The Heyday of Natural History

Breezy, approachable overview of popular biology and biologists in the mid-19th century. Barber identifies the craze for natural history amongst the public, and blames its demise on the professionalisation and specialisation of science, plus the challenge to religion raised by Darwinism. I'm not sure I buy the thesis completely, but the book has excellent one-chapter summaries of figures like Gosse, Owen, and Miller – the latter an enormously influential self-made geologist now totally obscure.

Something of a lost classic, although written over 30 years ago its reads as fresh and new as yesterday. Opened my eyes to an aspect of Victorian popular culture that is a constant in the background and here well explained. The first few chapters are a great overview of how the craze for natural history came about in the 1820s and how it manifested (collecting shells, ferns, aquariums, etc). This is followed by mini-biographies of some of the more significant naturalists and their works (most of whom are curiously eccentric), and finally ending with the Darwin debates which changed the field from a gentleman's hobby to a specialized science. An important book for understanding an aspect of 19th century popular culture, as well as needed show more context for anything about Darwin or science in the 19th century. Beautifully produced with color plates and illustrations on almost every page. show less