Mathew Thomson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199287802
- eISBN:
- 9780191713378
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287802.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter argues that education was a key arena for spreading the influence of psychology. This is not a novel view, but it is argued that too much emphasis has been placed on the role of ...
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This chapter argues that education was a key arena for spreading the influence of psychology. This is not a novel view, but it is argued that too much emphasis has been placed on the role of psychology in mental testing and child guidance as a tool of regulation, and too little on its significance for a more progressive pedagogy. It is argued that the latter reached well beyond the pioneering activities of figures like Montessori, the Russells, and A. S. Neill, and highlights the excitement about psychology among teachers exposed to the new ideas through teacher training. The role of psychological advice in childcare is considered, downplaying the influence of behaviourism and highlighting the ambivalence of psychologists towards popularization.Less
This chapter argues that education was a key arena for spreading the influence of psychology. This is not a novel view, but it is argued that too much emphasis has been placed on the role of psychology in mental testing and child guidance as a tool of regulation, and too little on its significance for a more progressive pedagogy. It is argued that the latter reached well beyond the pioneering activities of figures like Montessori, the Russells, and A. S. Neill, and highlights the excitement about psychology among teachers exposed to the new ideas through teacher training. The role of psychological advice in childcare is considered, downplaying the influence of behaviourism and highlighting the ambivalence of psychologists towards popularization.
Gowan Dawson
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226332734
- eISBN:
- 9780226332871
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226332871.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In the nineteenth century paleontologists claimed that, from just a single bone, they could identify and sometimes even reconstruct previously unknown prehistoric creatures. Such extraordinary ...
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In the nineteenth century paleontologists claimed that, from just a single bone, they could identify and sometimes even reconstruct previously unknown prehistoric creatures. Such extraordinary displays of predictive reasoning were accomplished through the law of correlation, which proposed that each element of an animal corresponds mutually with all the others. Although this law, which was pivotal in the development of the new science of paleontology, was formulated by Georges Cuvier amidst the tumult of post-revolutionary Paris, it was in Britain and America that it took particular hold. Paleontologists such as Richard Owen were heralded as scientific wizards who could resurrect the extinct denizens of the ancient past from merely a glance at a fragmentary bone. Show Me the Bone examines the distinctive anglophone engagement with Cuvier’s renowned method of reconstruction across the whole of the long nineteenth century. It considers how the law of correlation was successively repackaged by different audiences, including those across the Atlantic and in the furthest outposts of the British Empire, and was used for diverse and often contradictory purposes. Even after the law of correlation had been decisively refuted by Thomas Henry Huxley and other expert practitioners in the 1850s, claims about Cuvier’s unerring and almost prophetic powers continued to circulate in works of science popularization as well as in fiction and poetry. The remarkable afterlife of Cuvier’s famous law had important consequences both for the cultural authority of scientific naturalism and the development of paleontology in the late nineteenth century.Less
In the nineteenth century paleontologists claimed that, from just a single bone, they could identify and sometimes even reconstruct previously unknown prehistoric creatures. Such extraordinary displays of predictive reasoning were accomplished through the law of correlation, which proposed that each element of an animal corresponds mutually with all the others. Although this law, which was pivotal in the development of the new science of paleontology, was formulated by Georges Cuvier amidst the tumult of post-revolutionary Paris, it was in Britain and America that it took particular hold. Paleontologists such as Richard Owen were heralded as scientific wizards who could resurrect the extinct denizens of the ancient past from merely a glance at a fragmentary bone. Show Me the Bone examines the distinctive anglophone engagement with Cuvier’s renowned method of reconstruction across the whole of the long nineteenth century. It considers how the law of correlation was successively repackaged by different audiences, including those across the Atlantic and in the furthest outposts of the British Empire, and was used for diverse and often contradictory purposes. Even after the law of correlation had been decisively refuted by Thomas Henry Huxley and other expert practitioners in the 1850s, claims about Cuvier’s unerring and almost prophetic powers continued to circulate in works of science popularization as well as in fiction and poetry. The remarkable afterlife of Cuvier’s famous law had important consequences both for the cultural authority of scientific naturalism and the development of paleontology in the late nineteenth century.
Marianne Sommer
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226347325
- eISBN:
- 9780226349879
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226349879.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The book deals with human histories that have been reconstructed on the basis of bones, organisms, and molecules in the twentieth century. It focuses on the work of Henry Fairfield Osborn, Julian ...
