The Gilded Dinosaur: The Fossil War Between E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh and the Rise of American Science (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Feuds are common to all fields of human endeavor, but only scientists see them as integral to their work. Scientific progress is always contentious, as we are reminded by science writer Mark Jaffe in The Gilded Dinosaur, his delightful examination of the well-known war between paleontologists Edward Cope and O.C. Marsh in the context of the development of American science. Jaffe has delved deeply into the historical record to illuminate these large personalities and their struggle for access to physical and political territory on which to build their competing scientific empires. Fossil-hunting was inextricably linked with the expansion into the West, the explosion of industrial capitalism, and the new expression of America's status as a world power. Cope and Marsh, in part through their competition for scarce financial and scientific resources, forced the United States to build a scientific establishment combining elements of the public and private sectors.

Jaffe is careful with his details; though there are many of them, they always illustrate his themes and portraits rather than distracting from them. Instead of reproducing the legendary protracted newspaper battle in its entirety, he samples a few headlines and paragraphs, then explores the motives and reactions of the principals. Cope comes across as far more sympathetic than Marsh, but the reader is left with the sense that this reflects historical truth more than journalistic bias. How can you take two egos, thousands of tons of rocks and bones, and make a scientific infrastructure so sturdy that today's schoolchildren grow up with Apatasaurus? The Gilded Dinosaur explains it all. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly

Science in general and paleontology in particular came of age in America during the second half of the 19th century. Two of the dominant figures of the time, E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh, were responsible for uncovering and naming most of the dinosaurs found in America while feuding with one another for all of their adult lives. Journalist Jaffe (And No Birds Sing) does an admirable job of bringing these two, as well as the myriad politicians and scientists they interacted with, to life. Rather than focusing narrowly on their feud, as does David Rains Wallace in his recent The Bonehunters' Revenge, Jaffe provides much more context for their disagreement and uses it to demonstrate the nature of the scientific enterprise. Both wanted sole control of the best fossils found in the American West and both coveted the attention that came with being the world's foremost paleontologist. Neither was above using political connections, from fellow scientists to the inhabitants of the White House during numerous administrations, to further their careers. Jaffe's epic history--covering a search for the bones of the largest animals ever to walk the earth; the trials, tribulations and governmental abuses surrounding the Indian Wars; the transition of science from an avocation to a profession; and the political machinations associated with pork-barrel funding of scientific expeditions--is as engaging as an adventure novel while providing insight into America's Gilded Age. Agent, David Black. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Crown; 1st Printing edition (March 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517707608
• ISBN-13: 978-0517707609
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,315,451 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bones, bones, and more bones., April 9, 2000

By	Richard S. Sullivan (Santa Fe, New Mexico) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What could be drier than a book devoted to two men battling over collecting fossils and gaining the rights to name creatures extinct for over 100 million years - and this having taken place over 125 years ago at that. Well it could be dry and stuffy but not when Mark Jaffe takes his broad brush to his canvas and we find that intertwined in this story traipse the likes of: P.T. Barnum, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, George Custer, and even Buffalo Bill Cody. We also will find U.S. Grant's cronies siphoning off aid that was supposed to go to the Indians. Add to the mix a few thousand Sioux warriors to liven up the story.

At the core is the story of O.C. Marsh and E. D. Cope in the 1870's building the foundation of modern paleontology. These two totally different personalities immediately began to clash and we have one of the more interesting personal warfares in the history of science. Each built a coterie of supporters but at times the various personae and the shifting of loyalties begins to make the story seem like Tolstoy's War and Peace.

There is never a dull moment. We have T.H. Huxley musing with O.C. Marsh's in Marsh's precious bone room at Yale. We see Marsh banging on doors in Washington until he eventually meets with Grant himself to try and right the injustice he sees happening to the Indians. It's always a race against time and in his haste Cope puts the head of one of his dinosaurs on the end of the tail. Marsh will forever remind Cope and the world of his folly. True, an innocent enough mistake, but in this world no one gives any quarter, especially Marsh.

Is it political infighting you like? Like really nasty stuff? You've got it. In Jaffe's remarkable book we have our friendly bone hunters smashing precious fossil skeletons when packing up and leaving a site so the other guy can't get them. We have letter writing campaigns smearing reputations so that opponents won't get fellowships in prestigious societies. One side will hire away the other's help in the field. Bone hunters making $90.00 a month for working winters digging in the Wyoming wilderness have no loyalties.

Humor? Just imagine Sioux warriors trying to make any sense out of these crazy men working feverishly hauling wagons with tons of bones out of the wilderness. The Sioux were at first certain that these men were seeking gold but when they saw them hauling out wagons of rocky bones, they new they were crazy. Not only the Sioux, just imagine any settler in those days making sense out of this seeming madness.

Jaffe keeps our interest. He can intertwine all of these fascinating mini-stories without loosing sight of the main theme of Marsh and Cope. His research is impeccable and he is able even to give a good picture of the forces at work in the Indian Wars of the 1870's.

Oddly enough this is not a book about dinosaurs or paleontology per se. The critters and their bones are only an adjunct to the tale being told. You will not learn much about the dinosaurs and other extinct animals. Lots of names pass by but unless you have some previous knowledge of dinosaurs, most of this is just names, but then it is not essential to the understanding of the story to know your beasts. The real story is the personal warfare between Marsh and Cope and how this colored the politics of the West and influenced scientific institutions. So even if dinosaurs are not your thing -- if history, the West, or how science really operates in the real world are, or maybe you just like a good story, don't miss this book.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, but not without merit., May 31, 2001

By	Caitlin R. Kiernan (Birmingham, AL United States) - See all my reviews

Mark Jaffe's account of the infamous feud between Cope and Marsh is neither as well written nor as well researched as D. R. Wallace's book on the same subject (The Bonehunter's Revenge). But it is a fairly enjoyable read and paints a reasonably accurate and lively portrait of vertebrate paleontology (and the life of paleontologists) during the second half of the 19th century.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Grammar cost it a star, but very good otherwise, June 11, 2001

By A Customer

I found this book to be very well researched and interesting, but unfortunately somewhat poorly written. There are many grammatical errors and typos that should have been caught by the editors but weren't, which made me feel like I was reading a rough draft. Other than that annoying flaw, it's well worth reading.