Scientific Americans: The Making of Popular Science and Evolution in Early-twentieth-century U.S. Literature and Culture (Intersections in Literature and Science) - Hardcover

Bruni, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1783160179 ISBN 13: 9781783160174

Publisher: University of Wales Press, 2014

Synopsis

Demonstrating the timely relevance of Theodore Dreiser, Edith Wharton, Jack London and Henry Adams, this book shows how debates about evolution, identity, and a shifting world picture have uncanny parallels with the emerging global systems that shape our own lives. Tracing these systems' take-off point in the early twentieth century through the lens of popular science journalism, John Bruni makes a valuable contribution to the study of how biopolitical control over life created boundaries among races, classes, genders and species. Rather than accept that these writers get their scientific ideas about evolution second-hand, filtered through a social Darwinist ideology, this study argues that they actively determine what evolution means. Furthermore, the book, examines the ecological concerns that naturalist narratives reflect - such as land and water use, waste management, and environmental pollution - previously unaddressed in a book-length study.

About this title

About the Author

John Bruni teaches at Grand Valley State University. He writes about biopolitical and ecological issues in literary narratives and contemporary film.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Wales Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1783160179
• ISBN 13: 9781783160174
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272