Victorian Popularizers of Science - by Bernard Lightman

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"Victorian Popularizers is not just a history of science from below, although it effectively capitalizes on that literature. Rather, it is an important story of how some Victorians rebelled against the claim that only scientists should have authority over science. Lightman deftly shows how questions of authority were bound up in matters of publishing, church reform, professionalization, gender dynamics, visual spectacle and social change, and he makes substantial contributions to understanding the relationship between those matters and science. Historians interested in any of these issues will find this book enriching and thought provoking. The authors insights into the world of Victorian science publishing offer important lessons for our own eras continuing struggle with the question of scientific authority."Matthew Stanley, Endeavour -- Matthew Stanley "Endeavour" (04/28/2009)

The book is a substantial work of scholarship rather than a casual read, and it offers much for historians of science as well as students of popular writing.Jon Turney, Times Higher Education Supplement -- Jon Turney "Times Higher Education Supplement" (03/26/2008)

"The book is a substantial work of scholarship rather than a casual read, and it offers much for historians of science as well as students of popular writing." -- Jon Turney "Times Higher Education Supplement" (03/26/2008)

About the Author

Bernard Lightman is professor of humanities at York University, Toronto, editor of the journal Isis, editor of Victorian Science in Context, and coeditor of Science in the Marketplace, all published by the University of Chicago Press.