In this book, Hugh Richard Slotten explores the institutional and cultural history of science in the United States. The main focus of the book is an analysis of the activities of Alexander Dallas Bache--great grandson of Benjamin Franklin. Bache played a central role in the organization of a number of key scientific institutions, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, The Smithsonian Institution, and the National Academy of Sciences. In the middle of the nineteenth century, Bache became the most important leader of the scientific community through his control of...