TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 167 as part of a popular rebellion against the depredations of big business will find comfort in these pages. Rather, Young insists that the evidence itself demands a pluralistic explanation—one that acknowl edges roles not only for businessmen trying to control federal power and consumers trying to control business but also for public health reformers, rising professionals, and a variety of actors who were moved by such traditional moral values as honesty in the marketplace. Even readers who find Young’s pluralism persuasive may question whether his conclusions are, or could be, dictated by the evidence alone. Be that as it may, this is an outstanding book, well worth the attention of all historians interested in the Progressive Era. John W. Servos Dr. Servos is associate professor of history at Amherst College. His Physical Chemistry from Ostwald to Pauling: The Making ofa Science in Modem America was recently published by Princeton University Press. Meteorology in America, 1800—1870. By James R. Fleming. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990. Pp. xxii + 264; illustrations, tables, notes, appendix, bibliography, index. $45.00. In his introduction,James Fleming asserts that the mid-19th century is relatively neglected by historians of science in America, but surely he must mean histories built around the theme ofa particular scientific discipline. In taking such an approach, Fleming has made a significant advance in our understanding of the period. The choice of meteo rology was fortunate in the sense that it allows him not only to look at the science itselfbut the underpinnings ofsocial and political structure that promoted or prohibited the vitalityofstudies ofclimate and weather. Of special attraction for readers of Technology and Culture will be the factor of instrumentation (especially matters of distribution and use of thermometers and barometers, and the effects of the telegraph on meteorological activity and on its functional goals). Of more general interest, however, is Fleming’s notion of the various systems devised to observe weather as meteorology’s analogue to the astronomer’s tele scope, and therefore social organization itself as a kind of scientific instrument. The systems were largely ad hoc for much of the period under study but included efforts by journals, government agencies, educational institutions, learned societies, and individuals. At midcen tury, the new Smithsonian Institution was able to bring a degree of coordination and a widespread net of volunteers that projected the incipient system of observation onto the national map. Fleming’s story ends with the atrophy of the Smithsonian project in light of an emerging, technologically based Army Signal Office with its tele graphic storm-warning capacity. 168 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Together with the story of the rationalization and the social organization of meteorological observing, Fleming treats the activities and contentions of individuals. A chapter is devoted to the contro versy surrounding competing theories of storms as promulgated by William Redfield, James Espy, and Robert Hare. This account brings to the fore the nature of theoretical debate in American science at the time and the relations of such generalizing in what was ostensibly a Baconian context. Fleming seems to take pains to avoid any sugges tion of right or wrong in relation to any of the contenders, as viewed from the perspective of present-day knowledge. This is commendable to a degree, but presumably some readers bring such current knowl edge to their encounter with the book and therefore have an advantage. If an author does not provide similar information to the less-informed reader, how will a disciplinary approach reach the level of accessibility inherent in political and social history? Fleming’s work is analytical, detailed, and organized. These virtues, however, sometimes deprive it of a sense of engagement, of vitality. This is a history seen largely from the top—from the point of view of the organizers rather than the organized. One would like to know more about the relations of ordinary persons to the weather in the American context. For example, it is demonstrated that the (social) status of the Smithsonian observers declined from 1851 to 1870 but this is explained largely in terms of the extraction of serious scientists from the ranks. It might also...