The new science of geology. Studies in the Earth sciences in the age of revolution / Новые науки о земле. Исследование в Науках о Земле в эпоху революций

This volume reproduces some of my published articles on the history of the natural sciences. I have used three criteria in making the selection. First, all these articles focus on the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries – or on what political historians often call “the age of revolution” – although a few range over a longer timespan. Second, all of them deal with the area of natural knowledge that at just this time was being transformed into the science of “geology”. And third, these articles seem to have stood the test of time, in that they continue to be cited by historians and geologists and to be used in teaching, and I continue to be asked for offprints of them. This brief introduction summarizes their contents and explains the relations between them; it is followed by brief notes on the circumstances in which they were written and published, and a bibliography giving full details of all the books and articles mentioned. Most of the articles are reproduced here exactly as they were published, with their original pagination, to facilitate citation etc.; a few have had to be reset to ensure legibility, but are unchanged in wording (except that a few citations have been brought up to date). <...>