Victorian Science in Context

edited by Bernard Lightman

University of Chicago Press, 1997
Cloth: 978-0-226-48111-1 | Paper: 978-0-226-48112-8 | Electronic: 978-0-226-48110-4
DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226481104.001.0001

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ABOUT THIS BOOKAUTHOR BIOGRAPHYTABLE OF CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Victorians were fascinated by the flood of strange new worlds that science was opening to them. Exotic plants and animals poured into London from all corners of the Empire, while revolutionary theories such as the radical idea that humans might be descended from apes drew crowds to heated debates. Men and women of all social classes avidly collected scientific specimens for display in their homes and devoured literature about science and its practitioners.

Victorian Science in Context captures the essence of this fascination, charting the many ways in which science influenced and was influenced by the larger Victorian culture. Contributions from leading scholars in history, literature, and the history of science explore questions such as: What did science mean to the Victorians? For whom was Victorian science written? What ideological messages did it convey? The contributors show how practical concerns interacted with contextual issues to mold Victorian science—which in turn shaped much of the relationship between modern science and culture.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Bernard Lightman is professor of humanities at York University, Toronto, editor of the journal Isis, editor of Victorian Science in Context, and coeditor of Science in the Marketplace, all published by the University of Chicago Press.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One: Defining Knowledge

1. Defining Knowledge: An Introduction

2. The Construction of Orthodoxies and Heterodoxies in the Early Victorian Life Sciences

3. The Probable and the Possible in Early Victorian England

4. Victorian Economics and the Science of Mind

5. Biology and Politics: Defining the Boundaries

6. Redrawing the Boundaries: Darwinian Science and Victorian Women Intellectuals

7. Satire and Science in Victorian Culture

Part Two: Ordering Nature

8. Ordering Nature: Revisioning Victorian Science Culture

9. “The Voices of Nature”: Popularizing Victorian Science

10. Science and the Secularization of Victorian Images of Race

11. Elegant Recreations? Configuring Science Writing for Women

12. Strange New Worlds of Space and Time: Late Victorian Science and Science Fiction

Part Three: Practicing Science

13. Practicing Science: An Introduction

14. Wallace’s Malthusian Moment: The Common Context Revisited

15. Doing Science in a Global Empire: Cable Telegraphy and Electrical Physics in Victorian

16. Zoological Nomenclature and the Empire of Victorian Science

17. Remains of the Day: Early Victorians in the Field

18. Photography as Witness, Detective, and Impostor: Visual Representation in Victorian Science

19. Instrumentation and Interpretation: Managing and Representing the Working Environments of Victorian Experimental Science

20. Metrology, Metrication, and Victorian Values

Contributors

Index