Jean-Charles Houzeau's Escape from Texas

A Belgian Astronomer Caught in the American Civil War

Christiaan Sterken, Amy Abercrombie King (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

XIII, 161 Seiten

2020 | 1st ed. 2020
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-030-46536-0 (ISBN)

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Translated from the original French and annotated with figures, historical maps and commentary from the translators, this work is Jean-Charles Houzeau's account of his escape from Texas during the American Civil War. Houzeau was a Belgian astronomer who worked a couple of years as assistant astronomer at the Brussels Observatory, but eventually moved to the United States. He was living as a frontierman in Texas when the Civil War broke out, and because he took an abolitionist stance and helped slaves escape, he was forced to flee to Mexico, from where he sailed to New Orleans on board of a US military vessel. Originally titled La terreur blanche au Texas et mon 'evasion, Houzeau captured the details of his escape in 1862.The editors, an astronomer and a French language teacher, have added supplementary material to give the readers more depth and historical context to the story.

Christiaan Sterken obtained an MSc degree in Mathematics at the University of Ghent (Belgium), his PhD in Astronomy at the University of Brussels, and his Habilitation degree at the University of Li`ege. He is Emeritus Research Director at the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research, and Emeritus Guest Professor at the University of Brussels. His principal field of research is the photometry of variable stars (luminous blue variables, massive binaries, pulsating main sequence stars, and cataclysmic variables), and comets. He also taught courses in observational astronomy, and on the history of natural sciences at the Universities of Brussels and Ghent. Christiaan Sterken is Vice-President of Commission C3 History of Astronomy, of the International Astronomical Union. Amy Abercrombie King has a Bachelor of Arts degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Arts degree in French from The University of Texas at San Antonio. She holds a lifetime certification as a secondary school teacher in Texas, with certifications in French, English, English as Second Language (ESL), Social Studies and Information Technology. She was awarded Fulbright-Hays and American Association of Teachers of French scholarships to study the French language and culture, completing postgraduate programs at Universit'e Laval and Universit'e de Montr'eal. She also studied French language, culture, and teaching methods in Cameroon, Africa. A fifth-generation Texan, she was born in Victoria, Texas and grew up in Uvalde, near Fort Clark. She currently resides in San Antonio, and has recently retired from teaching French at Douglas MacArthur High School.

Part I Jean-Charles Houzeau: His work, his travels and his letters.-Jean-Charles Houzeau de Lehaie.-San Antonio in Houzeau's times.- The nature and literary quality of Houzeau's work, and of its translations.- Explanatory remarks.- Part II Appendix: Selected letters and transcripts of official documents.- Transcription of official Texas documents.- Transcription of official letters.- Part III Jean-Charles Houzeau's White Terror in Texas.- Foreword.- Letter I.

"This book is extremely well documented and written in a very clear and concise way. ... I strongly recommend this book to people interested in history of astronomy, but also to historians who find some interest in the US Civil War and, in a more general way, in the history of the United States." (Emile Biémont, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Vol. 23 (2), 2020)

Erscheinungsdatum	04.07.2020
Reihe/Serie	Springer Biographies
Zusatzinfo	XIII, 161 p. 27 illus., 23 illus. in color.
Verlagsort	Cham
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Gewicht	436 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Allgemeines / Lexika
	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
Schlagworte	Abolitionists • abolition of slavery • American Civil War • Astronomy Biography • Belgian Astronomer • Civil War Texas • Jean-Charles Houzeau • San Antonio History • texas history
ISBN-10	3-030-46536-5 / 3030465365
ISBN-13	978-3-030-46536-0 / 9783030465360
Zustand	Neuware