Synopses & Reviews
Earth has been witness to mammoths and dinosaurs, global ice ages, continents colliding or splitting apart, comets and asteroids crashing catastrophically to the surface, as well as the birth of humans who are curious to understand it all. But how was it discovered? How was the evidence for it collected and interpreted? And what kinds of people have sought to reconstruct this past that no human witnessed or recorded? In this sweeping and magisterial book, Martin J. S. Rudwick, the premier historian of the earth sciences, tells the gripping human story of the gradual realization that the Earthand#8217;s history has not only been unimaginably long but also astonishingly eventful.
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Rudwick begins in the seventeenth century with Archbishop James Ussher, who famously dated the creation of the cosmos to 4004 BC. His narrative then turns to the crucial period of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when inquisitive intellectuals, who came to call themselves and#147;geologists,and#8221; began to interpret rocks and fossils, mountains and volcanoes, as natural archives of Earthand#8217;s history. He then shows how this geological evidence was usedand#151;and is still being usedand#151;to reconstruct a history of the Earth that is as varied and unpredictable as human history itself. Along the way, Rudwick defies the popular view of this story as a conflict between science and religion and reveals that the modern scientific account of the Earthand#8217;s deep history retains strong roots in Judaeo-Christian ideas.and#160;
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Extensively illustrated, Earthand#8217;s Deep History is an engaging and impressive capstone to Rudwickand#8217;s distinguished career.and#160; Though the story of the Earth is inconceivable in length, Rudwick moves with grace from the earliest imaginings of our planetand#8217;s deep past to todayand#8217;s scientific discoveries, proving that this is a tale at once timeless and timely.
Review
and#8220;This is a gem of a book, representing a distillation of a lifetimeand#8217;s achievement and providing not only a thrilling tour dand#8217;horizon but also providing a gripping historical framework that shows how we all stand on the shoulders of giants.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Rudwick is the doyen of historians of the earth sciences. It is an unalloyed pleasure to read this summary of a lifetimeand#8217;s research, showing how we have come to understand the intertwined narratives of our home planet and the life that adorns it. With unfailing clarity Rudwick demonstrates how scientific advances meshed or clashed with the expectations of society over the last four hundred years. It is an important story, too, at a time when human intervention promises to change the course of terrestrial evolution.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Rudwickand#8217;s book is authoritative and riveting, and its historical breadth is bound to make geology exciting for readers from both sciences and humanities.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Earthand#8217;s Deep History is a long and complex story. . . . Nonetheless, Rudwick succeeds in weaving together a compelling account of how Earthand#8217;s timescale expanded to magnitudes far beyond those imagined by early scholars, and of the individuals responsible for advancing scientific thinking through their ideas and actions.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;With his talent for encapsulating pre-modern mindsets, Rudwick deftly explains how ideas of natural history were embedded in cultural history. . . . Reading Rudwickandrsquo;s prose is a pleasure.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;An engaging read for nonscientists and specialists alike, this book pleasingly illustrates how we came to know more about our world and the many people who played a part in that.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Rudwick serves up . . . a wonderfully erudite and absorbing account of the spasmodic progress of chronological earth science.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Earthandrsquo;s Deep History tells the story, not of the earth itself andndash; that can be found in modern textbooks andndash; but rather, the story of how andlsquo;natural philosophersandrsquo; developed the ideas of geology accepted today. . . . This book is exhaustive in its survey of past geological and paleontological scholarship, and very detailed, but eminently readable and engaging. . . . This is a fascinating story of the development of this exciting branch of science.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Any book on the history of the earth sciences by Rudwick and#160;is worth reading immediately, and this may be one of his best. and#160;This volume is a detailed narrative of the construction of the historical framework of earth history. and#160;It is not a standard recitation of authors, dates, and publications, but a conceptual journey starting in the 17th century. and#160;The primary thesis is that the foundations of our modern chronology were built very early by thinkers not conventionally placed in our pantheon of heroic scientists (Archbishop James Ussher is a notable example). and#160;These early works andldquo;pre-adaptedandrdquo; later generations to think in broad historical terms, eventually developing histories that long precede humanity. Indeed, the book of Genesis itself may have provided the first conceptual model for a natural history. and#160;The popular andlsquo;science versus religionandrsquo; theme in the origin of geology has been exaggerated for many reasons on both sides, the author states. and#160;Rudwickandrsquo;s descriptions of the personalities and ideas in the development of andlsquo;deep historyandrsquo; are fascinating, well written, and novel. and#160;His effective dismissal of andlsquo;young Earth creationismandrsquo; in the appendix is classic. Essential.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;A thrilling story of discovery and debate, insight and interpretation.andrdquo;
Synopsis
During a revolution of discovery in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, geologists reconstructed the immensely long history of the earth; and the relatively recent arrival of human life.
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 illuminate this scientific breakthrough that radically altered existing perceptions of a human's place in the universe as much as the theories of Copernicus and Darwin did.
Rudwick examines here 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.
Bursting the Limits of Time is the first detailed account of this monumental phase in the history of science.
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
Mammoths and dinosaurs, tropical forests in northern Europe and North America, worldwide ice ages, continents colliding and splitting apart, comets and asteroids crashing catastrophically onto the Earth and#150; these are just some of the surprising features of the eventful history of our planet, stretched out over several billion years. But how was it all discovered, how was the evidence for the Earthand#8217;s long history collected and interpreted, and what sorts of people put together this reconstruction of a deep past that no human beings could ever have witnessed?and#160; In
Earthand#8217;s Deep History, Martin J. S. Rudwick tells the gripping story of the gradual realization that the Earthand#8217;s history has not only been unimaginably long but also astonishingly eventful in utterly unexpected ways.and#160; Rudwick, the worldand#8217;s premier historian of the Earth sciences, is the first to make the story of the discovery of the Earthand#8217;s deep history attractively accessible to readers without prior knowledge of either the history or the science, and in so doing he reveals why it matters to us today.
