Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
thusiasm, verging on hyperbole, common to many of the promotional
books of the time.
This topic is intended to be educational, from the cultural as well as the
utilitarian point of view. Its object is to impress the man in the street with
the fact that the chemical industries of the United States render a service
that touches practically every activity in which he engages. In fact, it is
the main purpose of the topic to awaken him to the realization that he is
utterly dependent upon these industries not only for the necessity and
luxuries of life, but also for his very existence. [Hixson, in Morrison
1937, p. ix]
That the 'man in the street' owed his life to chemistry was an extravagant
claim, but one that Hixson and Morrison felt justified in making, based
on the vast number of applications they identified as being within the
realm of chemical industries. This covered everything from the pharma-
ceutical industry to farming and the conduct of war. The extent to which
the 'man in the street' was aware of this assessment might be summar-
ized by the brief book review in the
New York Times
(reprinted in the
Times Literary Supplement
). The anonymous reviewer commented that
“Mr. Morrison has acceptably pointed out the practical universality of
chemistry in or behind the activities of industry and programs of ordinary
life”.
8
This tepid acknowledgement of Morrison's thesis can be contrast-
ed with the positive comment of C.C. Furnas, writing in
Industrial and
Engineering Chemistry
, who said, “An astonishingly good job which the
intelligent portion of the public will appreciate”, and he encouraged
chemical engineers and their “non-technical friends” to read it (Furnas
1937).
Framing Morrison's work in the tradition of the agora offers a useful
way of discussing the rhetorical and iconic strategies of
Man in a Chemi-
cal World
.
In the ancient world, the agora was more than the early ver-
sion of the supermarket; it was also the public forum, the center of politi-
cal debate, the source of gossip, and the market place of ideas. Philoso-
phers and physicians, magicians and barbers, adventurers and charlatans
8
Brief book reviews,
New York Times
, 4 July, 1937, p. 67. Other reviews were pub-
lished in the
Journal of Physical Chemistry
, and the
Minnesota Library Journal
,
while the
Times
of London reprinted the
New York Times
review. For a complete list
of reviews, see the
Book Review Digest
, New York: H.W. Wilson, 1937.
