Margaret Jacob (born 1943) is an American
historian of science
The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal.
Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...
and Distinguished Professor of Research at UCLA. She specializes in the history of science, knowledge, the Enlightenment and Freemasonry.
Life
Margaret C. Jacob was born (1943) and raised in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. She graduated from
St. Joseph's College in 1964 with a
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
degree and then attended
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
, earning a
master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in 1966 and her
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
two years later. Jacob was appointed as an
assistant professor
Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada.
Overview
This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree and general ...
at the
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is ...
in 1968 and spent 1969–71 as a lecturer in history at the University of East Anglia. She was hired as faculty at
Baruch College
Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates und ...
of the
City University of New York
The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
in 1971 and received tenure four years later. Jacob was appointed professor of history at the
New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...
in 1985 and simultaneously became
dean
Dean may refer to:
People
* Dean (given name)
* Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin
* Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk
* Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean
Titles
* ...
of its
Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts
Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, commonly referred to as Lang, is the seminar-style, undergraduate, liberal arts college of The New School. It is located on-campus in Greenwich Village in New York City on West 11th Street off 6th Avenue.
...
until 1988. She is a Fellow of the
Royal Historical Society
The Royal Historical Society, founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history.
Origins
The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the Histori ...
and co-authored a textbook on
Western Civilization
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
that has gone through five editions. She has served on the editorial boards of the ''
Journal of Modern History
''The Journal of Modern History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering European intellectual, political, and cultural history, published by the University of Chicago Press. Established in 1929, the journal covers events from appro ...
'', ''Restoration'', ''
Journal of British Studies
The publication of thNorth American Conference on British Studies ''The Journal of British Studies'' is an academic journal aimed at scholars of British culture from the Middle Ages through the present. The journal was co-founded in 1961 by Geor ...
'', ''
Isis
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
'', and ''
Eighteenth-Century Studies
''Eighteenth-Century Studies'' is an academic journal established in 1966 and the official publication of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. It focuses on all aspects of 18th century history. It is related to the annual ''Studies ...
''. "Best known for her studies of
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
and the development of Western scientific thought, Jacob has also written about the politics of writing history."
Works
Books
2000–2023
with Maru Vasquez Freemasonry and Civil Society. Europe, the Americas, North and South to be published in 2023 by Peter Lang
* ''The Enlightenment: A Brief History of Documents''. Bedford Books. 2001. 237 pages. . 2nd ed. 2016
* ''The Secular Enlightenment''. Princeton, NJ; Princeton University Press. 2019. 360 pages. .
“How Radical Was the Enlightenment? What Do We Mean by 'Radical'?" in Justyna Miklaszewska, and Anna Tomeszewska, Filozofia Oświecenia. Radykalizm – religia – kosmopolityzm, University Press, Jagiellonia, 2016, translated as “Ja bardzo radykalne bylo Oświecenie i co oznacza “radikakne?”, pp. 46–64.
* ''The First Knowledge Economy. Human Capital and Economic Development, 1750–1850''
Cambridge University Press. 2014. 257 pages Reviewed by ,Lissa Roberts, Pat Hudson, and FV Razumenko.
*
edited with Catherine Secretan, In Praise of Ordinary People. Early Modern Britain and the Dutch Republic, 2014 http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=711782
With Lynn Hunt and Wijnand Mijnhardt, The Book that Changed Europe,Harvard University Press, 2010 reviewed New York Review of Books, June 25, 2010.
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/HUNCOG.html
Janet Burke & Margaret Jacob, Les premières francs-maçonnes au siècle des Lumières, Bordeaux University Press, 2010.
190pp, avec un cahier de 8 illustrations en couleur.
http://livre.fnac.com/a3483143/Janet-Burke-Les-premieres-franc-maconnes-...
with Lynn Hunt and Wijnand Mijnhardt, eds. Bernard Picart and the First Global Vision of Religion. Getty Publications, 2010
http://www.getty.edu/bookstore/titles/picart.html
The Scientific Revolution: A Brief History with Documents, Bedford Books, 2010.
Scientific Culture and the Making of the Industrial West, published by Oxford University Press; 1997, a sequel to The Cultural Meaning; new edition planned for 2010, with additional chapters with Catherine Secretan, eds.
The Self-Perception of Early Modern Capitalists,Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008
Strangers Nowhere in the World: The Rise of Cosmopolitanism in Early Modern Europe, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
Click here to view this book @ OpinionJournal
The Origins of Freemasonry. Facts and Fictions, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and Republicans, published by George Allen & Unwin, London and Boston,1981; Italian translation, L'Illuminismo Radicale, published by Societa Editrice Il Mulino,1983. Second edition, revised, Cornerstone Books, 2005
The Enlightenment: A Brief History, Bedford Books, 2001.
1970–1999
Telling the Truth about History with Lynn Hunt and Joyce Appleby, New York, W.W.Norton, 1994. Reviewed New York Times Book Review, March 25, 1994. TLS, June 10, 1994; The New Republic, Oct. 24, 1994; editions in Spanish, Polish, Lithuanian and Chinese under contract. A selection of the History Book Club. Forums on the book in History and Theory and the Journal of the History of Ideas.
