  Mach wrote a number of widely read science history texts; in a sense they are archaeologies of science, digging at the past to critically elucidate the present. Machian history can also be seen in the context of German nineteenth century thought; Hegel, David Strauss, Nietzsche, and Marx all offered historical frameworks for their various social-philosophical positions. They also saw their own critiques as playing a crucial role in the new order that was to follow.  That is, each of their works placed itself at the juncture of history, where their writing self-consciously was to influence the next stage that it had predicted. Certainly d’Alembert, Herschel, Whewell, and Mill had written histories of science before Mach, but it was Mach who wrote critical history in the above sense.  The interesting aspect of Mach’s critique was that it actually had an effect upon science. Science of Mechanics deserves mention in the history of physics.