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Sandra Herbert - Charles Darwin, Geologist - 9780801443480 - V9780801443480
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Charles Darwin, Geologist

€ 62.64
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Description for Charles Darwin, Geologist Hardback. Num Pages: 512 pages, 76. BIC Classification: BGT; PSAJ; RBG. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). Dimension: 242 x 165 x 36. Weight in Grams: 920. 480 pages, 17 maps, 33halftones, 12line drawings, 8 colour insert. Cateogry: (G) General (US: Trade); (P) Professional & Vocational; (U) Tertiary Education (US: College). BIC Classification: BGT; PSAJ; RBG. Dimension: 242 x 165 x 36. Weight: 916.

"Pleasure of imagination.... I a geologist have illdefined notion of land covered with ocean, former animals, slow force cracking surface &c truly poetical."—from Charles Darwin's Notebook M, 1838

The early nineteenth century was a golden age for the study of geology. New discoveries in the field were greeted with the same enthusiasm reserved today for advances in the biomedical sciences. In her long-awaited account of Charles Darwin's intellectual development, Sandra Herbert focuses on his geological training, research, and thought, asking both how geology influenced Darwin and how Darwin influenced the science. Elegantly written, extensively illustrated, and informed by the author's ... Read more

As Herbert reveals, Darwin's great ambition as a young scientist—one he only partially realized—was to create a "simple" geology based on movements of the earth's crust. (Only one part of his scheme has survived in close to the form in which he imagined it: a theory explaining the structure and distribution of coral reefs.) Darwin collected geological specimens and took extensive notes on geology during all of his travels. His grand adventure as a geologist took place during the circumnavigation of the earth by H.M.S. Beagle (1831–1836)—the same voyage that informed his magnum opus, On the Origin of Species.

Upon his return to England it was his geological findings that first excited scientific and public opinion. Geologists, including Darwin's former teachers, proved a receptive audience, the British government sponsored publication of his research, and the general public welcomed his discoveries about the earth's crust. Because of ill health, Darwin's years as a geological traveler ended much too soon: his last major geological fieldwork took place in Wales when he was only thirty-three. However, the experience had been transformative: the methods and hypotheses of Victorian-era geology, Herbert suggests, profoundly shaped Darwin's mind and his scientific methods as he worked toward a full-blown understanding of evolution and natural selection.

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Product Details

Format
Hardback
Publication date
2005
Publisher
Cornell University Press
Number of pages
480
Condition
New
Number of Pages
508
Place of Publication
Ithaca, United States
ISBN
9780801443480
SKU
V9780801443480
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-1

About Sandra Herbert
Sandra Herbert is Director of the Program in the Human Context of Science and Technology and Professor of History at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. She is the editor of The Red Notebook of Charles Darwin and coeditor of Charles Darwin's Notebooks, 1836-1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species, Metaphysical Enquiries.

Reviews for Charles Darwin, Geologist
Few are more eminently qualified to write this work than the historian Sandra Herbert.... Her well-written book examines the primacy of Darwin's geologic training and research in the formulation of both the 'species question' and the concept of organic evolution by natural selection.... This book broadens prior understanding of how Darwin's geologic ruminations informed his thinking about the transmutation of ... Read more

Goodreads reviews for Charles Darwin, Geologist


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