Historians, popularizers, and the Victorian scene -- Anglican theologies of nature in a post-Darwinian era -- Redefining the maternal tradition -- The showmen of science : wood, pepper, and visual spectacle -- The evolution of the evolutionary epic -- The science periodical : Proctor and the conduct of "knowledge" -- Practitioners enter the field : Huxley and Ball as popularizers -- Science writing on New Grub Street -- Conclusion: Remapping the terrain
Summary
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 Light
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 503-533) and index
