Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
nature of image creation, especially the way that images encapsulate
wider concepts.
All the popularizers of the era had to bring their work to the 'agora'
of print media and influence the public through texts and images in
magazines and books aimed at a general audience. As a topic, chemistry
needed popularization in both the sense of making it better known and
making the study of chemistry more attractive. Through the post-war
years, American chemists were battered by public antipathy to chemical
warfare.
1
The extent of this image problem can be seen in the results of a
1922
New York Times
poll. When asked if chemical warfare should be
abolished by international treaty, 366,795 respondents voted for aboli-
tion, while only 19 supported its continued use (Anonymous 1922). The
subject was also kept in the public eye by a host of popular books such as
Will Irwin's
The Next War
(1921), M. Dalton's
The Black Death
(1934),
and most significantly H.G. Wells'
The Shape of Thing to Come
(1935)
and its movie version
Things to Come
(1936). Wells' work started with a
world ravaged by war and devastated by chemical weapons. The ongoing
debate over the existence of the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service also af-
fected public perception. This continued into the 1930s particularly be-
cause the United States helped to created and then refused to ratify the
1921 Geneva Gas Protocol (Ede 2002, p. 131).
Although the public concern about chemical warfare was significant,
the story was not completely negative. The dramatic rise in the number
of American-born and educated chemists attested to the increasing ac-
ceptance of chemistry as an academic subject and career choice.
2
The
appetite among publishers for popular science titles such as Morrison's
also reflected a growing public interest in science.
Man in a Chemical
World
joined a substantial list of other popular books on chemistry from
the era that tried to make clear the importance of chemistry. These in-
cluded multiple editions of Floyd L. Darrow's
The Story of Chemistry
(1927, 1930) and Alexander Findlay's
A Hundred Years of Chemistry
(1937, 1948, 1955, 1965). H.E. Howe's two volume
Chemistry in Indus-
1
For a brief overview of the history of the public debate about chemical warfare in the
U.S., see Ede 2002.
2
For details of the rise in chemical education, see Thackray
et al
. 1985.
