This meticulously researched book brings to attention a cadre of all-but-forgotten writers who, in the nineteenth century, brought new understandings of the natural world to Victorian readers. Given its content, this book has a canny subtitle. Darwin and others challenged the idea of the designed universe and demanded new models of understanding Christian teachings that were compatible with observations of natural phenomena. If we look now to Darwin as our source of scientific ideas from the nineteenth century, our predecessors, at least among the lay public, looked to numerous writers of popular works in which emerging ideas in science were interpreted, often with a gloss of religion, as the Anglican church attempted to retain its explanatory authority in the lives of ordinary people.

Lightman’s scholarship is impressive. Many of the figures he discusses have themselves been the subject of biographies and biographical writings and so there is a considerable amount of published work to be appraised. Other figures have received little or no attention, and here Lightman has scoured primary sources and other material to record the work of writers we would otherwise never hear of. The sheer number of contributors to the genre of nineteenth century science writing is daunting. Not only that, but some were prolific authors, and their focus changed over the course of their lives. The cover notes state that the lives of more than thirty popularizers are covered, but this is clearly only the major lives: the total is a lot more than that. Lightman notes in the acknowledgments that the book represents fifteen years work, and this comes as no surprise, as each chapter is packed with facts and discussion.

Victorian Popularizers of Science is as intriguing for its documentation of the social history of science as well as its analysis of the literary efforts of the popularizers. While there were plenty who wrote as a pastime, there were others who made a career and income from bringing science to a popular audience. The income could be tenuous; Lightman recounts many tales of hardship among even the most popular writers. But the potential rewards were sufficient to attract many to the field. Most names have been forgotten, and their work is now only of historical interest, but brought to life by Lightman they are intriguing figures. They were driven by diverse motives, and at times had to act strategically so as to avoid giving offence to the scientific establishment or to church authorities. There was writing to appeal to women and children, often told in the form of narratives, where the author takes a nature walk and comments on flowers, animals, insects and other natural phenomena, usually within a religious frame. Church figures attempted to reconcile science with religion, often expressing religious awe at scientific discoveries, but reserving a place for creationism in bringing such wonders into being. There was also a good deal of disputatious writing, where professional reputations were at risk.

Comprising eight substantive chapters and a conclusion, Victorian Popularizers of Science recounts institutional and personal conflicts, early feminism, the emergence of the steam press and other printing technologies, and the origins of our current academic literature in journals such as Nature. Chapter one provides an overview, and it is immediately apparent that Lightman takes historiographical method as seriously as the specific topic. There is a rationale for why different publications are considered influential, a review of previous approaches, and an outline of popular science writing prior to the period of Lightman’s study. Chambers’ Vestiges is given as a starting point, a book whose publisher understood the multiple influences on publishing and who prepared the way for the popularizers to come. Chapter Two covers Anglican theologies after Darwin, and has interesting parallels to current debates about creationism. The “maternal tradition” is the subject of Chapter Three and here we learn of women popularizers, mostly self-taught as far as science was concerned, and whose writing was shaped as much by the expected roles of women as by their scientific interests. Not all were so constrained though, and this chapter is interesting as a case study of the variety within different popularizing traditions. Chapter Four explores visual popularizers, the showmen like Pepper and Wood who put on displays and public performances as their main medium of bringing science to the lives of the non-scientific public. In Chapter Six the “Evolutionary Epic” is described; that grand narrative by which our own form and time are seen in a vast time scale. The science periodical (Chapter Seven) outlines the struggle for control of popular outlets, and sheds light on the politics of science publication. The figure of Huxley looms large in this chapter, but even larger in Chapter Seven, when practitioners of science began to reverse their positions on publication and to assert control of scientific publications. Continuities and discontinuities are covered in Chapter Eight as new writers enter the field, and the role of practitioners as authors becomes more prominent. The concluding chapter provides an overview tracing the most significant publications and their sales.

Victorian Popularizers of Science will appeal to a broad audience. Those interested current popularizing by figures like Richard Dawkins will be intrigued by the parallels with our own time, those with an interest in social history will find that Lightman has done them a great service by bringing together such a large body of work in a single volume. Finally, those who simply want to read a well written book about a fascinating period in science will find Lightman’s work appealing for its clarity of prose and wealth of detail.

© 2009 Tony O’Brien

Tony O’Brien RN, MPhil, Senior Lecturer, Mental Health Nursing, University of Auckland

Keywords: science, history