Historiography of science

The historiography of science or the historiography of the history of science is the study of the history and methodology of the sub-discipline of history, known as the history of science, including its disciplinary aspects and practices (methods, theories, schools). Its subject is the variety of ways that science's past has been written about.

An enduring divide in writing about the history of science has existed between "practitioner" historians - practicing or retired scientists writing about their own fields - and professional historians - academic scholars trained in the methodology of history. The divide has often centered on a disagreement over whether the history of science should be an accounting of scientific progress or a critical analysis of science as a cultural activity and has historically been further reinforced by "institutionalized boundaries which separate the audience for 'science' from the audience for 'history.'" The scientist and novelist C. P. Snow wrote in the 1950s that science and the humanities as a whole (not just history) had become divided into two mutually uncomprehending cultures.

The professionalization of science history in the 1960s and 70s widened the rift between scientists and historians. The friction between the two groups eventually reached a climax during the "Science Wars" of the 1990s when prominent scientists criticized academic historians for ignoring the objective reality of nature in favor of political explanations when writing science history.

Some science historians have acknowledged the reality of the divide but also argued that it can be bridged by scholars who are trained as both scientists and historians. Many professional historians of science now have undergraduate or even graduate degrees in the sciences before turning to history. Similarly, some scientists have become more sophisticated about historical methods before writing about the history of their fields.