Victorian Popularizers of Science: Designing Nature for New Audiences (Hardcover)

~ Bernard Lightman (Author)
Key Phrases: celestial objects, extinct monsters, observing eye, United States, Herbert Spencer, Bowdich Lee (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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 )

"This study provides a crucial window into the science and society of Victorian England, and is an essential work for historians of that era." (Choice )

"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 author's insights into the world of Victorian science publishing offer important lessons for our own era's continuing struggle with the question of scientific authority."-Matthew Stanley, Endeavour (Matthew Stanley Endeavour )

Product Description

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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 564 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (December 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226481182
• ISBN-13: 978-0226481180
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #88,827 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Further interesting perspectives on Victorian science, April 4, 2008

By	Ronald H. Clark (WASHINGTON, DC USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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Professor Bernard Lightman of York University in Toronto has made a speciality over many years of focusing on the dissemination of Victorian science to the general British population. This fine study complements the earlier and quite interesting volume he co-edited with Aileen Fyfe, "Science in the Marketplace: 19th Century Sites and Experiences," which I also reviewed on Amazon. As I noted there, the process whereby scientific knowledge was disseminated to the larger society affords an interesting perspective on Victorian intellectual history, an important topic in its own right.

Lightman's focus here is the roles played, usually separately, sometimes in conjunction, of what he terms "popularizers" (i.e., not professional scientists) and university-educated and recognized scientists who conducted original research. He recounts in some detail (the book being over 500 pages long in not the largest type) how a number of the popularizers contributed to the flow of publications for the general public that was sparked by increased literacy and new mass publishing techniques. Many of these authors, especially Anglican priests, sought to discuss nature from a religious perspective; others were strictly following in the Darwin/Huxley mode of pure science. A valuable byproduct of Lightman's study is that he includes much discussion of the Victorian publishing industry which transformed the popularizers' ideas into books and articles. He also looks at the extensive lecturing conducted by the popularizers as an adjunct to their writing.

One of the most interesting chapters deals with the efforts in the later 19th century when prominent scientists, such as Huxley and Robert Ball, directed some of their attention to reaching the lay public. Eventually, the popularizers assumed the important role of offering an more unified view of science than did the scientists who had begun to become more specialized in their interests. So eventually, both popularizers and scientists were seeking to reach this audience.

The book is beautifully printed, contains many helpful illustrations, and, wonder of wonders, actually has footnotes at the base of the page, which adds a lot. The research, as befitting Lightman (who also authored "Victorian Science in Context" and other studies), is extraordinary, and in large measure based upon his work in primary sources. The author's knowledge is so extensive that the uninitiated reader at times feels that he is buried in details of the many, many individuals the author discusses. But overinclusive is better than a book lacking important detail; and believe me it is all here for those really interested in the topic. Hopefully, Lightman or someone else one day will write an analysis of how these Victorian attitudes shaped our present view of lay people becoming engaged in scientific education. It seems we have followed the Victorian pattern and given the general public front row opportunities to explore highly technical areas--and this is to be commended.