The history of chemistry

The History of Chemistry describes the principal themes in the development of the subject from the earliest times to the present, and contains biographical sketches of the more important chemists. The first half of the book treats the subject chronologically up to the middle of the nineteenth century, and the second half considers the development of each of the main areas of chemistry since that time. A concluding chapter looks briefly at the chemical industry and the interactions between chemistry and society. The book is illustrated throughout. The last 25 years have seen the appearance of a number of specialist scholarly publications on various aspects of the history of chemistry, but there has been little written by way of an introductory overview of the subject. This book fills that gap. It will appeal to practising chemists as well as students and teachers of chemistry. It will be a valuable source of reference for teachers wishing to treat some topics on the chemistry curriculum from a historical standpoint. It also provides an excellent student text for an undergraduate course on the history of chemistry.