A review of Nature and the Making of a Scientific Community, 1869-1939, by Melinda Baldwin. Melinda Baldwin’s dissertation provides a fascinating history of the early years of the scientific journal Nature, beginning with its creation in 1869 by Sir Norman Lockyer and ending with the retirement of its second editor Sir Richard Arman Gregory in 1939. Challenging our awareness of Nature’s prominent place in the sciences today, Baldwin historicizes the complicated process by which the publication developed its reputation. More than that, Baldwin uses Nature as case study to ask important...