The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge
By Vera Keller, professor, Department of History
February 15, 2024
The Interlopers is a reframing of how scientific knowledge was produced in the early modern world. Many accounts of the scientific revolution portray it as a time when scientists disciplined knowledge by first disciplining their own behavior. According to these views, scientists such as Francis Bacon produced certain knowledge by pacifying their emotions and concentrating on method. In The Interlopers, Vera Keller rejects this emphasis on discipline and instead argues that what distinguished early modernity was a navigation away from restraint and toward the violent blending of knowledge from across society and around the globe. The book is the winner of the Renaissance Society of America’s 2023 Phyllis Goodhart Gordan Book Prize for best book in Renaissance studies.