Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations of manuscript sources; Introduction; Part I. The Nineteenth-Century Background: 1. Early nineteenth-century statistical astronomy; 2. Statistical astronomy and the Milky Way Galaxy; Part II. Statistical Cosmology, 1890–1924: 3. Seeliger and stellar density; 4. Kapteyn and the distribution of stars; 5. Statistical astronomy as a research program, 1900–15; 6. Statistical cosmology as a research program, 1915–22; 7. Internationalization of astronomy; Part III. Statistical Cosmology and the Second Astronomical Revolution: 8. The decline of a research program; 9. Conclusion: research programs in transition; Appendix 1: Seeliger's star-ratio function; Appendix 2: Seeliger's density theorem; Bibliographical notes; Index.

Promotional Information

Paul describes the rise of statistical cosmology and how it has set the stage for many of the most significant developments of twentieth-century astronomy.

Reviews

'Paul's book, which will fill an important gap in the history of astronomy, may become the standard reference on its subject matter for a pivotal era.' Richard Berendzen, Journal for the History of Astronomy