Electric times

The past is another country, but scientific tourists visiting Enlightenment
France have a wonderful new guidebook, Geoffrey V. Sutton’s Science for a
Polite Society: Gender, Culture, and the Demonstration of Enlightenment
(Westview Press, £22.50, ISBN 0 8133 1575 1). In refreshing contrast to
traditional histories about theoretical debates between male scientists, this
lively narrative conveys the excitement shared by women and men researchers
during the 17th and 18th centuries. Science became accepted, suggests Sutton,
because experimenters captivated mixed audiences with their literally
electrifying performances.