LEADER 04276nam 22006494a 450 001 9910792349503321 005 20230124185927.0 010 $a1-282-53863-2 010 $a9786612538636 010 $a0-226-73130-8 024 7 $a10.7208/9780226731308 035 $a(CKB)2670000000015082 035 $a(EBL)515757 035 $a(OCoLC)609863592 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000367752 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11271232 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000367752 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10343363 035 $a(PQKB)10670323 035 $a(StDuBDS)EDZ0000123059 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC515757 035 $a(DE-B1597)523307 035 $a(OCoLC)746883590 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780226731308 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL515757 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10381162 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL253863 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000015082 100 $a20071005d2008 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aWorlds before Adam$b[electronic resource] $ethe reconstruction of geohistory in the age of reform /$fMartin J.S. Rudwick 210 $aChicago $cUniversity of Chicago Press$dc2008 215 $a1 online resource (639 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-226-73129-4 311 $a0-226-73128-6 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 567-603) and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tContents -- $tIllustrations -- $tAcknowledgments -- $tIntroduction -- $tPart One -- $tPart Two -- $tPart Three -- $tPart Four -- $tConcluding (Un)Scientific Postscript -- $tSources -- $tIndex 330 $aIn the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, scientists reconstructed the immensely long history of the earth-and the relatively recent arrival of human life. The geologists of the period, many of whom were devout believers, agreed about this vast timescale. But despite this apparent harmony between geology and Genesis, these scientists still debated a great many questions: Had the earth cooled from its origin as a fiery ball in space, or had it always been the same kind of place as it is now? Was prehuman life marked by mass extinctions, or had fauna and flora changed slowly over time? The first detailed account of the reconstruction of prehuman geohistory, Martin J. S. Rudwick's Worlds Before Adam picks up where his celebrated Bursting the Limits of Time leaves off. Here, Rudwick takes readers from the post-Napoleonic Restoration in Europe to the early years of Britain's Victorian age, chronicling the staggering discoveries geologists made during the period: the unearthing of the first dinosaur fossils, the glacial theory of the last ice age, and the meaning of igneous rocks, among others. Ultimately, Rudwick reveals geology to be the first of the sciences to investigate the historical dimension of nature, a model that Charles Darwin used in developing his evolutionary theory. Featuring an international cast of colorful characters, with Georges Cuvier and Charles Lyell playing major roles and Darwin appearing as a young geologist, Worlds Before Adam is a worthy successor to Rudwick's magisterial first volume. Completing the highly readable narrative of one of the most momentous changes in human understanding of our place in the natural world, Worlds Before Adam is a capstone to the career of one of the world's leading historians of science. 606 $aGeology$zEurope$xHistory$y19th century 606 $aScience$zEurope$xHistory$y19th century 610 $areconstruction, geohistory, reform, time period, history, historical, academic, scholarly, research, 18th, 19th, century, science, scientific, scientist, geology, geologist, belief, religion, faith, religious studies, bible, genesis, debate, darwin, nature, georges cuvier, charles lyell, europe, stratigraphy, herbivore, plesiosaur, fossils, dinosaurs, bones. 615 0$aGeology$xHistory 615 0$aScience$xHistory 676 $a551.7094/09034 700 $aRudwick$b M. J. S$01486632 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910792349503321 996 $aWorlds before Adam$93765999 997 $aUNINA