About the Virtual Book Shelf
On this page you will find links to select Ebooks that are available online through OU Libraries.
- Many, but not all, are available for use with unlimited number of users.
- Some may also be available in print editions in History of Science Collections or Bizzell
- Examples of Ebooks vendors whose books are included within the Local Catalog: ACLS Cambridge Univ. Press, Humanities, Ebrary, Proquest, Springer, Wiley
Ebooks NOT included on guide pages
- Books from OPEN LIBRARY (although shown in catalog these are from external site) Be sure to search for these!
- HATHI books made available during the emergency closure are no longer available
For more info on searching for Ebooks see: Searching for Books using World Cat & Online Sites
American Science
- The First Atomic Age (Online access) byPublication Date: 2013
- The launching of modern American science, 1846-1876 (Online access) by Robert V. BrucePublication Date: 1988
- Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (Online access) byPublication Date: 2014DOCUMENTARY based on 2011 Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize book
Art
Biographies
- Black Apollo of Science (Online access) byPublication Date: 1984
- The First Professional Scientist (Online access) byPublication Date: 2009
Book History
- ABC for Book Collectors (Online access, external site) byPublication Date: 2009
- Cambridge History of the Book in Britain Vol. 4 1557-1695 (Online access)Publication Date: 2002Other volumes may be available
- The Nature of the Book (Online access) byPublication Date: 2013
- Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China (Online access) byPublication Date: 2005
China
- On Their Own Terms (Online access) byPublication Date: 2005
- Technology and Gender - Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial China (Online access) byPublication Date: 1997Also available as E-Book
1999 Edelstein Prize - Unearthing the Nation (Online access) byPublication Date: 2014
Cold War
- The Cold War and American Science (Online access) byPublication Date: 1993
- Science and Technology in the Global Cold War (Online access) byPublication Date: 2014
Copernicus in Context
- The Making of Copernicus (Online access) byPublication Date: 2015
- Copernicus and the Aristotelian Tradition (Online access) byPublication Date: 2010
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias: Periods, Places, Cultures
- Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures (Online access) byPublication Date: 2008 (2d edition)
- Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution (Online access) byPublication Date: 2000
- History of Science in the United States (Online access) byPublication Date: 2001
- Science, Technology and Medicine in Colonial India (Online access) byPublication Date: 2000
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias: Biographical
- Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers (Online access) byPublication Date: 2014 (2d edition)
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias: Disciplines & Topics
- The Cambridge World History of Human Disease (Online access) byPublication Date: 1993
- Encyclopedia of the Black Death (Online access) byPublication Date: 2012
- An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology (Online access) byPublication Date: 1990
- New Dictionary of the History of Ideas (Online access)Publication Date: 2005
DSB: Dictionary of Scientific Biography
Need info about a particular scientist? A good place to start is with the DSB. See Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography (Online access)
This online edition includes materials from the original multivolume Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1970-1980), as well as the revised edition, the New Dictionary of Scientific Biography (2008).
Entries about people include:
- basic biographical info
- overview of work and scientific contributions
- bibliography of original works and secondary literature
Early Modern Period
- The Body of the Artisan: art and experience in the scientific revolution (Online access) byPublication Date: 2004
- The Duke and the Stars (Online access) byPublication Date: 2013
- Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life (Online access) byPublication Date: 1989
- Natural particulars nature and the disciplines in Renaissance Europe (Online access) byPublication Date: 1999
- Revolutionizing the Sciences - European Knowledge and its Ambitions, 1500-1700 (Online access) byPublication Date: 2009 (2nd Edition)1st Edition also available
First edition (2001) awarded 2002 Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize (History of Science Society) - The unending frontier an environmental history of the early modern world (Online access) byPublication Date: 2003
18th-19th Century Science
- Classical Probability in the Enlightenment (Online access) byPublication Date: 1988
- Science and Polity in France (Online access) byPublication Date: 2004
Evolution & Darwin
- Marking Time: Romanticism and Evolution (Online access) byPublication Date: 2017
- The Post-Darwinian Controversies (Online access) byPublication Date: 1981
- Summer for the Gods (Online access) byPublication Date: 1997 edition
Gender
- Nature's body gender in the making of modern science (Online access) byPublication Date: 2013 printing1995 Ludwik Fleck Prize
- Reflections on gender and science (Online access) / Evelyn Fox Keller ; foreword by David A. Hollinger.Publication Date: 199510th Anniversary Edition
Galileo Sources & Studies
- The Essential Galileo (Online access) byPublication Date: 2008
- Galileo (Online access) byPublication Date: 2012
- Galileo: A Very Short Introduction (Online access) byPublication Date: 2001
- The Galileo Affair (Online access) byPublication Date: 1989
- Galileo on the World Systems (Online access) byPublication Date: 1997 edition
- Galileo's Muse (Online access) byPublication Date: 2011
Health & Medicine
In addition to books below, see the Epidemics topic page, which includes links many Ebooks.
