A History of Science, Ancient Science Through the Golden Age of Greece

Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952. First edition.

1952 FIRST EDITION HISTORY OF SCIENCE BY THE FOUNDER OF THE DISCIPLINE OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE--SIGNED ANNOTATED COPY OF CARLTON COON, CONTROVERSIAL RACIALIST HARVARD ANTHROPOLOGIST.

10 inches tall hardcover, blue cloth binding, gilt title to spine, signature of C S Coon and handstamp "REJECTED TOZZER LIBRARY" to front flylear, xvii, 646 pp, illustrations, pencil underlinings and marginal annotations; corners bumped, abrasions bottom of spine, very good.

GEORGE SARTON (1884 - 1956) was a Belgian-born American chemist and historian. He is considered the founder of the discipline of the history of science as an independent field of study. Sarton ultimately aimed to achieve an integrated philosophy of science that provided a connection between the sciences and the humanities, which he referred to as "the new humanism".

PROVENANCE: CARLTON S. COON (1904 – 0981) was an American physical anthropologist. A Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, lecturer and professor at Harvard University, he was president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists. Coon's theories on race were widely disputed in his lifetime and are considered pseudoscientific in modern anthropology. Coon matriculated to Harvard University, where he was attracted to the relatively new field of anthropology by Earnest Hooton and he graduated magna cum laude in 1925. He became the Curator of Ethnology at the University Museum of Philadelphia. Coon continued with coursework at Harvard, earned his Ph.D. in 1928 and returned to Harvard as a lecturer and later a professor. Coon's interest was in attempting to use Darwin's theory of natural selection to explain the differing physical characteristics of races. Coon published The Origin of Races in 1962. The book asserted that the human species divided into five races before it had evolved into Homo sapiens. Further, he suggested that the races evolved into Homo sapiens at different times. It was not well received. The field of anthropology was moving rapidly from theories of race typology, and The Origin of Races was widely castigated by his peers in anthropology as supporting racist ideas with outmoded theory and notions which had long since been repudiated by modern science. Notably, this copy of Sarton's History of Science was rejected by Harvard's Tozzer Library, one of the largest anthropology and archaeology collections worldwide.