Reading List to Prepare for MScs

Simulated bookshelf showing HPS reading list. (Credit: NanoBanana)

This post lists a series of books my colleagues and I in UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) talk about as useful for MSc-level education in our fields. This list doesn’t identify everything one might want to read in a subject, but it’s meant to be a good start. It samples from the library of work we regularly use in our programmes in history and philosophy of science (HPS). In preparation for your studies, you should read some of these.

Read these works deliberately and patiently. This list is not here for the sake of volume. It’s here for the sake of thoughtful and reflective study. Ask: what makes this work important?

Let me especially encourage you to read across all categories. These lines are drawn rather arbitrarily, and your degree will make good use of interdisciplinary connections. If you’re purchasing books, consider the secondhand market (such as ABEBooks.co.uk) and independent online retailers (such as Hive.co.uk).

This list was completed in 2024. I created this list by asking colleagues in HPS and STS for their ideas of work incoming students should be familiar with, at least in part. Our expectation is that students should be familiar with some of these; however, we do not expect incoming students to have read everything, or that these comprise the totality of materials key to our fields.

History and Philosophy of Science (HPS)

  • Bowler, Peter, and Iwan Morus. Making Modern Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005.
  • Brooke, John Hedley. Science and Religion: Some Historical Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
  • Brown, James Robert, ed. Philosophy of Science: The Key Thinkers. London: Continuum, 2012.
  • Daston , Lorraine, and Peter Galison. “The Image of Objectivity.” Representations 40, no. Special Issue: Seeing Science (1992): 81-128. www.jstor.org/stable/2928741
  • De Chadarevian, Soraya and Hopwood, Nick (ed.). 2004. Models: The third dimension of science. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
  • Dear, Peter. Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500-1700.Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
  • Dupre, John. The Disorder of Things. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
  • Hacking, Jon. Representing and Intervening: Introductory Topics in the Philosophy of Natural Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
  • Hankins, Thomas, and Robert J. Silverman. Instruments and the Imagination. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.
  • Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd Edition Enlarged. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.
  • Lindberg, David. The Beginnings of Western Science, 2nd Edition. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2007.
  • Lipton, Peter. Inference to the Best Explanation, 2nd Edition. London: Routledge, 2004.
  • Livingstone, David, N. Putting Science in Its Place: Geographies of Scientific Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.
  • Rudwick, Martin J. S. “The Emergence of a Visual Language for Geological Science, 1760-1840.” History of Science 14 (1976): 149-95.
  • Shapin, Steven, and Simon Schaffer. Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hobbes, Boyle and the Experimental Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Science, Technology, and Society (STS)

  • Bell, Philip, Lewenstein, Bruce, Shouse, Andrew W. and Feder, Michael A. (ed.). 2009. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12190
  • Brake, Mark L. and Weitkamp, Emma (ed.). 2009. Introducing Science Communication: A Practical Guide. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
  • Collingridge, David. The Social Control of Technology. London: Pinter, 1980.
  • Epstein, Steven. Impure Science: Aids, Activism and the Politics of Knowledge Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
  • Falk, John. Museums and Identity. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2009.
  • Farrimond, Hannah. Doing Ethical Research. London: Palgrave, 2012.
  • Jasanoff, Sheila. Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.
  • Latour, Bruno. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.
  • MacKenzie, Donald, and Judy Wajcman, eds. The Social Shaping of Technology, 2nd Edition. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1999.
  • Martin, Ben, Paul Nightingale, and Alfredo Yegros-Yegrosc. “Science and Technology Studies: Exploring the Knowledge Base.” Research Policy 41 (2012): 1182-204. doi: 10.1016/j.respol.2012.03.010
  • Pielke, R. A. The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  • Sismondo, Sergio. An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies, 2nd Edition. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
  • Stokes, David E. Pasteur’s Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1997.
  • Yearley, Steven. Making Sense of Science: Understanding the Social Study of Science. London: Sage, 2005.

General skill development

  • Cottrell, Stella. Critical Thinking Skills: Developing Effective Analysis and Argument, 2nd Edition.Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
  • Silva, Paul J. How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2007.

General reference

  • Hackett, Edward J., Olga Amsterdamska, Michael E. Lynch, and Judy Wajcman, eds. Handbook of Science and Technology Studies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007.
    Ebook via UCL: tinyurl.com/hpscga01
    Ebook elsewhere:  mitpress.mit.edu/books/handbook-science-and-technology-studies

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