| Description |
247 pages : map ; 24 cm |
|
text txt rdacontent |
|
unmediated n rdamedia |
|
volume nc rdacarrier |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-228) and index. |
| Contents |
Looking So Far Into the Abyss of Time -- First Came Adam and Eve, Then Came Cain and Abel ... -- Auld Reekie -- The Storm Before the Calm -- Youthful Wanderings -- The Paradox of the Soil -- The Athens of the North -- The Eureka Moments -- Hutton's Boswell's -- The Huttonian Revolution. |
| Summary |
"There are four men whose contributions helped free science from the straightjacket of theology. Three of the four - Nicholas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei, and Charles Darwin - are widely known and heralded for their breakthroughs. The fourth, James Hutton, has never received the same recognition, yet he profoundly changed our understanding of the earth and its dynamic forces. Hutton proved that the earth was likely millions of years old rather than the biblically determined six thousand, and that it was continuously being shaped and re-shaped by myriad everyday forces rather than just one cataclysmic event." "In this narrative, Jack Repcheck tells the remarkable story of this Scottish gentleman farmer, and how his simple observations on a small tract of land led him to a controversial - some would say heretical - theory. Yet it was Hutton's work that ultimately made Darwin's theory of evolution possible: Man simply could not have evolved from apes, or apes from more distant ancestors, in a mere six thousand years." "The Man Who Found Time is also the story of Scotland and the Scottish Enlightenment, which brought together some of the greatest thinkers of the age - from David Hume and Adam Smith to James Watt and Erasmus Darwin. Through an intricate network of informal salons and social clubs, these "natural philosophers" created a rich intellectual milieu that served as an incubator for Hutton's nascent ideas, helping transform them into a robust and coherent theory." "Finally, this is a story about the power of the written words. Jack Repcheck, himself a champion of books, argues that Hutton's work was almost lost to history because he was unable to describe his findings in graceful and readable prose: Unlike Darwin's Origin of the Species, Hutton's one and only book was impenetrable."--BOOK JACKET. |
| Subject |
Hutton, James, 1726-1797.
|
|
Hutton, James, 1726-1797. (OCoLC)fst00064548
|
|
Geologists -- Scotland -- Biography.
|
|
Geology -- History.
|
|
Geologists. (OCoLC)fst00940615
|
|
Geology. (OCoLC)fst00940627
|
|
Scotland. (OCoLC)fst01206715
|
| Genre/Form |
Biographies. (OCoLC)fst01919896
|
|
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
|
| ISBN |
073820692X |
|
9780738206929 |
|
