These days, the idea of the cyborg is less the stuff of science fiction and more a reality, as we are all, in one way or another, constantly connected, extended, wired, and dispersed in and through technology. One wonders where the individual, the person, the human, and the body are—or, alternatively, where they stop. These are the kinds of questions Hélène Mialet explores in this fascinating volume, as she focuses on a man who is permanently attached to assemblages of machines, devices, and collectivities of people: Stephen Hawking.

Drawing on an extensive and in-depth series of interviews with Hawking, his assistants and colleagues, physicists, engineers, writers, journalists, archivists, and artists, Mialet reconstructs the human, material, and machine-based networks that enable Hawking to live and work. She reveals how Hawking—who is often portrayed as the most singular, individual, rational, and bodiless of all—is in fact not only incorporated, materialized, and distributed in a complex nexus of machines and human beings like everyone else, but even more so. Each chapter focuses on a description of the functioning and coordination of different elements or media that create his presence, agency, identity, and competencies. Attentive to Hawking’s daily activities, including his lecturing and scientific writing, Mialet’s ethnographic analysis powerfully reassesses the notion of scientific genius and its associations with human singularity. This book will fascinate anyone interested in Stephen Hawking or an extraordinary life in science.

      Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians
      For the quarter-century before 1860 Stephen A. Douglas was a dominant
        figure on the American political scene, far outshadowing Abraham Lincoln.
        This first paperback printing of Robert Johannsen's authoritative biography
        features a new preface.
      "At once a work of enormous scholarship and of deep insight. Here,
        for the first time, is the full story of a great career, told with such
        skill that we can now understand why Abraham Lincoln found the 'Little
        Giant' the most formidable political rival he ever faced." -- David
        H. Donald, author of Lincoln and two-time winner of the Pulitzer
        Prize
      "Well-organized and marvelously detailed. . . . The book demonstrates
        the virtues of large-scale, straightforward narrative biography at its
        best. Its completeness and objectivity will make it the standard authority
        for many years to come." -- Richard N. Current, The New York Times
        Book Review
      "Superb. . . . Will doubtless stand as the definitive biography
        of Stephen A. Douglas for this generation." -- Hans L. Trefousse,
        The Journal of American History
      "An impressive work--impressive in scope, in research, and in maturity
        of understanding. . . . Johannsen has constructed a biography that is
        rich in detail and full of conviction." -- James Z. Rabun, The
        Journal of Southern History
      "Should take its place in the tradition of magisterial biographies
        . . . in which so much of the best writing on American history is to be
        found." -- Harry V. Jaffa, National Review
      "The research is amazingly exhaustive and the writing is unusually
        readable. . . . Outstanding biography of a quality not often matched."
        -- LeRoy H. Fischer, Manuscripta
      Supported by the Dickerson Fund of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign