The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science: Phrenology and the Organization of Consent in Nineteenth-Century BritainThis study of the popularity of phrenology in the second quarter of the nineteenth century concentrates on the social and ideological functions of science during the consolidation of urban industrial society. It is influenced by Foucault, by recent work in the history and sociology of science, by critical theory, and by cultural anthropology. The author analyses the impact of science on Victorian society across a spectrum from the intellectual establishment to working-class freethinkers and Owenite socialists. In doing so he provides the first extended treatment of the place and role of science among working-class radicals. The book also challenges attempts to establish neat demarcations between scientific ideas and their philosophical, theological and social contexts. |
Contents
HISTORIOGRAPHY | 13 |
I | 30 |
SCIENCE AND SOCIAL INTERESTS | 37 |
3 | 43 |
POPULAR SCIENCE | 99 |
Secular Methodism | 167 |
RADICAL APPROPRIATION AND CRITIQUE | 199 |
On standing socialism on its head | 224 |
public lecturers on phrenology | 272 |
Notes | 301 |
134 | 312 |
169 | 349 |
Manuscript sources and public documents | 392 |
411 | |
416 | |
Conclusion | 256 |
Other editions - View all
The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science: Phrenology and the Organization of ... Roger Cooter No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
Andrew Combe artisans Birmingham bourgeois brain Britain Carlile Carlile's cerebral Chapter Charles Chartist Christian Combe's Constitution contributed to Phren Craniology Culture doctrine E. P. Thompson Edin Edinburgh edition Education Elliotson England Epps Essays faculties Forster freethought Gall and Spurzheim Gall's George Combe Gibbon Glasgow Hist History Holyoake human ibid idem Ideology Inkster Inst Institute intellectual interest in phrenology Isaac Ironside James John John Elliotson John Epps Journal knowledge Lancet lectured on phrenology Lit & Phil Liverpool London MacKenzie Manch Manchester Mechanics medicine mental mesmerism mind moral nature Newcastle nineteenth century ologists ology organs Owen Owen's Owenite Philosophy Phren phreno-mesmerism Phrenological Society Physiology popular practical psychology radical rational reform religion repr Richard Richard Carlile Robert Robert Owen scientific Shapin Sheffield social surgeon Thomas Victorian views William Zoist