Reading the Rocks

How Victorian Geologists Discovered the Secret of Life

Brenda Maddox

A rich and exuberant group biography of the early geologists, the people who were first to excavate from the layers of the world its buried history.

The birth of geology was fostered initially by gentlemen whose wealth supported their interests, but in the nineteenth century, it was advanced by clergymen, academics, and women whose findings expanded the field. Reading the Rocksbrings to life this eclectic cast of characters who brought passion, eccentricity, and towering intellect to the discovery of how Earth was formed.
Geology opened a window on the planet's ancient past. Contrary to the Book of Genesis, the rocks and fossils dug up showed that Earth was immeasurably old. Moreover, fossil evidence revealed progressive changes in life forms. It is no coincidence that Charles Darwin was a keen geologist.
Acclaimed biographer and science writer Brenda Maddox's story goes beyond William Smith, the father of English geology; Charles Lyell, the father of modern geology; and James Hutton, whose analysis of rock layers unveiled what is now called "deep time." She also explores the livesof fossil hunter Mary Anning, the Reverend William Buckland, Darwin, and many others--their triumphs and disappointments, and the theological, philosophical, and scientific debates their findings provoked. Reading the Rocks illustrates in absorbing and revelatory details how this group of early geologists changed irrevocably our understanding of the world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• By the Same Author
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• 1 The Abyss of Time
• 2 Healthful Exertion
• 3 Down the Mines
• 4 Vestiges of Paternity
• 5 Fighting Fellows
• 6 Dating the Deluge
• 7 On the Beach
• 8 Dinosaur Wars
• 9 Celibacy Galore
• 10 From Siluria to the Moon
• 11 Alps on Alps Arise
• 12 Darwin the Geologist
• 13 The Iceman Cometh
• 14 Footprints in Pennsylvania
• 15 At Last, the Big Question
• 16 Origin of Origin
• 17 The Whole Orang
• 18 Museum Pieces
• 19 Then and Now
• Notes
• Select Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• Index
• A Note on the Author
• Images
• Copyright Page