Research Catalog

Worlds before Adam : the reconstruction of geohistory in the age of reform

Title
Worlds before Adam : the reconstruction of geohistory in the age of reform / Martin J.S. Rudwick.
Author
Rudwick, M. J. S.
Publication
Chicago : University of Chicago Press, ©2008.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library QE13.E85 R83 2008Off-site

Details

Description
xxii, 614 pages : illustrations, maps; 27 cm
Summary
"The first detailed account of the reconstruction of prehuman geohistory, Martin J.S. Rudwick takes readers from the post-Napoleonic Restoration in Europe to the early years of Britain's Victorian age, chronicling the staggering discoveries geologists made during the period: the uncovering of the first dinosaur fossils, the glacial theory of the last Ice Age, and the meaning of igneous rocks, among others. Ultimately, Rudwick reveals geology to be the first of the sciences to investigate the historical dimension of nature."--Jacket.
Subjects
Genre/Form
History
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 567-603) and index.
Contents
Cuvier's model for geohistory (1817-25) -- Monsters from deep time (1819-24) -- The new stratigraphy (1817-25) -- Outline of life's history (1818-27) -- Ancient monsters on land (1818-25) -- Geological deluge and biblical flood (1819-24) -- The role of actual causes (1818-24) -- The dynamic earth (1818-24) -- The engine of geohistory (1824-29) -- The tertiary gateway (1824-27) -- The geologists' time-machine (1825-31) -- A directional history of life (1825-31) -- The last revolution (1824-30) -- The last mass extinction (1826-31) -- The centrality of central France (1826-28) -- Men among the mammoths? (1825-30) -- The specter of transmutation (1825-29) -- Lyell and Auvergne geology (1827-28) -- A geological grand tour (1828) -- Lyell in European context (1829-30) -- Geology's guiding principles (1830) -- "The Huttonian theory rediviva" (1830-31) -- Promoting Lyell's Principles (1830-31) -- The uniformity of life (1831-32) -- Completing Lyell's Principles (1832-33) -- Geohistory in retrospect (1833) -- Challenges to Lyell's geotheory (1832-35) -- The human species in geohistory (1830-37) -- Buckland's designful geohistory (1832-36) -- The progression of life (1833-39) -- Imagining geohistory (1831-40) -- Lyell's geotheory dismembered (1834-40) -- Actual causes on trial (1834-39) -- Explaining erratics (1833-40) -- Snowball earth? (1835-40) -- Taking stock for the future (1840-45).
ISBN
  • 9780226731285
  • 0226731286
LCCN
2007041676
OCLC
  • ocn173809136
  • 173809136
  • SCSB-1477807
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library