The Earth on Show :Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856
The Earth on Show :Fossils and the Poetics of Popular Science, 1802-1856
hardback
Published:
5 February, 2008
hardback
Published:
5 February, 2008
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Popular Books by Ralph O'Connor
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Description
At the turn of the nineteenth century, geology - and its claims that the earth had a long and colorful prehuman history - was widely dismissed as dangerous nonsense. But just fifty years later, it was the most celebrated of Victorian sciences. Ralph O'Connor tracks the astonishing growth of geology's prestige in Britain, exploring how a new geohistory far more alluring than the standard six days of Creation was assembled and sold to the wider Biblereading public. Savvy science writer, O'Connor shows, marketed spectacular visions of past worlds, piquing the public imagination with glimpses of man-eating mammoths, talking dinosaurs, and sea-dragons spawned by Satan himself. These authors - including men of science, women, clergymen, biblical literalists, hack writers, blackmailers, and prophets - borrowed freely from the Bible, modern poetry, and the urban entertainment industry, creating new forms of literature in order to transport their readers into a vanished and alien past. In exploring the use of poetry and spectacle in the promotion of popular science, O'Connor proves that geology's success owed much to the literary techniques of its authors. An innovative blend of the history of science, literary criticism, book history, and visual culture, "The Earth on Show" rethinks the relationship between geology and literature in the nineteenth century.
Prizes
Winner of British Society for Literature and Science Book Prize 2007
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780226616681 |
| ISBN10 | 0226616681 |
| Number Of Pages | 542 |
| Item Weight | 1162 g |
| Product Dimensions | 19 x 26 x 4 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | The University of Chicago Press |
| Format | hardback |
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Media Reviews
"The Earth on Show is an intelligent, imaginatively conceived, and impressively original piece of work. Ralph O'Connor's topic is important, and his range of research is broad. It is certain to constitute an important contribution to the understanding of nineteenth-century British science, and of Victorian culture more generally." - Harriet Ritvo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology"
Author's Bio
Ralph O'Connor is a lecturer in Irish-Scottish studies in the Department of History at the University of Aberdeen.