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Victorian Popularizers of Science: Designing Nature for New Audiences

Bernard Lightman

3.9/5 ( ratings)

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.

Language: English

Pages: 564

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Release: December 01, 2007

ISBN: 0226481182

ISBN 13: 9780226481180

Victorian Popularizers of Science: Designing Nature for New Audiences

Bernard Lightman

3.9/5 ( ratings)

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.

Language: English

Pages: 564

Format: Hardcover

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Release: December 01, 2007

ISBN: 0226481182

ISBN 13: 9780226481180

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The Papers of the Metaphysical Society, 1869-1880: A Critical Edition

Victorian Science and Literature, Part II Vol 5

Victorian Science and Literature, Part II Vol 6

Victorian Faith in Crisis: Essays on Continuity and Change in Nineteenth-Century Religious Belief

Science Periodicals in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Constructing Scientific Communities

The Nineteenth Century Series

Victorian Science and Religion: A Bibliography with Emphasis on Evolution, Belief, and Unbelief: Comprised of Works Published from C. 1900-1975

The Correspondence of John Tyndall, Volume 3: The Correspondence, January 1850–December 1852

Victorian Science and Literature, Part I Vol 4

Victorian Science and Literature, Part I Vol 2

Victorian Science and Literature, Part I Vol 3

Evolutionary Naturalism in Victorian Britain: The 'Darwinians' and Their Critics

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