Originally published in 1844, Vestiges sparked one of the great intellectual controversies of the century. Integrating research in anthropology, geology, astronony, biology, economics, and chemistry, it was the first attempt to connect the natural sciences into a history of creation. The author, whose identity was not revealed until 1884, was Robert Chambers (1802-71), a leading Scottish writer and publisher. Vestiges reached a huge popular audience in Europe and America and was widely read by the social and intellectual elite. It fostered debate about natural law, setting the stage for the controversy over Darwin's Origin. In response to criticism, Chambers published Explanations: A Sequel, which offered a reasoned defense of his ideas about progressive development, castigating what he saw as the narrowness of specialist science. This volume, which also includes Chambers's earliest cosmological writings, a bibliography of reviews, and a comprehensive new index, illuminates the changing meanings of science and religion in the Victorian era and the rise of secular ideologies in Western culture. -- from back cover.

First published in 1975. This study examines one of the popular scientific philosophies of the nineteenth-century. The first part deals with the reception and diffusion of phrenology in Britain, its usefulness to various professions, and its challenge to traditional religion. The second part considers the application of phrenology in two separate social movements: prison reform and national education. This title will be of interest to students of history and philosophy.

Fiction or philosophy, profound knowledge or shocking heresy? When Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation was published anonymously in 1844, it sparked one of the greatest sensations of the Victorian era. More than a hundred thousand readers were spellbound by its startling vision—an account of the world that extended from the formation of the solar system to the spiritual destiny of humanity. As gripping as a popular novel, Vestiges combined all the current scientific theories in fields ranging from astronomy and geology to psychology and economics. The book was banned, it was damned, it was hailed as the gospel for a new age. This is where our own public controversies about evolution began. In a pioneering cultural history, James A. Secord uses the story of Vestiges to create a panoramic portrait of life in the early industrial era from the perspective of its readers. We join apprentices in a factory town as they debate the consequences of an evolutionary ancestry. We listen as Prince Albert reads aloud to Queen Victoria from a book that preachers denounced as blasphemy vomited from the mouth of Satan. And we watch as Charles Darwin turns its pages in the flea-ridden British Museum library, fearful for the fate of his own unpublished theory of evolution. Using secret letters, Secord reveals how Vestiges was written and how the anonymity of its author was maintained for forty years. He also takes us behind the scenes to a bustling world of publishers, printers, and booksellers to show how the furor over the book reflected the emerging industrial economy of print. Beautifully written and based on painstaking research, Victorian Sensation offers a new approach to literary history, the history of reading, and the history of science. Profusely illustrated and full of fascinating stories, it is the most comprehensive account of the making and reception of a book (other than the Bible) ever attempted. Winner of the 2002 Pfizer Award from the History of Science Society