- Cherokee Medicine, Colonial Germs (Online access) byPublication Date: 2015
- Medical bondage : race, gender, and the origins of American gynecology (Online access) byPublication Date: 2017
- Migration, Health and Ethnicity in the Modern World (Online access) byPublication Date: 2013
- Native Society and Disease in Colonial Ecuador (Online access) byPublication Date: 1992
- Secrets of Women: gender, generation, and the origins of human dissection (Online access) byPublication Date: 2010
- Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired (Online access) byPublication Date: 1995
- Typhoid Mary Captive to the Public's Health (Online access) byPublication Date: 1996
- Vaccinations and Public Concern in History (Online access) byPublication Date: 2012
Historiography - Cambridge series
- Cambridge History of Science series: Print editionPublication Date: 2003-2013This series presents essays by specialists on the state of research in key topic areas within period-specific volumes:
Historiography
- Companion to the History of Modern Science (Online access) byPublication Date: 1990
- Reader's Guide to the History of Science (Online access) byPublication Date: 2000
Historiography & Philosophy of Science
- Brazilian Studies in Philosophy and History of Science (Online access) byPublication Date: 2011
- Histories of Scientific Observation (Online access) byPublication Date: 2011
- The Historiography of the Chemical Revolution (Online access) byPublication Date: 2010
- Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions - 50 Years On (Online access) byPublication Date: 2015
- Positioning the History of SciencePublication Date: 2017
- The Social and Economic Roots of the Scientific Revolution (Online access) byPublication Date: 2009
Islam
Literature
- Wonder and Science (Online access) byPublication Date: 2004
Law
- Lawyers' Medicine (Online access) byPublication Date: 2009
Medieval to Early Modern Period
- Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine (Online access) byPublication Date: 1990
- Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750 (Online access) byPublication Date: 19981999 Pfizer Award
Medieval Period
- Medieval Technology and Social Change (Online access) byPublication Date: 1962
- The rise of universities (Online access) by Charles Homer HaskinsPublication Date: 1965
- Stumbling Blocks Before the Blind (Online access) byPublication Date: 2014
- University records and life in the Middle Ages (Online access) by Lynn ThorndikePublication Date: 1975
Natural Philosophy
Optics
Popular Science & Science in Public
- Evening news optics, astronomy, and journalism in early modern Europe (Online access) byPublication Date: 2014
- Understanding Popular Science (Online access) byPublication Date: 2006
Race
- The Racial Economy of Science (Online access) byPublication Date: 1993
Religion
- A Companion to Science Fiction (Online access) byPublication Date: 2005
- The Sun in the Church (Online access) byPublication Date: 1999
Social Sciences
Space Sciences & Technology
- Critical Issues in the History of Spaceflight (Online access)Publication Date: 2006
- Frontiers for the American Century (Online access) byPublication Date: 2015
Technology
- The Culture of technology (Online access) by Arnold Pacey.Publication Date: 1983
- Manufacturing Ideology (Online access) byPublication Date: 1998
Textbooks & Surveys
- Science and technology in world history an introduction (Online access) byPublication Date: 2006
Themes & Ideas
- The great chain of being a study of the history of an idea (Online access) byPublication Date: 2001
- The Mantra of Efficiency: From Waterwheel to Social Control (Online access) byPublication Date: 20082010 Edelstein Prize
- Revolution in Science (Online access) byPublication Date: 1985
Victorian Era
- Regionalizing Science (Online access) byPublication Date: 2010
- Victorian Scientific Naturalism (Online access) byPublication Date: 2014
- Science in Wonderland (Online access) byPublication Date: 2015
Women in Science, Technology & Medicine
- Making Marie Curie (Online access) byPublication Date: 2015
- Their Day in the Sun (Online access) byPublication Date: 1999
Women & Tech
- Girls Coming to Tech! (Online Access) byPublication Date: 2013