Perspectives on Chemical Biography in the 21st Century

Overlooked, even despised by historians of chemistry for many years, the genre of biography has enjoyed a revival since the beginning of this century.

The key to its renaissance is the use of the biographical form to provide a contextual analysis of important themes in contrast to the uncritical, almost hagiographic, lives of chemists written in the earlier part of the twentieth century.

Bringing together the contributions of scholars active in several different countries, this book leads the reader through emerging questions around sources, and the generic problems faced by authors of biographies, before moving on to discuss aspects more related with physical, theoretical and inorganic chemistry, and facets of 19th century chemistry.