the legitimacy of the “haves.””
    —Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. “Cleaning and Cleansing,” Myths and Memories (1986)

    “In the ordinary course of things, how many succeed in society merely by virtue of their manners, while others, however meritorious, fail through lack of them? After all, it’s only barbarians who wear uncut precious stones.”
    —Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)

    “There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
    —Karl Marx (1818–1883)

    “I’ve been asked to give some words of advice for young women entering library/information science education. Does anyone ever take advice? The advice we give is usually what we would do or would have done if we had the chance, and the advice that’s taken, if ever, is often what we wanted to hear in the first place.”
    —Phyllis Dain (b. 1930)