Science “knows not party politics”: The Life of Dr. Hosack

11/02/20 • 47 min

Great Talks at American Philosophical Society

Politics in the early republic, like today, was bitterly partisan, but in 1811, one of the nation’s most renowned doctors David Hosack took the position that science “knows not party politics.” Hosack lived according to this motto. On hand at the infamous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804, he was the beloved Hamilton family doctor and a close friend of Burr. On this episode, Dr. Patrick Spero talks with Dr. Victoria Johnson on her Pulitzer Prize finalist book American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic.

Dr. Victoria Johnson is Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Planning at Hunter College in New York City, where she teaches on the history of philanthropy, nonprofits, and New York City. She holds a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Yale.

Previous Episode

Good Numbers Make a Good Democracy: Kenneth Prewitt on the Census

It’s census season in the United States and some may be asking what exactly the census is, how it’s done, why. On this episode, Dr. Patrick Spero talks with former Director of the United States Census Bureau Dr. Kenneth Prewitt about the history of the census, the various methods that census-takers use to count the population, and the challenges the census faces in this time of increasing political polarization.

Dr. Kenneth Prewitt is the Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs at the School of International and Public Affairs and Director of The Future of Scholarly Knowledge at Columbia University. From 1998-2001, Dr. Prewitt was the Director of the United States Census Bureau and in November 2018 he gave a talk at an APS Meeting titled, “Can the Census Be Gerrymandered?”

Full Recording of Dr. Prewitt’s APS Meeting Talk, “Can the Census Be Gerrymandered?”