Research Catalog

Victorian popularizers of science : designing nature for new audiences

Title: Victorian popularizers of science : designing nature for new audiences / Bernard Lightman.
Author: Lightman, Bernard V., 1950-
Publication: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, ©2007.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	Q127.G4 L54 2007	Off-site

Details

Description

xvi, 545 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"The ideas of Charles Darwin and his fellow Victorian scientists have had an abiding effect on the modern world. But at the time The Origin of Species was published in 1859, the British public looked not to practicing scientists but to a growing group of professional writers and journalists to interpret the larger meaning of scientific theories in terms they could understand and in ways they could appreciate. Victorian Popularizers of Science focuses on this important group of men and women who wrote about science for a general audience in the second half of the nineteenth century. Bernard Lightman examines more than thirty of the most prolific, influential, and interesting popularizers of the day, investigating the dramatic lecturing techniques, vivid illustrations, and accessible literary styles they used to communicate with their audience. By focusing on a forgotten coterie of science writers, their publishers, and their public, Lightman offers new insights into the role of women in scientific inquiry, the market for scientific knowledge, tensions between religion and science, and the complexities of scientific authority in nineteenth-century Britain."--Publisher's description.

Subject

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 503-533) and index.

Contents

Historians, popularizers, and the Victorian scene -- Anglican theologies of nature in a post-Darwinian era -- Redefining the maternal tradition -- The showmen of science : wood, pepper, and visual spectacle -- The evolution of the evolutionary epic -- The science periodical : Proctor and the conduct of "knowledge" -- Practitioners enter the field : Huxley and Ball as popularizers -- Science writing on New Grub Street -- Conclusion: Remapping the terrain.

ISBN

9780226481180
0226481182

LCCN

2007015179

OCLC

ocn123029811
123029811
SCSB-1472266

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library