"Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party - How An Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures And Accidentally Upended The World"
Just finished reading "Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party - How An Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures And Accidentally Upended The World" by Edward Dolnick, published by Scribner.
Societal shifts due to scientific discovery almost seem humdrum nowadays. Yet in Victorian times dinosaurs were new and controversial - almost as controversial as the notion that dinosaurs had feathers a few decades ago.
Natural history was all the rage in Victorian England. It seemed that everyone spent their leisure time communing with nature, walking, climbing, and beach-combing, collecting animals, plants, rocks, and fossils. They assembled personal collections which they proudly displayed, museums were established and attendance bloomed, and scientific lecturers drew standing room only crowds across the country. Scientists who were charismatic and attractive had audiences of adoring female fans hanging on every word. The prevailing attitude was that God had created a perfect world functioned smoothly according to his plan, and that science existed in order to prove and illuminate His work. That worldview began to deteriorate around 1800 when fossilized remains of previously unknown creatures were discovered and studied. They had been found before, explained away as dragons, cyclops, unicorns, animals that didn't catch Noah's ark, fakes planted by either God or Satan to confuse, but a handful of people began looking at them differently, and their claims shook the Victorian mindset, raising confounding questions. How can this be when the earth is only 6,000 years old? Extinction was impossible -how could God make that part of His plan? How could there possibly have been an entirely different world with entirely different creatures long before Man ever arrived on the scene when the world was created for Man to enjoy?
Dolnick effortlessly brings this era of scientific discovery and impact to life.
Strongly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaurs-Dinn...
Societal shifts due to scientific discovery almost seem humdrum nowadays. Yet in Victorian times dinosaurs were new and controversial - almost as controversial as the notion that dinosaurs had feathers a few decades ago.
Natural history was all the rage in Victorian England. It seemed that everyone spent their leisure time communing with nature, walking, climbing, and beach-combing, collecting animals, plants, rocks, and fossils. They assembled personal collections which they proudly displayed, museums were established and attendance bloomed, and scientific lecturers drew standing room only crowds across the country. Scientists who were charismatic and attractive had audiences of adoring female fans hanging on every word. The prevailing attitude was that God had created a perfect world functioned smoothly according to his plan, and that science existed in order to prove and illuminate His work. That worldview began to deteriorate around 1800 when fossilized remains of previously unknown creatures were discovered and studied. They had been found before, explained away as dragons, cyclops, unicorns, animals that didn't catch Noah's ark, fakes planted by either God or Satan to confuse, but a handful of people began looking at them differently, and their claims shook the Victorian mindset, raising confounding questions. How can this be when the earth is only 6,000 years old? Extinction was impossible -how could God make that part of His plan? How could there possibly have been an entirely different world with entirely different creatures long before Man ever arrived on the scene when the world was created for Man to enjoy?
Dolnick effortlessly brings this era of scientific discovery and impact to life.
Strongly Recommended!
Ten Stars!
https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaurs-Dinn...
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