About the Author
Martin J. S. Rudwick is professor emeritus of history at the University of California, San Diego and affiliated scholar in the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. His many other books include Bursting the Limits of Time: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Revolution and Worlds Before Adam: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform, both also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
Acknowledgments
A note on footnotes
Introduction
Time and geohistory—Historical parameters—Historicizing the earth—Text and illustrations—Maps 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 Blanc—Science on the summit—Return to civilization—Conclusion
1.2 The Republic of Letters and its supporters
Savants, professional and amateur—The Republic of Letters—A variety of supporters—Conclusion
1.3 Places of natural knowledge
Laboratories and museums—Savants in the field—The social life of savants—Scientific publication—Conclusion
1.4 Maps of natural knowledge
The literary and the philosophical—Natural history and natural philosophy—Philosophy and theology—Conclusion
2. Sciences of the earth
2.1 Mineralogy as a science of specimens
Minerals and other fossils—Identification and classification—Fossils of organic origin—Fossil localities—Prize specimens—Conclusion
2.2 Physical geography as a spatial science
Huge solid facts—The primacy of fieldwork—Proxy pictures—Maps as instruments—Conclusion
2.3 Geognosy as a structural science
The mining context—Structures and sequences—Primaries and Secondaries—Sequences of Gebirge—Fossils in geognosy—Conclusion
2.4 Earth physics as a causal science
The “physics” of specimens—The “physics” of physical geography—The “physics” of geognostic structures—The “physics” of rock formations—Conclusion
2.5 The question of time
The short timescale versus eternalism—Volcanoes, valleys, and strata—Estimates of the timescale—Encounters with theologians—Conclusion
3. The theory of the earth
3.1 Geotheory as a scientific genre
The meaning of “geology”—The goals of geotheory—Conclusion
3.2 Buffons cooling globe
Buffons first geotheory—Natures epochs—The earths timescale—Conclusion
3.3 De Lucs worlds ancient and modern
The “Christian philosophe”—De Lucs binary system—Natural measures of time—Conclusion
3.4 Huttons eternal earth machine
A deistic geotheory—Cyclic processes—A theory confirmed by fieldwork—Time and eternity—Conclusion
3.5 The standard model of falling sea levels
The multiplicity of geotheories—Neptunist geotheory—Conclusion
4. Transposing history into the earth
4.1 The varieties of history
The diversification of history—Chronology and biblical history—Chorographers and antiquarians—Herculaneum and Pompeii—Conclusion
4.2 Fossils as natures documents
Human history and its natural records—The natural history of fossils—Fossils and the earths revolutions—Conclusion
4.3 Volcanoes and natures epochs
The making of a physical geographer—The volcanoes of Auvergne—Epochs of volcanic activity—A lake on the site of Paris—Conclusion
4.4 Rock formations as natures archives
The volcanoes of Vivarais—Natures erudite historian—Censors and critics—Exporting geohistory to Russia—Conclusion
4.5 Global geohistory
Causal processes and geotheories—The place of contingency—Saussure as a geotheorist—De Luc as a geohistorian—Conclusion
5. Problems with fossils
5.1 The ancient world of nature
The deep past as a foreign country?—Fossils and geohistory—Migration and transmutation—Conclusion
5.2 Relics of former seas
Vanished shellfish—Living fossils—Fossil fish and possible whales—Explaining the former world—Conclusion
5.3 Witnesses of former continents
Fossil plants—Large fossil bones—The “Ohio animal”—Giant elks and bears—Conclusion
5.4 The antiquity of man
Humans in geohistory—Texts and bones—History from artifacts—Conclusion
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 revolution—Blumenbachs “total revolution”—Montlosiers continuous revolution—Geotheory as a flourishing genre—Conclusion
6.2 Geotheory as geohistory (1790-93)
De Lucs new system—A differentiated “former world”—The role of fossil evidence—A critique of Hutton—Conclusion
6.3 Theorizing in a time of trouble (1793-94)
Geotheories and focal problems—Dolomieus mega-tsunamis—Dolomieu on the Nile delta—The sciences under the Terror—Conclusion
6.4 Geotheory politicized (1793-95)
De Luc and Blumenbach—Cultured despisers of religion—The politics of Genesis—Conclusion
6.5 “Geology” redefined (1794-97)
The sciences after Thermidor—Desmarests survey of geotheories—La Métheries geotheory—Saussures Agenda—Dolomieu 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 problem—The young Cuvier—The megatherium—The mammoth—Conclusion
7.2 Cuvier opens his campaign (1797-99)
Cave bears and fossil rhinos—Dolomieu and de Luc as Cuviers allies—Cuviers research program—Hostile critics—Jeffersons megalonix—Conclusion
7.3 The Napoleon of fossil bones (1798-1800)
Savants in wartime—Cuvier and the First Consul—Cuviers network of informants—Cuviers international appeal—Conclusion
7.4 Lamarcks alternative (1800-1802)
The threat of transformism—The response to Cuviers appeal—Mummified animals from Egypt—Lamarcks Parisian fossils—Conclusion
7.5 Enlarging a fossil menagerie (1802-4)
A peaceful interlude—A cumulative case for extinction—Earlier and stranger mammals—Conclusion
8. Geognosy enriche