* Way back in February I posted the first part of a two-part reading list in the history of geology. Well, here’s Part 2, with apologies for extreme tardiness…
Here’s a question I’ve been asked before. I wish I were asked it all the time. As a matter of fact, I’ve been asked it just twice. But whatever— it’s a good question, and it deserves a thoughtful response.
The question is: What should I read to get a better grounding in the history of geology? My short answer has always been Martin Rudwick. But of course that’s a bit flip, and while Rudwick is my guy, there are many excellent things to read that are penned by other authors.
This is Part 2 of the reading list. In Part 1 I covered The Essentials, The Not-Quite Essentials, The Microhistories, and the Best of the New(ish). Here I’ll go over some paleontology favorites (All About Paleontology), some miscellaneous titles (Miscellany), some 100+ year-old bangers (Oldies but Goodies), and some favorite biographies (Biographies).
All About Paleontology
The Meaning of Fossils: Episodes in the History of Paleontology. Martin J. S. Rudwick.
* Another classic from Rudwick, this one comes properly advertised: it is an episodic history of paleontology spanning the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries
I’m sure I’ve written enough about Rudwick at this point. It’s enough to know that this was his first historical book and that some of his later books cover the same territory, especially Earth’s Deep History. Yes it’s old, but it’s still a good place to start for someone looking to learn more about the history of (especially invertebrate) paleontology.*
[* For more on the specific content of this book, check out this old post by Joyce Havstad]
Archetypes and Ancestors: Palaeontology in Victorian London 1850–1875. Adrian Desmond.
* A sparkling history of the larger-than-life personalities and antagonisms in mid-Victorian paleontology, with a focus on social and political entanglements
It’s been a while since I’ve read this one, but I still remember how I felt when I read it: totally absorbed by the drama and novelistic styling of it all. Desmond can really write. He has a nose for intrigue and a gift for showing how ideological commitments shape the kind of science that happens in a time and place: here, London in the decades before and after the publication of the Origin. And what an interesting time it was! As the title indicates, Archetypes and Ancestors is centrally concerned with the rivalry of Thomas Huxley and Richard Owen— the latter is given a more sympathetic treatment than was typical at the time; the former is stripped of some of his heroic sheen. But make no mistake: Huxley is the star here. (Even an Owen restored to respectability is pretty f-cking obnoxious.) Other people, like Robert Grant and Harry Seeley, make extended appearances, too. This one’s a gem, folks… I’ll have to read it again soon.
Rereading the Fossil Record: The Growth of Paleobiology as an Evolutionary Discipline. David Sepkoski.
* A lucid and revealing history of the so-called “paleobiological revolution” in the United States, ca. 1970–1985
I love this book. In fact, I was tempted to put it in my “Essentials” category, but I didn’t want to rob Peter (that is, the paleontology section) to pay Paul. Anyway, it’s really good and should be at the top of the reading list for anyone interested in the history of paleontology in the second half of the twentieth century.
David Sepkoski, of course, is the son of Jack Sepkoski, one of the book’s main characters. This makes the volume— in addition to being a crystal-clear account of an important period in the history of paleontology— a touching tribute to a man who died before his time. Jim Valentine’s paleoecology, Dave Raup’s computer simulations, the theory of punctuated equilibria, the MBL project, Sepkoski’s statistical paleontology, Gould’s rhetorical campaigns— they’re all here, and lots more besides. Essential reading. (You can find Joyce’s review here.)*
[* A bit of personal history. The first history and philosophy of science event I ever attended was an MBL-ASU History of Biology Seminar organized by David Sepkoski and John Beatty (“Perspectives on Stephen Jay Gould”). While I was there I met a young man named Derek Turner, who was about to launch the Extinct blog. I also met David, who was nice enough to share an electronic version of this book with me. It was one of the most exciting academic books I had ever read. David later served on my dissertation committee. Go buy his books.]
The Age of Mammals: Nature, Development and Paleontology in the Long Nineteenth Century. Chris Manias.
