|
|
|
|
||
|
HELP | |
|
This item may be
Check for Availabilityout of stock. Click on the button below to search for this title in other formats.  This title in other formats:Bursting the Limits of Time: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Revolution
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:In 1650, Archbishop James Ussher of Armagh joined the long-running theological debate on the age of the earth by famously announcing that creation had occurred on October 23, 4004 B.C. Although widely challenged during the Enlightenment, this belief in a six-thousand-year-old planet was only laid to rest during a revolution of discovery in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In this relatively brief period, geologists reconstructed the immensely long history of the earth-and the relatively recent arrival of human life. Highlighting a discovery that radically altered existing perceptions of a human's place in the universe as much as the theories of Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud did, Bursting the Limits of Time is a herculean effort by one of the world's foremost experts on the history of geology and paleontology to sketch this historicization of the natural world in the age of revolution. Addressing this intellectual revolution for the first time, Rudwick examines the ideas and practices of earth scientists throughout the Western world to show how the story of what we now call "deep time" was pieced together. He explores who was responsible for the discovery of the earth's history, refutes the concept of a rift between science and religion in dating the earth, and details how the study of the history of the earth helped define a new branch of science called geology. Rooting his analysis in a detailed study of primary sources, Rudwick emphasizes the lasting importance of field- and museum-based research of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Bursting the Limits of Time, the culmination of more than three decades of research, is the first detailed account of this monumental phase in the history of science. Review:"To describe Rudwick as `scholarly' is rather like describing Mozart as `musically talented. He is omniscient, and it's greatly to be wished that this book becomes known beyond the ranks of historians of the recondite."-Richard Fortey, London Review of Books Review:"This is a masterful study by the worlds foremost expert in the history of natural history . . . which deserves to be read by anyone interested in understanding the foundations of the modern historical sciences. . . . A short review cannot possibly do justice to the intricate, erudite, meticulously researched and immensely enjoyable history Rudwick weaves. . . . It is difficult to imagine a more impressive survey of genuinely big questions in the origin of a modern scientific field, or a more appropriate statement of a lifes work. . . . In every way, this is a truly magnificent book."-David Sepkoski, Reports of the National Center for Science Education Review:"A magisterial work...a huge accomplishment-detailed, subtle, refined-and it is difficult to do justice here to the depth and breadth of its argument. It will surely stand as the definitive work on the topic for many years to come."-Naomi Oreskes, Science (Naomi Oreskes, Science, Oct 27 2006 )Review:"Martin Rudwick has written a chef doeuvre. . . . Bursting the Limits of Time is a monument of the early history of geology that puts all before it in the shade."-Charles C. Gillespie, Historical Studies in Natural Sciences Review:"One of the most respected historians of science today, Rudwick has produced a masterfully written, splendidly researched, richly detailed, and superbly illustrated (no less than 175 plates!) work." Review:"The first detailed account of the monumental phase in the history of science, when 18th- and early 19th-century earth scientists gradually pieced together the ideas of what we now call `deep time.'"-History Today Synopsis:Highlighting a discovery that radically altered existing perceptions of humanity's place in the universe as much as the theories of Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud did, Bursting the Limits of Time is a herculean effort to sketch this historicization of the natural world in the age of revolution. About the AuthorMartin J. S. Rudwick is research associate in the department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and professor emeritus of history at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of The Meaning of Fossils, The Great Devonian Controversy, Scenes from Deep Time, and Georges Cuvier, all published by the University of Chicago Press. Table of ContentsList of illustrations
