Revolutions in the Earth: James Hutton and the True Age of the World - Softcover

Baxter, Stephen

3.76

17 ratings by Goodreads

9780753817612: Revolutions in the Earth: James Hutton and the True Age of the World

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753817616 ISBN 13: 9780753817612

Publisher: Phoenix, 2004

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In 1650, the theologian and scholar Bishop James Ussher announced that the world was created on 23rd October 4004 BC. This date had been carefully calculated by adding together all the ages and reigns of the monarchs recorded in the Bible. In the late eighteenth century, James Hutton set out to prove him wrong.

A gentleman farmer with legal and medical training, Hutton was fascinated by the natural landscape and in particular by rock formations. He was also surrounded by some of the most brilliant men of his day - Erasmus Darwin, Adam Smith, James Watt and David Hume. Looking at the irregular strata in the layers of the earth, Hutton deduced that the world must be much, much older than Ussher's prediction. His revelation was blasphemy - but it was also one of the most extraordinary defining moments in history, forming the framework for Darwin's theory of evolution, and shaping our modern

view of the world and our place in it.

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Review:

We are setting a late June press date for this title, and have already confirmed - appearance at the Edinburgh Festival. The author has been involved in several public awareness projects connected with the June 2 lift off of the British Mars spaceprobe Beagle 2, and as he says "If there is life on Mars it must be part of a planetary biosphere, a Martian 'Gaia'. Beagle 2 will look for Mars's Gaia, for example by studying its atmosphere. Hutton's theory of the Earth was based on ideas of a living, self-sustaining planet remarkably like modern 'Gaia' ideas, 200 years ahead of their time. Hutton would surely have been thrilled to see Beagle 2 journeying to test these ideas on a new world." More news on reviews - which include NEW SCIENTIST - and interviews to foll

Book Description:

Compelling biography of the controversial founder of modern geology. Like Mercator, this is a fascinating portrait of a man beyond his time.

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