* An impressive history of vertebrate paleontology in the long nineteenth century that focuses on fossil mammals
This is another one I almost poached for Part 1 (“The Best of the New(ish).” For two reasons, mainly: (1) it’s new, and (2) it’s good. But it’s also long, which is why I decided to keep it here. This is a book for the paleontology die-hards. I reviewed it for Metascience, where I said the following:
The Age of Mammals is a difficult book to summarize. It is really several books in one: a global history of paleontology with a focus on institutions and colonial networks; an intellectual history of research on fossil mammals; and a contribution to the recent literature on the entanglement of science, extraction, and political authority. These “books” interbraid in complex ways over fifteen chapters, with different themes coming to the fore at different junctures. Early chapters explore the assembly and interpretation of great fossil collections by metropolitan savants and provincial climbers… later [Manias] treats the reader to detailed accounts of ostensibly peripheral scientists and institutions garnering status and influence: for example, by controlling access to important sites. There are excellent chapters on the contributions of paleontologists to evolutionary science; on the story of the horse; on the role of museums in preparing an image of the past for public consumption; and on the “ordering” of the extinct South American fauna. And interspersed with these are all manner of useful remarks, especially on the complicated relationship between paleontological science and colonial expansion and domination.
I also said this: “It is not easy to summarize The Age of Mammals but it is easy to recommend it. It is not just a corrective to the traditional focus on dinosaurs: it is a major historical accomplishment in its own right. It deserves a wide and enthusiastic readership.”
Show me the Bone: Reconstructing Prehistoric Monsters in Nineteenth-Century Britain and America. Gowan Dawson.
* A detailed, if somewhat uneven, exploration of Cuvier’s (in)famous boast and the reactions it elicited
Cuvier is sometimes said to have boasted that he could reconstruct an entire animal from a bone (or bone fragment). What he actually said was that he could identify the group to which an animal belonged on the basis of a single bone. Reasoning on the basis of the supposed “correlation of parts”— an animal with part A must also, as a matter of functional necessity, have part B, and so forth— Cuvier reconstructed past animals that no one had seen, and that came to him as a mere jumble of disarticulated parts. Or did he?
This book explores the background of Cuvier’s boast and its significance for paleontology’s standing as a fledgling discipline looking to gain respectability. It also explores its legacy, and the bitter attacks it provoked— most notably, the campaign launched by Huxley against the British champion of correlation, Owen. It’s a good read; Charles Dickens even shows up, unlikable as ever. And it includes some fascinating claims, like the claim that certain British evangelicals preferred Lamarck to Cuvier because only Lamarck’s system permitted animals to change their station after the Fall. (For Cuvier, no plant eater could have become a meat-eater without undergoing a comprehensive change of identity.) Check it out!*
[* Also, let me shout-out Dawson’s new book, Monkey to Man, which, although it’s not really about paleontology, is a beautifully wrought study of “march of progress” imagery).]
The Great Fossil Enigma: The Search for the Conodont Animal. Simon J. Knell.
* A detailed and exciting look at a first-class paleontological mystery: the identity of the conodont animal
Simon Knell is a social historian and museologist who has done some fabulously interesting work on early geological collecting in Great Britain (see below). Here he tackles a whopper of a paleontological enigma: what kind of animal did conodont elements belong to? If you don’t know, conodont elements are tooth-like fossils found in Paleozoic rocks, which are incredibly useful for stratigraphic correlation. But, like, what made them? This book traces a series of attempts to answer this question in a rich and entertaining narrative. It’s really terrific, and not just for conodont buffs.
MISCELLANY
From Mineralogy to Geology: The Foundations of a Science, 1650-1830. Rachel Laudan.
* A history of the consolidation of geology as a historical science with a focus on the chemical side of things
I’ll square with you: I struggled to figure out what to do with this one. I think it’s right to call it a classic; among other things, it was one of the works that helped restore the reputation of Abraham Gottlob Werner, a favorite punching bag of Charles Lyell and Archibald Geikie. It’s also strong on the chemical side of things, especially mineral taxonomy (and cosmogony!) in 18th century natural philosophy. And it contains a discussion of Lyell that I find useful— one that locates the core of his “uniformitarianism” in his adherence to the vera causa principle of Newton and Reid. But I don’t think it quite measures up to some of the books I listed in Part 1. Perhaps this just reflects my own relative disinterest in mineralogy (a personal failing). Anyway, it’s a good book, and one I take off my shelf fairly often.
An Agenda for Antiquity: Henry Fairfield Osborn and Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, 1890-1935. Ronald Rainger.
* A kinda-sorta biography of Henry Fairfield Osborn and the museum he ran, which reads like a stapler dissertation
This book is sometimes described as a biography of Henry Fairfield Osborn. But it isn’t, at least if a biography is a more-or-less continuous narrative history of a life. Better would be to call it a collection of research papers on Osborn and some of his close associates, especially the artist Charles Knight and the vertebrate paleontologists William Diller Matthew and William King Gregory.
