Books by James Delbourgo

Examines the production of scientific knowledge in the Atlantic world from a comparative and international perspective. This work captures the multiplicity of practices, people, languages, and agendas that characterized the traffic in knowledge around the Atlantic world, linking this knowledge to the social processes fundamental to colonialism.

Delbourgo traces electricity through early American culture, exploring the relationships amongst human, natural, and divine powers in the 18th century. By examining natural philosophers, showmen, preachers, and medical therapists, he shows how electrical experiences were connected to cultural concerns that defined the American Enlightenment.