the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the editors of The Journal of

Interdisciplinary History

Review
Author(s): Elizabeth A. Williams
Review by: Elizabeth A. Williams
Source: The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Spring, 2005), pp. 631-632
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3656374
Accessed: 13-03-2015 17:50 UTC

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REVIEWS 631

The Man Who Flattened the Earth: Maupertuisand the Sciencesin the En-
lightenment.By Mary Terrall (Chicago, University of Chicago Press,
2002) 408 pp. $39.oo

For some time, historians of early modern science have evinced less in-
terest in the content of scientific work than in its social context. Terrall's
intellectual biography of Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis continues
this pattern, demonstrating in the process the historiographical riches still
to be mined with this approach. Terrall distinguishes her study from pre-
vious works on Maupertuis by arguing that earlier investigations failed to
illuminate "what it meant to do science and be a man of science in the
eighteenth century" (7).1 To that end, she focuses on the contributions
that Maupertuis made to diverse fields of inquiry--mathematics, geod-
esy, cosmology, mechanics, natural history, and the study of genera-
tion-in the context of a lifelong struggle to gain honor, fame, and re-
ward in the related worlds of science and letters. Terrall's central claim is
that Maupertuis' career illustrates with special clarity the ways in which
scientific achievement in Enlightenment France was bound up with
the quest for renown among overlapping elites of "the learned and the
fashionable" (2).
Terrall's study opens by examining Maupertuis' origins in the
wealthy merchant class of his native Saint-Malo in Brittany. After a brief
look at his education and years in military service, she turns to
Maupertuis' early work in mathematics, which earned him membership
in the Paris Academy of Sciences. A delightful chapter on Maupertuis'
leadership of the famed expedition to Lapland-intended to resolve the
question of whether the earth was elongated or flattened at the poles-
demonstrates both Maupertuis' physical intrepidity and his readiness to
challenge powerful figures in French science. Discarding the older view
of a straightforward collision between "Newtonians" and "Cartesians,"
Terrall expertly interweaves themes of national rivalry, personal animos-
ity, and competing conceptions of scientific authority. While crediting
Maupertuis' scientific acumen, Terrall emphasizes his adroitness in ap-
pealing to diverse readers with a carefully constructed tale of scientific
heroism.
The second half of Terrall's study is devoted to the unfolding of
Maupertuis' career in Berlin, where he enjoyed the favor of Frederick
the Great. Avid for glory, Maupertuis accepted Frederick's invitation to
head the Berlin Academy of Sciences and Belle-Lettres. However, after
early success, he became disappointed by the lack of material resources
and the mediocrity of local academicians. Functioning in an alien envi-
ronment (he never learned German), Maupertuis faced hostility in
Berlin and, when France and Prussia faced off in the Seven Years' War,
accusations of treason by erstwhile admirers at home.
Maupertuis' labors of the later 1740s and the 1750s, including his
championing of the principle of least action and his investigations into
I David Beeson, Maupertuis:An IntellectualBiography (Oxford, 1992); Pierre Brunet,
Maupertuis (Paris, 1929). 2v.

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632 | PETER T. MARSH

problems of generation, proved him eager as always to gain acclaim from

an "idealreadership"(28I) of assortedelites. Although intently focused
on public approbation,Maupertuisremainedintellectuallyalive. A life-
time of self-promotiondid not dull his excitement in discovery.He be-
came "dizzy" encountering the profusion of life revealed by John
TurbervilleNeedham's microscopicinvestigations.Maupertuisdevoted
his lastyearsto breedingexperimentsintendedto illuminatethe mysteri-
ous processesof heredity,and, under cover of anotherauthorialidentity
("Dr. Baumann of Erlangen"), he speculated about whether matter
could think and feel. Denis Diderot's response,in his famous Penseessur
de la nature(1754),proved thatMaupertuishad seducedyet
l'interpretation
another influentialreader.
This stylishand beautifullywritten study addsmuch to our knowl-
edge of Enlightenmentscience. Terrallwrites cogently about the some-
times reconditeproblemsthat Maupertuisaddressed,and she is entirely
convincingin her claimthathe succeededas a man of science becausehe
was equallyadept as a man of letters.
ElizabethA. Williams
Oklahoma State University

The Declineof Christendom

in Western
Europe,1750-2000. Edited by Hugh
McLeod and Werner Ustorf (New York, CambridgeUniversity Press,
2003) 234 pp. $6o.oo
This truly interdisciplinaryvolume challenges the prevailing idea that
there hasbeen "a generaldecline of religiousbelief and a marginalisation
of religiousinstitutionsin modern societies"-what this work calls the
"secularisationthesis" (13-14). In a masterfulintroduction, McLeod
weaves togethermost of the articlesin this volume to presentan alterna-
tive view-namely thatWesternEuropesaw little weakening of religion
until the 196os,too recentlyto applyto the whole sweep of modern his-
tory, and that even now this supposed decline is far from universal.
Specialiststudiesby historiansand sociologistshave for some time
pointed in this direction.McLeod identifiesseveralleadingideasbehind
the challengeto the secularizationthesis.One is thatthe Europeanexpe-
rience of religiousdecline, insteadof being normativeas Europeanslike
to think, is exceptional,standingin starkcontrastto the strengtheningof
religion everywhereelse in the world. Another line of argumentdistin-
guishessharplybetween historicalChristendom,in which the staterein-
forced the authority of the church, and purely religious Christianity.
This argumentsuggeststhat Christianitywas contaminatedand weak-
ened ratherthan strengthenedby the union of churchand state.Secular-
ization theory, according to another line of criticism, "depend[s]on a
narrowly institutionaldefinition of religion, and tend[s] to overlook
both popularreligion ... and the wider diffusionthroughsociety of reli-
gious identities, symbols and values" (15). In yet another attack,critics

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