I don’t blame Rainger for not writing a biography of Osborn— a proper book-length biography of Osborn sounds exhausting. I’d rather read what Rainger actually wrote: that is, a nuanced, multi-focal study of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the American Museum (and some other stuff, like the faculty of natural sciences at Princeton, where Osborn began his career).*
[* You probably know this, but Henry Fairfield Osborn sucked. Like, pttpph. For some reason, I can’t mention the guy without saying this. Also, he seems to have been a complete mediocrity as a scientist, despite having an ego the size of Manhattan. Zero stars.]
The Culture of English Geology, 1815-1851. Simon J. Knell.
* A book on the emergence of English geology that foregrounds the work of collectors
Actually, I think my one-line summary says it all. If that sounds fun to you— if you want to read a provincial history of early British geology: a history that explicitly de-centers London and its elite circle of gentlemanly amateurs (and you should!)— then check this one out.
Fossil legends of the First Americans. Adrienne Mayor
* A fascinating look at how Indigenous Americans interpreted the remains of past life
This is really a pre-history of paleontology as we usually conceptualize that field of study (although one aim of this book is to trouble that framing). And it’s wonderful. I’m going to outsource my remarks this time to my very favorite writer, David Quammen:
Adrienne Mayor is a wonderfully independent-minded scholar and a fine writer who works the edge lines between disciplines, where others don't go. She’s a brilliant researcher but never forgets about character and story. Give her a fossil or a legend, and she’ll supply flesh, blood, narrative, cultural context, and a smile. In this book she also delivers an important sense of justice.
HOUSE OF LOST WORLDS: DINOSAURS, DYNASTIES and the story of life on earth. Richard Conniff
* A breezy look at the history of Yale’s Peabody Museum, with an emphasis on paleontology
This was a last-minute, and perhaps an impulsive, addition to this list, since I just finished this book. But I really enjoyed it, so whatever. The book is a popular history of Yale’s Peabody Museum. It’s not a terribly detailed history— the narrative moves briskly and is sometimes a bit light on interpretation— but the quality of the writing is superb and the many photographs in the book are delightful to look at. My favorite chapter is the one on James Dwight Dana. File this one under “fun, easy reads.”
OLDIES BUT GOODIES
The Founders of Geology. Archibald Geikie.
* A heroes and villains account of the history of geology from one of the best prose stylists among British geologists
Is it a masterful bit of propaganda?* Yes, of course it is. Is it worth reading? Also, yes. Archibald Geikie was one of the great prose stylists among nineteenth (and early twentieth) century geologists, so this is an enjoyable read. It is also the book that coined the phrase “the present is the key to the past,” to describe the geological thought of James Hutton. For what that’s worth.
[* Propaganda for uniformitarian geology, specifically. Read the book here.]
The First One Hundred Years of Geology in America. George P. Merrill.
* Still the authoritative single volume treatment of the first hundred years of American geology
Sadly, George Merrill, long-time employee of the Smithsonian Institution, is not a delightful writer like Geikie. But he wrote the better of these two books, and it remains an incredibly valuable resource on the early development of American geology. Best read in installments.
[* Read it here.]
History of geology and palaeontology to the end of the nineteenth century. Karl Alfred von Zittel.
* A true history of geology classic, even a quarter of the way through the twenty-first century
My capsule description says most of what I have to say about this book. It’s long been seen as the best of the general histories of geology and paleontology to appear in the long nineteenth century. It’s not a page-turner, I’m afraid, but it remains a valuable resource even today.
[* Read it here.]
Some Biographies
Grove Karl Gilbert: A Great Engine of Research. Stephen Pyne.
For these, I’m just going to give you one sentence per book. Here it is for Pyne: A fabulously interesting biography of America’s greatest survey geologist, written by one of our best non-fiction writers.
Alfred Wegener. Mott T. Greene.
* The definitive biography of a much-misunderstood scientific icon, written with passion, grace, and intelligence.
A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell. Donald Worster.
* There are several biographies of Powell, including one by the Wallace Stegner, and I still think this one’s the best.
* * *
That’s all for now. Perhaps I will do another one of these later, focused on trade books, or something like that. Let me know if you’re interested.