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Academic & Professional Books  History & Other Humanities  History of Science & Nature

A Democracy of Facts Natural History in the Early Republic

By: Andrew J Lewis
208 pages, 15 illustrations
A Democracy of Facts
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  • A Democracy of Facts ISBN: 9780812243086 Hardback Apr 2011 Out of stock with supplier: order now to get this when available
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About this book Contents Customer reviews Biography Related titles

About this book

Chronicles the fascinating story of American naturalists who came of age and stumbled toward a profession in the years after the American Revolution.

In a political climate mistrusting of elites and book knowledge, naturalists turned to the American populace, especially its farmers and artisans, for information to catalogue and describe the fledgling nation's natural environment. From these ordinary Americans, naturalists gathered a vast wealth of fact and opinion about the natural world of North America. But in relying on those who daily lived in and worked with nature, naturalists were obliged to engage directly with people who disagreed with them, who were unafraid to challenge scientific expertise and ignore scientific authority. As experts and ordinary Americans argued about nature, they exposed larger fault lines in American society-over useful versus academic knowledge, empirical experience versus professional expertise, and the struggle for and against cultural authority. In the debate over the natural history of the new nation, citizens in the early republic were entitled to their own opinions as well as their own facts.

Drawing on examples from ornithology, botany, antiquities, theology, and geology, historian Andrew J. Lewis concludes that American naturalists could not control the whims and fancies of public opinion and were successful in establishing their authority only after they aligned their interests with the emerging bureaucratic state. Through this process, natural history became professional science.

Contents

Introduction: From an Empire of Reason to a Democracy of Facts Chapter 1. The Revolution in Natural History Practice: Democratic Science and the Case of Submerging Swallows Chapter 2. Natural History and the Market Economy: The Profitability of Plants and Rocks Chapter 3. The Perils of a Democracy of Facts: Interpreting American Antiquities Chapter 4. Disciplining the Democracy of Facts: A Theology of Nature Chapter 5. Making Natural History Credible: Geological Surveys and the Utility of Republican Science Epilogue: Scientific Practice in the Nineteenth Century Notes Index Acknowledgments

Customer Reviews

Biography

Andrew J. Lewis teaches history at American University.
By: Andrew J Lewis
208 pages, 15 illustrations
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