Science Under Control : The French Academy of Sciences 1795–1914

The nineteenth-century Academy of Sciences contained the elite of French scientists and did important work. The Academy was the only national body for science in France and it controlled all recognised branches of science. This book examines governmental control of science and sets it in a historical and sociological context.

The greatest ambition of any moderately successful nineteenth-century French scientist was to become a member of the Academy of Sciences. Science under Control is the first major study, in any language, of this elite institution, in a period which began with such influential figures as Laplace and Cuvier and extended to the time of Louis Pasteur and Henri Poincare. The book attempts to remove the veil of mystery and misunderstanding which has shrouded this key institution and its procedures. The French government exercised political, financial and bureaucratic control over the Academy, and the Academy in turn sat in judgement over all serious scientific production. Only with its approval could the work of French scientists win acceptance and their careers advance. The book provides a case study of carefully regulated scientific production encouraged yet constrained within a system of reports, prizes and elections.