American Women of Letters and the Nineteenth-Century Sciences

This book explores the responses to science displayed in a range of writings by American women. Conceding that they could not become scientists, women insisted, however, that they were capable of understanding science and participating in its discourse. They used their access to publishing to advocate the study and transmission of scientific information to the general public. Baym's book includes biographies and a full exploration of these women's works. She also investigates science in women's novels, writing by and about women doctors, and the scientific claims advanced by women's spiritualist movements.