Newton and the Culture of Newtonianism, with Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs. My half discusses Newtonian mechanics and European industrial culture throughout the 18th century. Humanity Press, 1995. Winner of the Watson-Davis Award, History of Science Society
Living the Enlightenment: Freemasonry and Politics in Eighteenth Century Europe, 1991, 350pp. Oxford University Press; reviewed TLS, June 12, 1992; AHR, 1993; JMH, 1994; Italian rights bought by Laterza. French translation appeared in 2004 with L'Orient, Paris.
The Cultural Meaning of the Scientific Revolution, Alfred Knopf, sold to McGraw-Hill, New York, 1988, 273 pp. Reviewed New York Review of Books, April 28, 1988; Italian translation, Einaudi Editore, 1992.
The Newtonians and the English Revolution, 1689–1720, Cornell University Press and Harvester Press, Ltd., 1976.
Reviewed in New York Review of Books, December 7, 1978. Italian translation, I Newtoniani e la rivoluzione inglese, 1689-I720, 1980 by Feltrinelli Editore, Milan. Reprinted, 1983; Japanese translation, 1990. Available from Gordon and Breach, "Classics in the History of Science."
Journal articles
“Walking the Terrain of History with a Faulty Map,” Low Countries Historical Review, vol. 130-3, 2015, pp. 72–78.
“‘Epilogue: Dichotomies Defied and the Revolutionary Implications of Religion Implied,” Historical Reflections, vol. 40, 2014, pp. 108–115.
“Postscript” to Diego Lucci, ed, Atheism and Deism in the Enlightenment England, Ashgate, 2014
“How Radical Was the Enlightenment?” in Diametros (a Polish journal)
http://www.diametros.iphils.uj.edu.pl/index.php/diametros/issue/current
“Among the Autodidacts: The Making of Edward Thompson,” Labour/Le Travail, vol. 71, 2013, pp. 156–60
“The Left, Right and Science: Relativists and Materialists,” Logos. A Journal of Modern Science and Culture, vol. 12, 2013, pp. 10 (approx.) an online journal, http://logosjournal.com/2013/jacob/
“French Education in Science and the Puzzle of Retardation, 1790-1840,” História e Economia, vol. 8, 2011, pp. 13–38.
“The Nature of Early Eighteenth-Century Religious Radicalism” in Republic of Letters, vol 1, 2009
http://arcade.stanford.edu/journals/rofl/articles/nature-early-eighteenth-century-religious-radicalism-by-margaret-jacob
“Was the Eighteenth-Century Republican Essentially Anti-Capitalist?” Republic of Letters, vol. 2 2010,
http://arcade.stanford.edu/journals/rofl/articles/was-eighteenth-century-republican-essentially-anticapitalist-by-margaret-jacob
"The cosmopolitan as a lived category," Daedalus, Summer, 2008, pp. 18–25.
“Mechanical Science on the Factory Floor: The Early Industrial Revolution in Leeds,” History of Science, vol. 45, 2007, pp. 197–221.
"Scientific Culture and the Origins of the First Industrial Revolution," Historia e Economia. Revista Interdisciplinar, vol. 2, 2006,pp. 55–70
"Bernard Picart and the Turn to Modernity," De Achttiende eeuw, vol. 37, 2005, pp. 1–16.
With Larry Stewart, Practical Matter. The Impact of Newton's Science from 1687 to 1851, Harvard University Press, November 2004.
With M. Kadane, "Missing now Found in the Eighteenth Century. Weber's Protestant Capitalist," American Historical Review, February, 2003, vol 2008, pp. 20–49.
with Lynn Hunt, "Enlightenment Studies," in Alan Charles Kors, ed., Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, 2003 vol 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 418-430.
With D. Sturkenboom, "A Women's Scientific Society in the West: The Late Eighteenth Century Assimilation of Science" Isis, June, 2003, vol. 94, pp. 217–252
With Michael Sauter “Why did Humphrey Davy not apply nitrous oxide to the relief of pain?”, The Journal of the History of Medicine, vol. 57, April 2002, pp. 161–176.
With Lynn Hunt “The Affective Revolution in 1790s Britain,” Eighteenth Century Studies, vol. 34, 2001, pp. 491–521.
With David Reid “Technical Knowledge and the Mental Universe of Manchester’s Cotton Manufacturers,”Canadian Journal of History, vol. 36, 2001, pp. 283-304. French translation appeared in Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine vol. 50-52, 2003.
“Thinking Unfashionable Thoughts, Asking Unfashionable Questions,” American Historical Review, April 2000, vol. 105, pp. 494–500.
“Commerce, Industry and Newtonian Science: Weber Revisited and Revised,” Canadian Journal of History, v. 35, Fall, 2000, pp. 236–51.
Awards
* 1976 Awarded the Louis
Gottschalk Prize
The Gottschalk Prize is awarded for an outstanding historical or critical study on the 18th century and carries a prize of US$1,000. It is named in honour of Louis Gottschalk (1899–1975), second President of the American Society for Eighteenth-C ...
by the American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies.
*2002 member of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
.
*2013 member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
.
* 2019 member
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
.
Notes
References
*
External links
Professor Emeritus bio page at UCLA detailing various publications.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacob, Margaret
1943 births
Cornell University alumni
The New School faculty
University of California, Los Angeles faculty
21st-century American historians
American women historians
Living people
Historians from New York (state)
21st-century American women writers
Historians from California
Members of the American Philosophical Society
20th-century American historians
20th-century American women writers