Oliver Hochadel - Barcelona: An Urban History of Science and Modernity, 1888–1929

The four decades between the two Universal Exhibitions of 1888 and 1929 were formative in the creation of modern Barcelona. Architecture and art blossomed in the work of Antoni Gaud and many others. At the same time, social unrest tore the city apart. Topics such as art nouveau and anarchism have attracted the attention of numerous historians. Yet the crucial role of science, technology and medicine in the cultural makeup of the city has been largely ignored. The ten chapters of this book recover the richness and complexity of the scientific culture of fin de sicle Barcelona. The authors explore a broad range of topics: zoological gardens, natural history museums, amusement parks, new medical specialities, the scientific practices of anarchists and spiritists, the medical geography of the urban underworld, early mass media, domestic electricity and astronomical observatories. They pay attention to the agenda of the bourgeois elites but also to hitherto neglected actors: users of electric technologies and radio amateurs, patients in clinics and dispensaries, collectors and visitors of museums, working class audiences of public talks and female mediums. Science, technology and medicine served to exert social control but also to voice social critique. Barcelona: An Urban History of Science and Modernity, 18881929 shows that the city around 1900 was both a creator and facilitator of knowledge but also a space substantially transformed by the appropriation of this knowledge by its unruly citizens.

Oliver Hochadel is a Tenured Historian of Science at the Instituci Mil i Fontanals, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas (IMF-CSIC), Barcelona. His research focuses on the relationship between science and its publics. Book publications include El mito de Atapuerca. Orgenes, ciencia, divulgacin (2013), Playing with Fire. Histories of the Lightning Rod (edited with Peter Heering and David Rhees, 2009) and ffentliche Wissenschaft. Elektrizitt in der deutschen Aufklrung (2003).

Agust Nieto-Galan is Associate Professor of History of Science, and Director of the Centre dHistria de la Cincia (CEHIC) at the Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona. He has written widely on the history of chemistry and natural dyestuffs, and on the history of science popularization (eighteenth to twentieth centuries). He is currently working on several aspects of popular science and urban history of science in Europe. His book Science in the Public Sphere is scheduled to appear in 2016.

Series Editors
Robert M. Brain

The University of British Columbia, Canada

and

Ernst Hamm

York University, Canada

Science, Technology and Culture, 17001945 focuses on the social, cultural, industrial and economic contexts of science and technology from the scientific revolution up to the Second World War. Publishing lively, original, innovative research across a broad spectrum of subjects and genres by an international list of authors, the series has a global compass that concerns the development of modern science in all regions of the world. Subjects may range from close studies of particular sciences and problems to cultural and social histories of science, technology and biomedicine; accounts of scientific travel and exploration; transnational histories of scientific and technological change; monographs examining instruments, their makers and users; the material and visual cultures of science; contextual studies of institutions and of individual scientists, engineers and popularizers of science; and well-edited volumes of essays on themes in the field.

Also in the series

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Peter Reed

Science Policies and Twentieth-Century Dictatorships Spain, Italy and Argentina

Edited by Amparo Gmez, Antonio Fco. Canales and Brian Balmer

From Local Patriotism to a Planetary Perspective Impact Crater Research in Germany, 1930s1970s

Martina Klbl-Ebert

Francis Watkins and the Dollond Telescope Patent Controversy

Brian Gee, edited by Anita McConnell and A.D. Morrison-Low

Acid Rain and the Rise of the Environmental Chemist in Nineteenth-Century Britain The Life and Work of Robert Angus Smith

Peter Reed

Matter and Method in the Long Chemical Revolution Laws of Another Order

Victor D. Boantza

Meeting Places: Scientific Congresses and Urban Identity in Victorian Britain

Louise Miskell

First published 2016

by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2016 selection and editorial matter, Oliver Hochadel and Agust Nieto-Galan; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Names: Hochadel, Oliver, 1968 editor. | Nieto-Galan, Agust, editor.
Title: Barcelona : an urban history of science and modernity, 18881929 /
edited by Oliver Hochadel and Agust Nieto-Galan.
Description: 2016. | Series: Science, technology and culture, 17001945 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015024494 | ISBN 9781472434197 (hbk. : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315568713 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Public spacesSpainBarcelonaHistory. | Science
SpainBarcelonaHistory. | Civilization, Modern.
Classification: LCC HT185 .B37 2016 | DDC 307.7609467/2dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015024494

ISBN: 9781472434197 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781315568713 (ebk)

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OLIVER HOCHADEL AND AGUST NIETO-GALAN

Part I
Control elite cultures

OLIVER HOCHADEL AND LAURA VALLS

FERRAN ARAGON AND JOS PARDO-TOMS

ALFONS ZARZOSO AND LVAR MARTNEZ-VIDAL

JAUME SASTRE-JUAN AND JAUME VALENTINES-LVAREZ

Part II
Resistance counter-hegemonies

LVARO GIRN SIERRA AND JORGE MOLERO-MESA

MNICA BALLTONDRE AND ANDREA GRAUS

ALFONS ZARZOSO AND JOS PARDO-TOMS

Part III
Networks experts and amateurs

ANTONI ROCA-ROSELL AND PEDRO RUIZ-CASTELL