Acknowledgments A note on footnotes Introduction Time and geohistoryHistorical parametersHistoricizing the earthText and illustrationsMaps of knowledge Part one: Understanding the earth 1. Naturalists, philosophers, and others 1.1 A savant on top of the world First ascents of Mont BlancScience on the summitReturn to civilizationConclusion 1.2 The Republic of Letters and its supporters Savants, professional and amateurThe Republic of LettersA variety of supportersConclusion 1.3 Places of natural knowledge Laboratories and museumsSavants in the fieldThe social life of savantsScientific publicationConclusion 1.4 Maps of natural knowledge The literary and the philosophicalNatural history and natural philosophyPhilosophy and theologyConclusion 2. Sciences of the earth 2.1 Mineralogy as a science of specimens Minerals and other fossilsIdentification and classificationFossils of organic originFossil localitiesPrize specimensConclusion 2.2 Physical geography as a spatial science Huge solid factsThe primacy of fieldworkProxy picturesMaps as instrumentsConclusion 2.3 Geognosy as a structural science The mining contextStructures and sequencesPrimaries and SecondariesSequences of GebirgeFossils in geognosyConclusion 2.4 Earth physics as a causal science The “physics” of specimensThe “physics” of physical geographyThe “physics” of geognostic structuresThe “physics” of rock formationsConclusion 2.5 The question of time The short timescale versus eternalismVolcanoes, valleys, and strataEstimates of the timescaleEncounters with theologiansConclusion 3. The theory of the earth 3.1 Geotheory as a scientific genre The meaning of “geology”The goals of geotheoryConclusion 3.2 Buffons cooling globe Buffons first geotheoryNatures epochsThe earths timescaleConclusion 3.3 De Lucs worlds ancient and modern The “Christian philosophe”De Lucs binary systemNatural measures of timeConclusion 3.4 Huttons eternal earth machine A deistic geotheoryCyclic processesA theory confirmed by fieldworkTime and eternityConclusion 3.5 The standard model of falling sea levels The multiplicity of geotheoriesNeptunist geotheoryConclusion 4. Transposing history into the earth 4.1 The varieties of history The diversification of historyChronology and biblical historyChorographers and antiquariansHerculaneum and PompeiiConclusion 4.2 Fossils as natures documents Human history and its natural recordsThe natural history of fossilsFossils and the earths revolutionsConclusion 4.3 Volcanoes and natures epochs The making of a physical geographerThe volcanoes of AuvergneEpochs of volcanic activityA lake on the site of ParisConclusion 4.4 Rock formations as natures archives The volcanoes of VivaraisNatures erudite historianCensors and criticsExporting geohistory to RussiaConclusion 4.5 Global geohistory Causal processes and geotheoriesThe place of contingencySaussure as a geotheoristDe Luc as a geohistorianConclusion 5. Problems with fossils 5.1 The ancient world of nature The deep past as a foreign country?Fossils and geohistoryMigration and transmutationConclusion 5.2 Relics of former seas Vanished shellfishLiving fossilsFossil fish and possible whalesExplaining the former worldConclusion 5.3 Witnesses of former continents Fossil plantsLarge fossil bonesThe “Ohio animal”Giant elks and bearsConclusion 5.4 The antiquity of man Humans in geohistoryTexts and bonesHistory from artifactsConclusion
Interlude: From survey to narrative Part two: Reconstructing geohistory 6. A new science of “geology”? 6.1 Revolutions in nature and society (1789–91) Meanings of revolutionBlumenbachs “total revolution”Montlosiers continuous revolutionGeotheory as a flourishing genreConclusion 6.2 Geotheory as geohistory (1790–93) De Lucs new systemA differentiated “former world”The role of fossil evidenceA critique of HuttonConclusion 6.3 Theorizing in a time of trouble (1793–94) Geotheories and focal problemsDolomieus mega-tsunamisDolomieu on the Nile deltaThe sciences under the TerrorConclusion 6.4 Geotheory politicized (1793–95) De Luc and BlumenbachCultured despisers of religionThe politics of GenesisConclusion 6.5 “Geology” redefined (1794–97) The sciences after ThermidorDesmarests survey of geotheoriesLa Métheries geotheorySaussures AgendaDolomieu on “geology”Conclusion 7. Denizens of a former world 7.1 A mushroom in the field of savants (1794–96) Fossil bones as a focal problemThe young CuvierThe megatheriumThe mammothConclusion 7.2 Cuvier opens his campaign (1797–99) Cave bears and fossil rhinosDolomieu and de Luc as Cuviers alliesCuviers research programHostile criticsJeffersons megalonixConclusion 7.3 The Napoleon of fossil bones (1798–1800) Savants in wartimeCuvier and the First ConsulCuviers network of informantsCuviers international appealConclusion 7.4 Lamarcks alternative (1800–1802) The threat of transformismThe response to Cuviers appealMummified animals from EgyptLamarcks Parisian fossilsConclusion 7.5 Enlarging a fossil menagerie (1802–4) A peaceful interludeA cumulative case for extinctionEarlier and stranger mammalsConclusion 8. Geognosy enriche What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
Other books you might like
| |||
|
| ||||
|
||||
Don't Miss
