Victorian Popularizers of Science: Designing Nature for New Audiences

the Ideas Of Charles Darwin And His Fellow Victorian Scientists Have Had An Abiding Effect On The Modern World. But At The Time the Origin Of Species was Published In 1859, The British Public Looked Not To Practicing Scientists But To A Growing Group Of Professional Writers And Journalists To Interpret The Larger Meaning Of Scientific Theories In Terms They Could Understand And In Ways They Could Appreciate. victorian Popularizers Of Science Focuses On This Important Group Of Men And Women Who Wrote About Science For A General Audience In The Second Half Of The Nineteenth Century.

bernard Lightman Examines More Than Thirty Of The Most Prolific, Influential, And Interesting Popularizers Of The Day, Investigating The Dramatic Lecturing Techniques, Vivid Illustrations, And Accessible Literary Styles They Used To Communicate With Their Audience. By Focusing On A Forgotten Coterie Of Science Writers, Their Publishers, And Their Public, Lightman Offers New Insights Into The Role Of Women In Scientific Inquiry, The Market For Scientific Knowledge, Tensions Between Religion And Science, And The Complexities Of Scientific Authority In Nineteenth-century Britain.

metapsychology

thos Interested In Current Popularizing By Figures Like Richard Dawkins Will Be Intrigued By The Parallels With Our Own Time; Those With An Interest In Social History Will Find That Lightman Has Done Them A Great Service By Bringing Together Such A Large Body Of Work In A Single Volume. Finally, Those Who Simply Want To Read A Well Written Book About A Fascinating Period In Science Will Find Lightman''s Work Appealing For Its Clarity Of Prose And Wealth Of Detail.

— Tony O'brien