Globalization, measured as an economic and cultural progression, has exaggerated the societal, economic and cultural meaning of concepts in the sciences. Indeed, science has long ceased to be considered a sort of a privileged body of knowledge. Meanwhile it has criss-crossed from metropolis to province; new fields of enquiry arise, disaggregate and come together in continuous process. Consequently, those learning/teaching scientific approaches need to take into consideration methods that enable the individuals in their audiences to see a cognitive and an operative relevance in their perspectives, such as is realized through a deeper understanding of the relationship between science and the history of science. Among many possible examples one could attempt to understand the role played by craftsmen in the production of a certain context-specific knowledge which might form the basis of a science without frontiers in the future.

With this book Robert Fox, a leading figure in the history-of-science community, provides further confirmation of his main research interest in the history of the physical sciences, and the relationship between technology, science and industry in modern Europe. In this case, his reflections aim to understand how, ‘Among the myriad forms of learned culture, science has traditionally had a special place [and how] a new urgency for knowledge to be shared across the boundaries of language and local community’ became necessary (p. 1). The book represents distinguished intellectual historical research on the role played by shared science/research goals and the wider European context, taking into account the bridge of the ‘communication across national and linguistic boundaries’ (p. 3). Fox, among some few other authors, has taken important steps towards filling this gap.

The book is composed of an interesting foreword (by Anita Guerrini), a preface, an introduction, three substantive chapters, an epilogue, notes and a highly instructive bibliographical essay. The conceptual framework of bibliographical ‘centres of intelligence’ (p. 31), the fragmentation of the language of science away from Latin towards a multilingual space of communication, the process of the circulation of knowledge through changing publishing practices, and related bureaucratization, underpin the early sections of the book. On that, the author admirably and critically outlines the increasingly international aspects of the sciences, particularly through congresses and other events, in a historical European context (Chapter 1).

In Chapter 2 Fox moves to deal with conflict and post-war cultural challenges in Europe and, in treating the subject, presents an interesting history and personal perspective on the role played by Nobel Prizes in the sharing of knowledge across national boundaries. The author also presents the longer-term effects of the endeavours of scientists in the nineteenth century. In his words, ‘For science, the war was a watershed’ (p. 46), and in learned societies ‘the conflict between patriotic duty and loyalty to wider scientific community provoked debates on the wisdom and morality of retaliatory action against members in enemy countries, with different results’ (p. 50).

The author discusses the proliferation of international cooperation in the sciences on the one hand, yet also considers political resistances and competing priorities (Chapter 3). The latter, particularly, is presented as a significant antagonistic force against simple and inevitable internationalization; to this end Fox synthesizes critical aspects of both positivism and materialism. A shared understanding of and appreciation for scientific prestige and accomplishments were undoubtedly of importance before the First World War. However, later, a social and scientific process – called by the author the ‘national turn’ (p. 75) – meant that

The epilogue and the bibliographical essay carefully develop scientific–technological and historical research combining sources and academic institutions.

Science without Frontiers: Cosmopolitanism and National Interests in the World of Learning, 1870–1940 is an excellent book, which considers, in great detail, the reasons behind the desirability of science without frontiers, its integration and the value and the political aspects of the science in context. In Fox's terms, ‘history, of course, is still in the making. But it raises issues that would have engaged the optimists of an earlier age that I consider in this book’ (p. 151). Ultimately, therefore, Fox retains a sense of this optimism about international institutions, Erasmus academic projects and expanding global knowledge networks such as the World Wide Web, for each and everyone.

In congratulating Robert Fox on this contribution to the field it is worth quoting Anita Guerrini, who, in her foreword, characterizes the book as presenting ‘a new way to think about science politics and the crises of the twentieth century’ (p. xiii). This, for sure, is of interest to scientists and historians of science, as well as PhD candidates absorbed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I warmly recommend its reading.