Description |
xxiv, 708 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm |
Contents |
1. Naturalists, philosophers, and others -- 2. Sciences of the earth -- 3. The theory of the earth -- 4. Transposing history into the earth -- 5. Problems with fossils -- 6. A new science of "geology"? -- 7. Denizens of a former world -- 8. Geognosy enriched into geohistory -- 9. The gateway to the deep past -- 10. Earth's last revolution |
Summary |
"In a relatively brief period of revolutionary discovery in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, geologists reconstructed the immensely long history of the earth - and the relatively recent arrival of human life. Highlighting a discovery that radically altered existing perceptions of a human's place in the universe as much as the theories of Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud, Bursting the Limits of Time is a herculean effort by one of the world's foremost experts on the history of geology and paleontology to sketch this historicization of the natural world in the age of revolution." |
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"Addressing this intellectual revolution in detail for the first time, Martin J. S. Rudwick examines the ideas and practices of earth scientists throughout the Western world to show how the story of what we now call "deep time" was pieced together. He explores who was responsible for the discovery of the earth's history, refutes the concept of a rift between science and religion in dating the earth, and details how the study of the history of the earth helped define a new branch of science called geology. Rooting his analysis in a detailed study of primary sources, Rudwick emphasizes the lasting importance of the field- and museum-based research of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries." "Bursting the Limits of Time, the culmination of more than three decades of research, is the first detailed account of this monumental phase in the history of science."--BOOK JACKET |
Notes |
Formerly CIP. Uk |
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"Based on the Tarner lectures delivered at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1996." |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 653-699) and index |
Notes |
Buesst bequest |
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Print version record |
Subject |
Science -- Europe -- History -- 19th century.
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Geology -- Europe -- History -- 19th century.
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Science -- Europe -- History -- 18th century.
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Geology -- Europe -- History -- 18th century.
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Genre/Form |
History.
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Author |
Trinity College (University of Cambridge)
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LC no. |
2004022007 |
ISBN |
0226731111 hardback |
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