The Commonwealth of Science: ANZAAS and the Scientific Enterprise in Australasia 1888–1988 ed. by Roy MacLeod

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 355 scientific and technical organization to the development of a vast but underpopulated country. Richard A.Jarrell Dr. Jarrel.i. is associate professor of science studies at Atkinson College, York University. Currently he is writing a history of Canadian technical education. The Commonwealth of Science: ANZAAS and the Scientific Enterprise in Australasia 1888-1988. Edited by Roy MacLeod. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Pp. xvi + 417; illustrations, notes, appen­ dixes, bibliography, index. $45.00. The centennial of the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS) provided an occasion for a collection of sixteen topical essays about science past in the Land of Oz. Although ANZAAS reflected its British namesake in ambi­ tion and organization, this festschrift reveals differences between parent and offspring. The Australasian association hardly ever rose above the level of broad popularization, and for the most part its rhetoric projected promises of financial gain through deployment of useful gadgetry. Science popularization has always been a tricky business, but the ANZAAS science boosters turned up dry in nearly all their endeavors. As James Davenport suggests in his contribution, when the scientific doctorate and the research ethic came to Australia after the Second World War, ANZAAS was left out in the cold (pp. 84-85). A number of the contributors go beyond ANZAAS to focus on disciplinary spokesmen in and out of government. These chapters, taken together with lighterpièces d’occasion on policy issues and scientific worldviews, project a community dominated by dilatory bureaucrats and fainéant professors. The momentous rise of science in Australia during the 1950s owes much to the vision of federal politicians and their advisers, and this triumph evokes interest in the limited influence ofearlier organizers. The present focus on political arcana and ephem­ eral claptrap, however, comes at the expense of a balanced account of serious and sustained research. W. Baldwin Spencer’s biology, A. R. Radcliffe-Brown’s anthropology, T. H. Laby’s physics, and T. Griffith Taylor’s physical geography all do make an appearance, but readers will have to look elsewhere for the pedigree of' astronomy and geo­ physics. Australia’s governor-general writes in a foreword that this volume “embraces the ethos and philosophy of ANZAAS” and “provides a fitting testimony not only to its past century of scholarly research but 356 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE to its future as a dynamic association committed to the advancement of both science and society” (p. ix). In fact, The Commonwealth ofScience shows that ANZAAS presented science as a collection of sideshow attractions, parlor tricks, and useful contrivances. Such a carnival atmosphere attracted attention to new sciences, notably anthropology. D. J. Mulvaney notes in his contribution: “For almost half a century, ANZAAS provided the public venue for academic anthropology. As the human sciences diversified and specialized, such general meetings held less appeal” (p. 217). This volume persuades us that ANZAAS generally acted to depress rather than to encourage research. R. W. Home concludes: “If ANZAAS is to remain an organization in which these [physical] sciences have an effective presence, it must find a new role for itself, quite different from the one it has fulfilled during most of its history” (p. 163). Lewis Pyenson Dr. Pyenson is professor of history at the University of Montreal. For two years (beginning in 1989) he is studying science and imperialism as a Killam Research Fellow of the Canada Council of Arts. Science and Technology in Canadian History: A Bibliography of Primary Sources to 1914. Compiled by R. Alan Richardson and Bertrum H. MacDonald. Thornhill, Ont.: HSTC Publications (PO. Box 154 L3T 3N3), 1987. Pp. v+18 (booklet) + 105 microfiche in vinyl binder. $59.95. This publication, which consists of 105 microfiche and an eighteenpage user’s guide pamphlet, is an essential research tool for anyone interested in science and technology in Canada before the First World War. Science and technology in national contexts are becoming increasingly important research perspectives, yet it is often difficult for a researcher in one country to find basic information about primary sources related to another country. It will no longer be so difficult for scholars to study Canadian topics or...