Robert B. Silvers is editor of The New York Review of Books. Prior to joining the Review, Mr. Silvers was, from 1959 to 1963, associate editor of Harper's magazine, editor of the book Writing in America and translator of La Gangrene. Before that, Mr. Silvers lived in Paris for six years (1952 to 1958), where he served with the U.S. Army at SHAPE Headquarters and attended the Sorbonne and Ecole des Sciences Politiques. He joined the editorial board of The Paris Review in 1954 and became Paris editor in 1956. He also worked as press secretary to Governor Chester Bowles in 1950. Mr. Silvers, who graduated from the University of Chicago in 1947, was born in Mineola, New York. »

Hidden Histories of Science

Edited by Robert B. Silvers

Lively, lucid, and engaging, Hidden Histories of Science is a fascinating collection of original investigations into forgotten and neglected aspects of the history of science.

Jonathan Miller, Oliver Sacks, and Daniel J. Kevles show how and why some discoveries and insights emerge with great promise, only to be discarded or forgotten, then re-emerge years later as important. Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould suggest deep and largely unacknowledged distortions in the way scientists and popularizers alike conceive the structure of the world and its natural history.

Reviews

Robert Silvers, the editor, has inspired a rewarding collection of good writing. Even where the substance inflames, the literary excellence assuages. Let's hear it for The New York Review of Books.
— Walter Gratzer, Nature

Also see:

Hidden Histories of Science (paperback) Edited by Robert B. Silvers These essays demonstrate that science is, in the words of Oliver Sacks, "a human enterprise through and through, an organic, evolving, human growth, with sudden spurts and arrests, and strange deviations, too."

The Mystery of Consciousness By John R. Searle What is consciousness? Is my inner awareness of myself something separate from my body?

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