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9780226616681

The Earth on Show

by
  • ISBN13:

    9780226616681

  • ISBN10:

    0226616681

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2008-01-30
  • Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

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Summary

At the turn of the nineteenth century, geologyand its claims that the earth had a long and colorful prehuman historywas widely dismissedasdangerous 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 Bible-reading public. Shrewd science-writers, 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 authorsincluding men of science, women, clergymen, biblical literalists, hack writers, blackmailers, and prophetsborrowed 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 Showrethinks the relationship between science and literature in the nineteenth century.

Author Biography

Ralph O’Connor is lecturer in Irish-Scottish studies in the Department of History at the University of Aberdeen.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: Science as Literature
Building the Story
Enter the Mammoth
William Buckland: Antiquary and Wizard
Lizards and Literalists
Lyell Steps In
Staging the Show
Marketing Geology
Polite Science and Narrative Form
Time Travel and Virtual Tourism in the Age of John Martin
Literary Monsters
Scenes and Legends from Deep Time
Hugh Miller and the Geologic Diorama
Epilogue: New Mythologies of the Ancient Earth
Appendix: Currencies, and Sizes of Books
Works Cited
Credits
Index
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

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