LEADER 04015nam 2200769 a 450 001 9910792226303321 005 20230124185809.0 010 $a0-19-020853-8 010 $a0-19-998581-2 010 $a1-283-42737-0 010 $a0-19-979767-6 010 $a9786613427373 035 $a(CKB)2560000000296274 035 $a(EBL)829403 035 $a(OCoLC)769344065 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000571387 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11390491 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000571387 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10611329 035 $a(PQKB)11534094 035 $a(StDuBDS)EDZ0000056401 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC829403 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC7038275 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL7038275 035 $a(EXLCZ)992560000000296274 100 $a20110125d2011 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aUncertain chances$b[electronic resource] $escience, skepticism, and belief in nineteenth-century American literature /$fMaurice S. Lee 210 $aNew York ;$aOxford $cOxford University Press$dc2012 215 $a1 online resource (250 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-19-979757-9 311 $a0-19-993241-7 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $aCover; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Probably Poe; Method-If Method There Is; Vast Individual Error; Things External to the Game; 2. Moby-Dick and the Opposite of Providence; The Cause of the Hunt; The Indifferent Sword of Chance; At a Venture; 3. Doubting If Doubt Itself Be Doubting: After Moby-Dick; Judge ye, then, ye Judicious; Pierre and Pragmatism; "Bartleby" and Buridan's Ass; 4. Douglass's Long Run; Providence and Improvidence; Balancing Probabilities; Give Them a Chance!; Reconstructing Black Pragmatism; 5. Roughly Thoreau; Axes and Knives; Errors and Averages 327 $aFish and GamesAn Unfinished Life of Science; Summing Up; 6. Dickinson's Precarious Steps, Surprising Leaps, and Bounds; Romantic Embarrassments; Chances for Heaven; Precarious Gaits; Having an Experience; Coda: Lost Causes and the Civil War; Notes; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; U; V; W; Y 330 $aThe role of chance changed in the nineteenth century, and American literature changed with it. Long dismissed as a nominal concept, chance was increasingly treated as a natural force to be managed but never mastered. New theories of chance sparked religious and philosophical controversies while revolutionizing the sciences as probabilistic methods spread from mathematics, economics, and sociology to physics and evolutionary biology. Chance also became more visible in everyday life, as Americans attempted to control its power through weather forecasting, insurance policies, military strategy, a 606 $aAmerican literature$y19th century$xHistory and criticism 606 $aChance in literature 606 $aProbability in literature 606 $aSkepticism in literature 606 $aBelief and doubt in literature 606 $aPragmatism in literature 606 $aLiterature and science$zUnited States$xHistory$y19th century 606 $aChristianity and literature$zUnited States$xHistory$y19th century 607 $aUnited States$xIntellectual life$y19th century 615 0$aAmerican literature$xHistory and criticism. 615 0$aChance in literature. 615 0$aProbability in literature. 615 0$aSkepticism in literature. 615 0$aBelief and doubt in literature. 615 0$aPragmatism in literature. 615 0$aLiterature and science$xHistory 615 0$aChristianity and literature$xHistory 676 $a810.9 700 $aLee$b Maurice S$0145854 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910792226303321 996 $aUncertain chances$93868975 997 $aUNINA