The Launching of Modern American Science 1846-1876

1988 Pulitzer Prize winner.

From The New York Times

"For readers born since the 1930s, who have grown up assuming the United States leads the world in science, The Launching of Modern American Science 1846-1876 will come as something of a shock. It shows that, little over a century ago, the American scientific community was small, mediocre, and unpromising ... [Bruce] has provided a wealth of information on the people and institutions of mid-19th-century American science."