Materials of the Mind: Phrenology, Race, and the Global History of Science, 1815-1920

This is not only the first global history of nineteenth-century science but the first global history of phrenology.

Phrenology was the most popular mental science of the Victorian age. From American senators to Indian social reformers, this new mental science found supporters around the globe. Materials of the Mind tells the story of how phrenology changed the world—and how the world changed phrenology.

This is a story of skulls from the Arctic, plaster casts from Haiti, books from Bengal,...