Science "knows not party politics": The Life of Dr. Hosack
Politics in the early republic, like today, was bitterly partisan, but in 1811, one of the nation's most renowned doctors David Hosack could confidently take the position that science "knows not party politics." Dr. Hosack valued science and the pursuit of knowledge above all else, even when it meant going into debt to fund a botanical garden in the middle of Manhattan. Today, some may recognize Dr. Hosack as the doctor on hand at the 1804 duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, but in the early nineteenth century Americans were familiar with him up and down the east coast. On this episode, Dr. Patrick Spero talks with Dr. Victoria Johnson about 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.
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