Grove Karl Gilbert

by Pyne, Stephen J.

• ISBN13: 9781587296185
• ISBN10: 1587296187
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-08-28
• Publisher: Univ of Iowa Pr

Summary

The life of Grove Karl Gilbert, first chief geologist of the U.S. Geological Survey, spanned the heroic age of American geology during the time that this young earth science was being intellectually and institutionally defined. By the time of Gilbert's death in 1918 at age seventy-five, geology ranked as one of the outstanding traditions in American science, with a magnificent history of exploration. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Stephen Pyne is Regents Professor and historian in the School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University

Table of Contents

Author's Note to the Paperback Edition	p. vii
Preface and Acknowledgments	p. xi
In a Nutshell	p. 3
The Education of a Classicist	p. 5
A Clerk in the Cosmos	p. 11
Of Mastodons and Mathematics: The Cohoes Potholes	p. 17
Cracking the Nutshell	p. 20
"Astride the occidental mule"	p. 22
A Volunteer Assistant	p. 22
"Labels written by the Creator": John Strong Newberry	p. 28
"Hydrographical peculiarities"	p. 34
West with Wheeler	p. 37
"A systematic approach": The Geology of a Reconnaissance	p. 51
The Lieutenant and the Major	p. 57
The Major Years	p. 64
"The western fever"	p. 64
By Virtue of Its Ensemble: Powell, Dutton, Gilbert	p. 72
"Certain allied problems in mechanics": The Henry Mountains	p. 83
Languages for a New Geology: Mechanics, Mathematics, Literature	p. 95
The Society of a Geologist	p. 103
A Great Engine of Research	p. 108
The Division of the Great Basin	p. 108
The Revolving Chair: Chief Geologist of the U.S. Geological Survey	p. 113
The Scientist as Aristocrat: George Ferdinand Becker	p. 126
Lake Bonneville	p. 134
Time's Ratio: The Meaning of Geologic History	p. 145
"A little daft on the subject of the moon"	p. 152
The Great Basin Mess	p. 160
Grade	p. 167
A "buried star"	p. 167
The Mean Plain	p. 179
The Inculcation of Scientific Method	p. 186
The Text for a University Science: Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin	p. 193
An Elder Statesman	p. 201
The Inculcation of Grove Karl Gilbert	p. 203
Geophysics in the Giant Forest	p. 203
Gilbert the Glaciologist	p. 219
Gilbert the Geophysicist	p. 226
Gilbert the Geomorphologist	p. 236
The Cycle of Erosion: William Morris Davis	p. 254
A New Life	p. 262
Notes	p. 269
Sources	p. 291
Biographical Memoirs	p. 295
Index	p. 296
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