Scientific Americans : the making of popular science and evolution in early-twentieth-century U.S. literature and culture / / John Bruni

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910808021803321
• Autore: Bruni John
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cardiff : , : University of Wales Press, , [2014]; ©2014
• ISBN: 1-78316-018-7
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (258 p.)
• Collana: Intersections in literature and science
• Disciplina: 810.90052
• Soggetti: American literature - 20th century - History and criticism; Authors, American - 20th century; American literature - 20th century; Science - United States - History
• 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 and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Cover; ToC; List of illustrations; 1 Popular Science, Evolution and Global Information Management; Acknowledgements; Introduction; I. Reconstructing the social and scientific; II. Scientific and cultural narratives of expansion; III. Information and control systems; IV. Historicizing science; 2 Dirty Naturalism and the Regime of Thermodynamic Self-Organization; I. Social regulation and the power of art; II. Self-organization and energy flows; III. Ecocriticism and thermodynamics; IV. Social work and moral parasites; 3 The Ecology of Empire; I. The Call of the Wild and the national frontier; II. Wild Fang and the ideology of domesticationIII. The multiplicity of animal bodies; III. 'Constitutional restlessness' and 'something not ourselves'; IV. Ghosts of American citizens; V. Where to draw the line? Biological kinshipand legal discourse; 4 After the Flood: Performance and Nation; I. Managing life; II. Business morality and Western water policy; IV. Systems of art: perception and communication; V. Pure fiction; I. Evolution as historical process; II. Thermodynamics and citizenship; III. The new American as techno-subject; IV. Beyond evolution: information, control and paranoia; V. 'The Rule of Phase Applied to History'VI. 'A Letter to American ; Teachers of History'; 5 The Miseducation of Henry Adams: Fantasies of Race,Citizenship and Biological Dynamos; Conclusion; I. Henry Adams: ecocritic?; II. 'Cyborg politics' and the technoscientific regime; III. The American System and global debt; IV. Biopolitics and posthuman life: the call of Jack London; Epilogue; Notes; Bibliography; Index; Back Cover
• Sommario/riassunto: The book challenges narrow readings of evolution as 'social Darwinism' by looking at evolutionary theory through the interrelated perspectives of science, North American naturalist literature, and popular journalism.