Monumental people require monumental biographies. As David Cahan makes clear in this long-awaited and much-needed volume, the term “monumental” applies to his subject in more than one sense. HermannHelmholtz, who received a hereditary title of nobility and the right to add the honorific “von” to his name from the Prussian King and German Emperor in 1883, was internationally celebrated as a great scientist while he lived. When he entered a banquet hall at scientific society meetings, those in attendence might rise to their feet and burst into applause or even cheer, so honored were they by his presence. He is still cited as the author of important achievements in many disciplines and was also placed on multiple pedestals, literal and symbolic, after his death—not least among them the life-sized statue of him located near the entrance to the FriedrichWilhelmUniversity of Berlin, now called theHumboldt University. How should the biography of such a man be written in a time when the history of science no longer presents itself primarily as the story of great scientists and their outstanding ideas? David Cahan is well aware that this daunting challenge has also been faced by others—for example, inCrosby Smith andNortonWise’s study of Lord Kelvin (a friend and colleague of Helmholtz’s), Margit Szöllöszi-Janze’s and Dietrich Stoltzenberg’s biographies of Fritz Haber, and Janet Browne’s two-volume study of Darwin. His response is worthy of study, both as an account of Helmholtz’s life and science and as an important contribution tomodernGerman andEuropean history. Cahan gives us a classical study of Helmholtz’s life, times, and science. This contrasts with Szöllösi-Janze’s treatment of Haber as an embodiment of multiple social roles and with Smith and Wise’s sustained effort to work through the conceptual and practical linkages of Kelvin’s

中文翻译：

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大卫·卡汉的亥姆霍兹：欧洲历史中的科学史

不朽的人需要不朽的传记。正如大卫·卡汉（David Cahan）在这本期待已久且急需的书中所阐明的那样，“纪念性”一词在不止一种意义上适用于他的主题。赫尔曼·亥姆霍兹 (HermannHelmholtz) 于 1883 年从普鲁士国王和德意志皇帝那里获得了世袭贵族头衔，并有权在他的名字上加上尊称“冯”，他在世时作为一位伟大的科学家在国际上享有盛誉。当他进入科学学会会议的宴会厅时，在场的人可能会起立，鼓掌甚至欢呼，他的出现让他们感到非常荣幸。他仍然被引用为许多学科重要成就的作者，也被放置在多个基座上，文字和象征，在他死后——尤其是在柏林弗里德里希威廉大学（现称为洪堡大学）入口附近的真人大小的他的雕像。在科学史不再主要表现为伟大科学家及其杰出思想的故事的时代，如何写出这样一个人的传记？大卫·卡汉很清楚，其他人也面临过这一艰巨的挑战——例如，在克罗斯比·史密斯和诺顿·怀斯对开尔文勋爵（亥姆霍兹的朋友和同事）的研究、玛吉特·索洛兹-詹泽和迪特里希·斯托尔岑伯格对弗里茨·哈伯的传记中，以及珍妮特·布朗的传记中达尔文的两卷研究。他的回应值得研究，既是对亥姆霍兹生平和科学的描述，也是对现代德国和欧洲历史的重要贡献。卡汉为我们提供了对亥姆霍兹生平、时代和科学的经典研究。这与 Szöllösi-Janze 将 Haber 视为多重社会角色的体现，以及 Smith 和 Wise 持续努力通过开尔文的概念和实践联系进行工作形成鲜明对比。