David K. Randall

A competent enough look at some of the first palaeontologists active in the United States in the nineteenth century, and particularly how one man, Barnum Brown, was involved in the discovery of the Tyrannosaurus rex. David K. Randall has an eye for nuggets of detail, but he's neither a historian nor a particular expert in the topic he's talking about and it shows. It's the kind of book where for instance Randall is aware that Brown and his contemporaries were in part driven by certain ideas about masculinity, but he doesn't do anything with that observation beyond mentioning it and moving on.

Not mad I read it, but I wouldn't describe it as a must-read either.… (more)