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The book deals with human histories that have been reconstructed on the basis of bones, organisms, and molecules in the twentieth century. It focuses on the work of Henry Fairfield Osborn, Julian Sorell Huxley, and Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza in paleoanthropology, evolutionary biology, and human population genetics. Besides following the history of science, it is an analysis of the circulation of knowledge at the museum, the zoo, the media through organizations such as UNESCO, and projects like the Human Genome Diversity Project and the Genographic Project. The book illuminates the ways in which evolutionary perspectives informed other scholarly and scientific disciplines, areas from national and international politics to literature and art, and how have they been adapted by individual readers and visitors to their own purposes, ‘identities’, and orientations in life. The knowledge the protagonists created not only impacted ideas about imperialism, colonialism, (inter-)nationalism, or totalitarianism, but also interfered with notions of race, ethnicity, and gender. Central to their totalizing projects was the collection, preservation, analysis, and management of bones, organisms, and molecules at museums, and other kinds of cultural diversity, in national parks, and databanks, has been a concern. With Huxley’s science, popularization, and public work at UNESCO and conservation organizations, concepts such as diversity, trusteeship, heritage, applied ecology, and evolutionary humanism gained in currency. All three protagonists also worked with particular understandings of ‘memory’, as related to heredity or as the store of cultural knowledge, and they worked toward what they believed to be progress human evolution.Less
The book deals with human histories that have been reconstructed on the basis of bones, organisms, and molecules in the twentieth century. It focuses on the work of Henry Fairfield Osborn, Julian Sorell Huxley, and Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza in paleoanthropology, evolutionary biology, and human population genetics. Besides following the history of science, it is an analysis of the circulation of knowledge at the museum, the zoo, the media through organizations such as UNESCO, and projects like the Human Genome Diversity Project and the Genographic Project. The book illuminates the ways in which evolutionary perspectives informed other scholarly and scientific disciplines, areas from national and international politics to literature and art, and how have they been adapted by individual readers and visitors to their own purposes, ‘identities’, and orientations in life. The knowledge the protagonists created not only impacted ideas about imperialism, colonialism, (inter-)nationalism, or totalitarianism, but also interfered with notions of race, ethnicity, and gender. Central to their totalizing projects was the collection, preservation, analysis, and management of bones, organisms, and molecules at museums, and other kinds of cultural diversity, in national parks, and databanks, has been a concern. With Huxley’s science, popularization, and public work at UNESCO and conservation organizations, concepts such as diversity, trusteeship, heritage, applied ecology, and evolutionary humanism gained in currency. All three protagonists also worked with particular understandings of ‘memory’, as related to heredity or as the store of cultural knowledge, and they worked toward what they believed to be progress human evolution.
Terence Cave
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199604807
- eISBN:
- 9780191731624
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199604807.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
This chapter opens with novels by Mme de Staël and George Sand featuring women singers, together with a thematic opposition between north and south. Xavier Marmier’s description of Mignon as a ...
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This chapter opens with novels by Mme de Staël and George Sand featuring women singers, together with a thematic opposition between north and south. Xavier Marmier’s description of Mignon as a fragile, ethereal being is then shown to inaugurate a popular image which is typecast in Ary Scheffer’s widely distributed pictures, perpetuated in Saint-Germain’s sentimental Catholic novel Mignon, and endorsed in Ambroise Thomas’s enormously successful opera. Mid-century lyric poetry (Nerval and Baudelaire) also carries an important memory of Mignon. The Mignon craze that swept through French culture of the late nineteenth century is traced through popular dramas and novels; however, a strand of parody apparent in Balzac’s Modeste Mignon is seen to recur in Zola’s Nana, and Mignon’s name is associated with corruption and sexual abjection in a number of fictions of this era.Less
This chapter opens with novels by Mme de Staël and George Sand featuring women singers, together with a thematic opposition between north and south. Xavier Marmier’s description of Mignon as a fragile, ethereal being is then shown to inaugurate a popular image which is typecast in Ary Scheffer’s widely distributed pictures, perpetuated in Saint-Germain’s sentimental Catholic novel Mignon, and endorsed in Ambroise Thomas’s enormously successful opera. Mid-century lyric poetry (Nerval and Baudelaire) also carries an important memory of Mignon. The Mignon craze that swept through French culture of the late nineteenth century is traced through popular dramas and novels; however, a strand of parody apparent in Balzac’s Modeste Mignon is seen to recur in Zola’s Nana, and Mignon’s name is associated with corruption and sexual abjection in a number of fictions of this era.
KLAUS HENTSCHEL
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199205660
- eISBN:
- 9780191709388
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199205660.003.0013
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
The political encouragements in the Physikalische Blätter reflected the budding awareness among German scientists of their social responsibility. This awareness is specifically articulated in the ...
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The political encouragements in the Physikalische Blätter reflected the budding awareness among German scientists of their social responsibility. This awareness is specifically articulated in the revised statutes of the German Physical Society (DPG). It later bore fruit in the — perhaps apologetically motivated — Mainau and G öttingen manifestos for responsible nuclear armaments policy. The popularization of science was seen as an effective antidote to socially blind over-specialization in science.Less
The political encouragements in the Physikalische Blätter reflected the budding awareness among German scientists of their social responsibility. This awareness is specifically articulated in the revised statutes of the German Physical Society (DPG). It later bore fruit in the — perhaps apologetically motivated — Mainau and G öttingen manifestos for responsible nuclear armaments policy. The popularization of science was seen as an effective antidote to socially blind over-specialization in science.
