1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910778490303321

Autore

Lightman Bernard V. <1950->

Titolo

Victorian popularizers of science [[electronic resource] ] : designing nature for new audiences / / Bernard Lightman

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, c2007

ISBN

1-282-42667-2

9786612426674

0-226-48117-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (565 p.)

Classificazione

HL 1101

Disciplina

509.41/09034

Soggetti

Science - Great Britain - History - 19th century

Technical writing - Great Britain - History - 19th century

Great Britain Social conditions 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

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

Nota di contenuto

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.

Sommario/riassunto

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.