Making Deep History: Zeal, Perseverance, and the Time Revolution of 1859
Making Deep History: Zeal, Perseverance, and the Time Revolution of 1859
The time revolution of 1859 changed forever the relationship between humans and time. In the space of a calendar year, and at a furious pace, the belief that all human history could be fitted into 6,000 years was shattered. The evidence for such a fundamental change was small, handheld stone tools found in the gravel quarries of the Somme among the bones of ancient animals. The task facing the antiquarian and the geologist was formidable. The tools had to be accepted as artificial and their association with extinct animals demonstrated beyond doubt. The successful proof, made on 27 April 1859, opened up ‘a vast lapse of ages’ for human history and led Charles Darwin to declare it ‘the most interesting subject which Geology has turned up for many a long year’. This book explores the time revolution through the Victorian world of two businessmen and a banker: John Evans, Joseph Prestwich, and John Lubbock. It draws in their sisters, wives and households and their scientific collaborators—Darwin, Falconer, Lyell, Huxley, and the French antiquary Boucher de Perthes. It tells the story of the time revolution through chapters devoted to the day, month, year, and decade. This chronology drives the narrative forward using the words and pictures of the principals. A direction emerges with each chronological step from discovery to presentation, reception, consolidation, and widespread acceptance of their case.
Gamble, Clive
1cbd0b26-ddac-4dc2-9cf7-59c66d06103a
March 2021
Gamble, Clive
1cbd0b26-ddac-4dc2-9cf7-59c66d06103a
Gamble, Clive
(2021)
Making Deep History: Zeal, Perseverance, and the Time Revolution of 1859
,
Oxford University Press, 306pp.
Abstract
The time revolution of 1859 changed forever the relationship between humans and time. In the space of a calendar year, and at a furious pace, the belief that all human history could be fitted into 6,000 years was shattered. The evidence for such a fundamental change was small, handheld stone tools found in the gravel quarries of the Somme among the bones of ancient animals. The task facing the antiquarian and the geologist was formidable. The tools had to be accepted as artificial and their association with extinct animals demonstrated beyond doubt. The successful proof, made on 27 April 1859, opened up ‘a vast lapse of ages’ for human history and led Charles Darwin to declare it ‘the most interesting subject which Geology has turned up for many a long year’. This book explores the time revolution through the Victorian world of two businessmen and a banker: John Evans, Joseph Prestwich, and John Lubbock. It draws in their sisters, wives and households and their scientific collaborators—Darwin, Falconer, Lyell, Huxley, and the French antiquary Boucher de Perthes. It tells the story of the time revolution through chapters devoted to the day, month, year, and decade. This chronology drives the narrative forward using the words and pictures of the principals. A direction emerges with each chronological step from discovery to presentation, reception, consolidation, and widespread acceptance of their case.
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Published date: March 2021
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Local EPrints ID: 476032
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/476032
PURE UUID: 3a3be14c-69e1-4ba9-8872-dd3fbe71efa6
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Date deposited: 04 Apr 2023 16:53
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 01:12
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