Controversy in Victorian Geology: The Cambrian-Silurian Dispute

By James A. Secord

Book Overview

Secord gives a dazzlingly detailed account of this scientific trench warfare and its social consequences. One ends up with a marvellous feeling for the major taxonomic enterprises in Darwin's younger day: mapping, ordering, conquering 'taming the chaos" of the strata. All of these of course had social and imperial ramifications; and Secord mentions geology's moral appeal (in supporting a divinely-stratified Creation) to a beleaguered elite intent on subduing the lower orders.

Originally published in 1986.

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 069160584X
• ISBN13: 9780691605845
• Release Date: July 2014
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 386 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"