Description: The rise of the mass media and professional science make the late-nineteenth century an important formative period in the history of popular science. In this lively and provocative book, Peter Broks combines history with media studies and reverses the dominant view of popularization - looking for science in what was popular rather than popularity in what was science. What was most popular were the new-style, mass-circulation magazines. Exploring this rich source of untapped material, the book uncovers the scientist as hero and villain; science for and against religion; animal biographies and a new empathy with nature; technology as evolutionary progress; utopian visions and degenerationist fears; Victorian hopes and Edwardian disillusion. Arguing that the magazines were a cultural space encompassing the scientific and the popular, Peter Broks addresses current concerns over the public understanding of science and calls for a science that is both popular and democratic.

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