Are Science Books Important?
To understand the role(s) of books, I am looking at the history of science books since World War II. I’m looking both at books within science, such as textbooks and conference proceedings, and more public books, such as bestsellers, Pulitzer Prize winners, and other contributors to public and intellectual debate. In this talk, I’m just looking at the public books. There are a couple of different ways of identifying books that play a role in public culture. There are the ones that some kind of official presence: they have won an award, a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, etc. Or they have been certified as being popular by virtue of being on one of several best seller lists. Or they fall into a category I call “remembered books,” the ones where someone I’m talking with remembers the book and then says “But you’re going to include that book aren’t you?” These are the books that have become touchstones for us. Let me start with the Pulitzer Prize winners (Fig. 4).
