This book chronicles how successive generations of natural
philosophers, geologists and geomorphologists have come to invent
the view of the Earth over the past 250 years.
* * Chronicles how successive generations of natural philosophers,
geologists and geomorphologists have come to invent different views
of the Earth over the last 250 years.
* Uses as its central viewpoint changing ideas about the
significance of the action of rain and rivers on the Earth’s
surface.
* Shows how our contemporary ‘truths’ have come to be
accepted and exposes the frailty of even the most impeccably
scientific visions of the Earth.
Table des matières
List of Illustrations.
Preface.
Acknowledgements.
Introduction.
1 Inventing Scientific Explanations.
2 Inventing the Age (and Origin) of the Earth.
3 Inventing ‘Modern Earth Science’: Charles Lyell and ‘The
Principles of Geology’.
4 Inventing the Ice Age: the Rôle of Louis Agassiz.
5 Inventing a Balanced View of ‘Forces Now in Operation’:
Charles Darwin’s Travels in Space and Time.
6 Inventing a Fluvial Landscape: Powell, Gilbert and the Western
Explorations.
7 The Invention of the Geographical Cycle and the Synthetic
Genius of W. M. Davis.
8 Reinventing a Newtonian Universe: the Reductionist Revolution,
1945-1977.
9 Reinventing the Earth, 1977-: Homo sapiens, History and
Micro-organisms.
Epilogue.
Appendix I: Cast of Principal Characters.
Appendix II: Selective Glossary of Technical Terms.
References.
Index.
A propos de l’auteur
Dr Barbara Kennedy is Emeritus Fellow of St Hugh’s College, University of Oxford and former Lecturer (CUF) in the School of Geography.
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