Book: Up from Generality: How Inorganic Chemistry Finally Became a Respectable Field

Apart from Alfred Werner's work, until the middle of the 20th century, inorganic chemistry was a little bit neglected. Or I can say that it definitely didn't get the respect it deserved.

"Those of us who were familiar with the state of inorganic chemistry in universities twenty to thirty years ago will recall that at that time it was widely regarded as a dull and uninteresting part of the undergraduate course. Usually, it was taught almost entirely in the early years of the course and then chiefly as a collection of largely unconnected facts. On the whole, students concluded that, apart from some relationships dependent upon the Periodic table, there was no system in inorganic chemistry comparable with that to be found in organic chemistry, and none of the rigour and logic which characterised physical chemistry. It was widely believed that the opportunities for research in inorganic chemistry were few, and that in any case the problems were dull and uninspiring; as a result, relatively few people specialized in the subject" Ronald Nyholm

Here is a fantastic book about the history of inorganic chemistry, in particular in the US. The author is Prof. Jay A. Labinger who is one of the greatest inorganic chemists. I have posted some of his papers here and I read his papers very often.



It is a very short book and you can quickly finish reading it. But, the amount of information is incredible. I learned a lot from the book and the references in it.

I highly recommend reading it to anyone interested in the history of chemistry and inorganic chemistry.