How Science Was Defeated by Superstition: Science and Health Promotion in the United States

Author: (USA) Bernam
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: This book studies the history of science popularization in the United States since 1830, revealing a puzzling phenomenon: science, once a positive and progressive cultural force, gradually made way for the revival of superstition and mysticism in American consumer culture, ultimately leading to the defeat of science by superstition at the mass level. The author weaves together the history of science popularization in 19th and 20th-century America (the "thread") with the popularization efforts in three fields—public health, psychology, and natural sciences (the "weft")—presenting readers with a "battle history" of American science and superstition.