Richard Owen: Biology without Darwin

by Nicolaas A. Rupke

Overview

In the mid-1850s, no scientist in the British Empire was more visible than Richard Owen. Mentioned in the same breath as Isaac Newton and championed as Britain’s answer to France’s Georges Cuvier and Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt, Owen was, as the Times declared in 1856, the most “distinguished man of science in the country.” But, a century and a half later, Owen remains largely obscured by the shadow of the most famous Victorian naturalist of all, Charles Darwin. Publicly marginalized by his contemporaries for his critique of natural selection, Owen suffered personal attacks that undermined his credibility long after his name faded from history.

With this innovative biography, Nicolaas A. Rupke resuscitates Owen’s reputation. Arguing that Owen should no longer be judged by the evolution dispute that figured in  only a minor part of his work, Rupke stresses context, emphasizing the importance of places and practices in the production and reception of scientific knowledge. Dovetailing with the recent resurgence of interest in Owen’s life and work, Rupke’s book brings the forgotten naturalist back into the canon of the history of science and demonstrates how much biology existed with, and without, Darwin

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226731773
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	09/15/2009
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Nicolaas Rupke is professor of the history of science at Göttingen University and the author of Alexander von Humboldt: A Metabiography, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chronology
A Note on Citation
 
1 Introduction: PersonalityMatters
Blackened Bronze
Portraits and Caricatures
The Rehabilitation of Owen
 
2 Museum Politics
The Museum Movement
Attempted Hijack of the Hunterian Museum
Move to the British Museum
By Word of Mouth
The Road to Albertopolis
Reform of Museum Management
Conflict with the Darwinians
Doing the Work of Empire
Australian Possessions
 
3 Gothic Designs
Oxbridge Patronage
London Clubs
Functionalist Dictates
The British Cuvier
Monster Models
Museum Icons
Parting Company with Lyell
 
4 The Vertebrate Blueprint
A Metropolitan Scientific Culture
The Great Executor
The Lure of Naturphilosophie
An Edinburgh Diaspora
In the Shadow of the Archetype
Not a Platonic Idea
From Archetype to Ancestor
 
5 Eclipsed by Darwin
Toward a Natural Origin of Species
Modes of Evolution
Evolution in Disguise
The BAAS Address of 1858
Clash with Darwin
Post-Origin Clarity
The Derivative Hypothesis of 1868
A Copernican Analogy
 
6 Cerebral Constructs
Contrasting the Frames of Apes and Humans
Delineating the Cerebral Divide
The Hippocampus Controversy Begins: Oxford
The Hippocampus Controversy Broadens: Manchester
The Hippocampus Controversy Culminates: Cambridge
Outflanked by Huxley
 
7 Frames of Mind
In Owen’s Defense
Glowing Rivalries
Public Perception of the Owen-Huxley Joust
Men, Monkeys, and Mind
Owen on the Mind-Body Problem
The Du Chaillu Affair
Owen’s “Ministry of Truth”
 
Appendix: Anatomy of Owen’s Scientific Oeuvre
Notes
Bibliography
Index
 

Editorial Reviews

"One of the many strengths of Rupke's impressive book is the way in which the institutional framework is convincingly integrated with the style and content of Owen's science. . . . This is carefully documented, exciting, and convincing history."

Metascience

"A marvellous achievement. . . . Owen comes into clearer focus than ever before. . . . Rupke does us great service in restoring parts of the Victorian world usually neglected in favour of the quest for origins."

TLS - Janet Browne

"Riveting. In relating bitter Victorian debates Rupke shows how science affected great social and religious questions still urgently relevant today."

Financial Times

"Riveting. In relating bitter Victorian debates Rupke shows how science affected great social and religious questions still urgently relevant today."

Financial Times

"A marvellous achievement. . . . Owen comes into clearer focus than ever before. . . . Rupke does us great service in restoring parts of the Victorian world usually neglected in favour of the quest for origins."-Janet Browne, Times Literary Supplement

— Janet Browne

TLS

Owen (1804-1892) was Britain's foremost comparative anatomist and vertebrate paleontologist, and founder of London's Natural History Museum; however, as the most renowned opponent of natural selection, he became the bete noire of the Darwinian evolution debate. In this comprehensive intellectual and scientific biography, Rupke (history of medicine, U. of Gottingen) argues that Owen was no simple-minded anti-evolutionist and, moreover, should be freed from the distortion of the evolution dispute that was only a minor part of his work, yet has come to dominate his memory. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews