1. The American context -- 2. The Philadelphia pattern -- 3. Scientific centers in New England -- 4. Science along the Hudson -- 5. Outposts of science in the south and west -- 6. From Newton to Laplace in American astronomy -- 7. The chemical revolution comes to America -- 8. American geography -- 9. From the theory of the earth to earth science -- 10. Natural history in the new world: botany -- 11. Natural history in the new world: zoology and paleontology -- 12. The sciences of man: physical anthropology -- 13. The sciences of man: archaeology -- 14. The sciences of man: comparative linguistics and the problem of Indian origins -- 15. The end of the Jeffersonian era.