Daniel J. Kevles (born 2 March 1939 inPhiladelphia,Pennsylvania) is an Americanhistorian of science best known for his books on American physics and eugenics and for a wide-ranging body of scholarship on science and technology in modern societies. He is Stanley Woodward Professor of History, Emeritus atYale University and J. O. and Juliette Koepfli Professor of the Humanities, Emeritus at theCalifornia Institute of Technology.[1][2]
Kevles received his BA in physics fromPrinceton University in 1960 and his PhD in history from Princeton in 1964.[3] He taught at the California Institute of Technology from 1964 to 2001 and Yale University from 2001 to 2015. Since 2015, he has held additional appointments atColumbia University andNew York University.[4][5]
In 2000 the mathematicianSerge Lang waged an unsuccessful campaign to prevent Kevles from being granted tenure at Yale, asserting that Kevles' bookThe Baltimore Case was too sympathetic toDavid Baltimore.[8][9][10][11] Although criticized publicly by Lang and several other scientists,[12] the book was also praised by others for meticulous scholarship and detailed reporting.[13]
Kevles' research has focused primarily on the history ofscience in America and the interactions betweenscience and society. A central theme in much of his work has been the tension between elite science and the norms of democratic control. He is best known for his accessible and original interpretativehistories of physics andeugenics, and for an extensive body of scholarship that ranges widely across the histories of the physical sciences, life sciences, and technology.
His books includeThe Physicists (1978),[14] a history of the American physics community,In the Name of Eugenics (1985), currently the standard text on the history ofeugenics in the United States and Britain,[15] andThe Baltimore Case (1998),[16] a study of accusations ofscientific fraud. He is also a co-author of the textbookInventing America: A History of the United States (2002; 2nd edition 2006)[17] and co-editor with Leroy Hood ofThe Code of Codes (1992),[18] a set of essays that explore scientific and social issues surrounding theHuman Genome Project. Recently he has been working on a history of the uses ofintellectual property in living organisms from the eighteenth century to the present[19] and a co-authored history of theNational Academy of Sciences.[20]
Throughout his career, Kevles has brought the history of science and technology to a broad audience through his contributions to general readership publications. These have included pieces inThe New Yorker,[21]The New York Times,[22]The New York Review of Books,[23]Times Literary Supplement,[24]Scientific American,[25] andThe Huffington Post,[26] among others. The serialized version of his bookIn the Name of Eugenics, published inThe New Yorker in 1984, received the 1985 Page One Award for excellence in science reporting.[27]
The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America (Alfred A. Knopf, 1978; Harvard University Press 1987, 1995).
In the Name of Eugenics: Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity (Alfred A. Knopf, 1985; with new preface Harvard University Press, 1995).
The code of codes: scientific and social issues in the human genome project (8. printing ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press. 2000.ISBN9780674136465.
The Baltimore Case: A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character (W. W. Norton, 1998).
Inventing America: A History of the United States, coauthor with Alex Keyssar, Pauline Maier, and Merritt Roe Smith (W. W. Norton, 2002; 2nd edition, 2006).
^Tim R.A. Cooper,"Yale to tenure two science history stars; Professors to boost ailing humanities program" (Yale Daily News, 20 Jan. 2000, pp. 1, 4)
^T.R.A. Cooper & Charles Forelle, "Tenure offer draws fire from Lang; Kevles in town, likely to accept history of science position" (Yale Daily News, 31 Jan. 2000, pp. 1, 3)
^John Chin,"Battle of professors: Lang irate, Kevles indifferent" (Yale Herald, 11 Feb. 2000)
^Michael Miarmi,"Serge Lang is fighting a losing battle" (Opinion) (Yale Herald, 11 Feb. 2000); Matthew Matera, "Kevles settles in after last year's controversy"(Yale Daily News, 27 Oct. 2000).
^Kevles, Daniel J. (1995).The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.ISBN0674666569.OCLC31412171. See alsoSamios, N. P. (1978). "Review:The Physicists by Daniel J. Kevles".Political Science Quarterly.93 (3):513–515.doi:10.2307/2149550.JSTOR2149550.
^Maier, P., Smith, M. R., Keyssar, A. and Kevles, D. J. (2006)Inventing America: A History of the United States, second edition. New York: W. W. Norton.
^Kevles, Daniel J., and Hood, Leroy E. (1992).The Code of Codes: Scientific and Social Issues in the Human Genome Project. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.ISBN0674136454.OCLC24845567.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
