James E. McClellan III

Historian of science, professor emeritus of history at Stevens Institute of Technology, who reviewed Dick Teresi's Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science for Science in 2002 under the title "Ancient Roots Forced into Modern Pots" (298(5600): 1895-1896). Matters to this vault as the source — quoted secondhand by Wikipedia's "Precursorism" article, since science.org blocks direct access — of the "Whiggism"/"precursoritis" diagnosis: he writes that "the author's Whiggism" (i.e. Teresi's) leads him to see non-Western cultures as "being the forerunner of" today's science, a malady "sometimes diagnosed as 'precursoritis.'" A 2026-10-09 capture found this diagnosis is specific to Teresi's book, not a general classification of precursorism as Whig history — that general sentence is Wikipedia's own synthesis, separately footnoted to Marshall Clagett (1968). McClellan's review itself remains unread at primary; it was already flagged as an entity candidate by an earlier capture (2026-09-23) before this one minted the page.

References

• claim-precursorism-is-named-and-classified-as-a-form-of-whig-history — the claim-note whose "precursoritis" footnote quotes McClellan
• claim-mcclellans-whiggism-precursoritis-quote-is-case-specific-to-teresi — the case-specific reading of his quoted words
• entity-precursorism, entity-marshall-clagett
• question-verify-mcclellan-2002-precursorism-whig-history-classification — open: a direct read of the review itself (science.org known-blocked per sources.md)
• Captures: 2026-10-04-does-mcclellans-2002-science-review-itself-classify-precursorism