{"title":"James A Secord","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"victorian-sensation-book-james-a-secord-9780226744100","title":"Victorian Sensation","description":"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. Thousands of 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. The book was banned, it was damned, it was hailed as the gospel for a new age. In this cultural history, James 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we watch as Charles Darwin turns its pages in the flea-ridden British Museum library, fearful for the fate of his own unpublished theory of evolution.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 40 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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49505531887889,"sku":"GOR003852205","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346904879377,"sku":"CIN0226744108G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53383450788113,"sku":"GOR014891417","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53395233898769,"sku":"GOR006563621","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0226744108.jpg?v=1751101837"},{"product_id":"victorian-sensation-book-james-a-secord-9780226744117","title":"Victorian Sensation","description":"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. Thousands of 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. The book was banned, it was damned, it was hailed as the gospel for a new age. In this cultural history, James 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 40 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.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49778439651601,"sku":"CIN0226744116G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49884273869073,"sku":"GOR006894969","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50410152689937,"sku":"CIN0226744116VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51797356216593,"sku":"GOR010769990","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0226744116.jpg?v=1751423301"},{"product_id":"visions-of-science-book-james-a-secord-9780226203287","title":"Visions of Science","description":"The first half of the nineteenth century witnessed an extraordinary transformation in British political, literary, and intellectual life. There was widespread social unrest, and debates raged regarding education, the lives of the working class, and the new industrial, machine-governed world. At the same time, modern science emerged in Europe in more or less its current form, as new disciplines and revolutionary concepts, including evolution and the vastness of geologic time, began to take shape. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In \u003ci\u003eVisions of Science\u003c\/i\u003e, James A. Secord offers a new way to capture this unique moment of change. He explores seven key books--among them Charles Babbage's \u003ci\u003eReflections on the Decline of Science\u003c\/i\u003e, Charles Lyell's \u003ci\u003ePrinciples of\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eGeology\u003c\/i\u003e, Mary Somerville's \u003ci\u003eConnexion of the Physical Sciences\u003c\/i\u003e, and Thomas Carlyle's \u003ci\u003eSartor Resartus\u003c\/i\u003e--and shows how literature that reflects on the wider meaning of science can be revelatory when granted the kind of close reading usually reserved for fiction and poetry. These books considered the meanings of science and its place in modern life, looking to the future, coordinating and connecting the sciences, and forging knowledge that would be appropriate for the new age. Their aim was often philosophical, but Secord shows it was just as often imaginative, projective, and practical: to suggest not only how to think about the natural world but also to indicate modes of action and potential consequences in an era of unparalleled change. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eVisions of Science\u003c\/i\u003e opens our eyes to how genteel ladies, working men, and the literary elite responded to these remarkable works. It reveals the importance of understanding the physical qualities of books and the key role of printers and publishers, from factories pouring out cheap compendia to fashionable publishing houses in London's West End. Secord's vivid account takes us to the heart of an information revolution that was to have profound consequences for the making of the modern world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51415599251729,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51415599874321,"sku":"CIN022620328XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/022620328X.jpg?v=1750779539"},{"product_id":"controversy-in-victorian-geology-book-james-a-secord-9780691024417","title":"Controversy in Victorian Geology","description":"Secord gives a dazzlingly detailed account of this scientific trench warfare and its social consequences. One ends up with a marvellous feeling for the major taxonomic enterprises in Darwin's younger day: mapping, ordering, conquering 'taming the chaos\" of the strata. All of these of course had social and imperial ramifications; and Secord mentions geology's moral appeal (in supporting a divinely-stratified Creation) to a beleaguered elite intent on subduing the lower orders.  Originally published in 1986.  The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52100114972945,"sku":"GOR014461918","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780691024417.jpg?v=1757088441"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-james-a-secord.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}