Maine Historical Society - Programs Podcast

Speaker: Christoph Irmscher; Recorded November 7, 2013 - Indiana University-Bloomington Professor of English Christoph Irmscher speaks about his most recent book, Louis Agassiz: Creator of American Science . A Longfellow contemporary, Agassiz bridged the gap between specialist and amateur in 19th century America, changing ordinary people's relationship with science forever. But he also racist viewpoints that led Americans to expect scientists to comment on race policy. The Christian Science Monitor calls the biography "a groundbreaking book" and the New York Times Book Review praised Irmscher as a "richly descriptive writer with an eye for detail [and the] complexities and contradictions of character." Irmscher, a native of Germany, has taught at the University of Tennesse-Knoxville, Harvard University, and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.