Amina Elbendary
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9789774167171
- eISBN:
- 9781617976773
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774167171.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Middle East History
This chapter focuses on the popularization of literature and historiography and the development of the bourgeois trend during the Mamluk period. It first considers the factors behind the ...
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This chapter focuses on the popularization of literature and historiography and the development of the bourgeois trend during the Mamluk period. It first considers the factors behind the popularization of culture and cultural production in the Mamluk sultanate before discussing the collective experiences of urban dwellers and their cultural manifestations, along with the link between social mobility and the bourgeois trend. It then examines changes in Mamluk culture, the rise of new types of patronage and new audiences for popular poetry, the spread of literacy, the emergence of middling classes and of new audiences for written literature, and the increased importance of Sufism. It also describes various manifestations of popularization in written cultural and literary production and compares the Egyptian and Syrian schools of medieval historiography. Finally, it looks at the so-called “civic interest” that connects many of the late Mamluk and early Ottoman historical writings.Less
This chapter focuses on the popularization of literature and historiography and the development of the bourgeois trend during the Mamluk period. It first considers the factors behind the popularization of culture and cultural production in the Mamluk sultanate before discussing the collective experiences of urban dwellers and their cultural manifestations, along with the link between social mobility and the bourgeois trend. It then examines changes in Mamluk culture, the rise of new types of patronage and new audiences for popular poetry, the spread of literacy, the emergence of middling classes and of new audiences for written literature, and the increased importance of Sufism. It also describes various manifestations of popularization in written cultural and literary production and compares the Egyptian and Syrian schools of medieval historiography. Finally, it looks at the so-called “civic interest” that connects many of the late Mamluk and early Ottoman historical writings.
W. J. Mander
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199559299
- eISBN:
- 9780191725531
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199559299.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
In addition to and connected with its fresh metaphysics and philosophy of religion, the British Idealist school put forward a radically new kind of moral theory; one which might be called the ...
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In addition to and connected with its fresh metaphysics and philosophy of religion, the British Idealist school put forward a radically new kind of moral theory; one which might be called the idealist ethic of social self-realization. Rapidly gaining popularity, its re-construal of the moral problem came to be the dominant mode of thought in ethics for twenty years, and a major force for twenty more after that. This chapter examines that system of ethics, through detailed consideration of the theories of Bradley, Green, and Edward Caird. Particular attention is paid to the concepts of self-realization, the common good, ‘My Station and its Duties’, and the social conception of the self. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the various textbooks and manuals which popularized this conception of ethics.Less
In addition to and connected with its fresh metaphysics and philosophy of religion, the British Idealist school put forward a radically new kind of moral theory; one which might be called the idealist ethic of social self-realization. Rapidly gaining popularity, its re-construal of the moral problem came to be the dominant mode of thought in ethics for twenty years, and a major force for twenty more after that. This chapter examines that system of ethics, through detailed consideration of the theories of Bradley, Green, and Edward Caird. Particular attention is paid to the concepts of self-realization, the common good, ‘My Station and its Duties’, and the social conception of the self. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the various textbooks and manuals which popularized this conception of ethics.
Alan Partington
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640607
- eISBN:
- 9780748671502
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640607.003.0006
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
This chapter contains an analysis of the changing rhetorical role of science in UK broadsheet newspapers from 1993 and 2005, and conclude that there have been noteworthy changes. First, science, and ...
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This chapter contains an analysis of the changing rhetorical role of science in UK broadsheet newspapers from 1993 and 2005, and conclude that there have been noteworthy changes. First, science, and more specifically, the formulation the science, is increasingly employed as a model of authority, appealing to ethos rather than logos; the authority is asserted but relatively rarely justified, and this may be considered the most significant change in that it drives several others. At the same time, there has been a popularisation of the science in the newspapers as it becomes an ‘add on’ to popular stories. Furthermore, there is evidence that science is being progressively fitted into the news story format, which demands recency as a news value, as opposed to features-style reports. Finally, science appears to have shifted from its earlier place in opposition to art and culture, to a paradigm in which its primary alter, or opposition, is religion.Less
This chapter contains an analysis of the changing rhetorical role of science in UK broadsheet newspapers from 1993 and 2005, and conclude that there have been noteworthy changes. First, science, and more specifically, the formulation the science, is increasingly employed as a model of authority, appealing to ethos rather than logos; the authority is asserted but relatively rarely justified, and this may be considered the most significant change in that it drives several others. At the same time, there has been a popularisation of the science in the newspapers as it becomes an ‘add on’ to popular stories. Furthermore, there is evidence that science is being progressively fitted into the news story format, which demands recency as a news value, as opposed to features-style reports. Finally, science appears to have shifted from its earlier place in opposition to art and culture, to a paradigm in which its primary alter, or opposition, is religion.
Ann Morning
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520270305
- eISBN:
- 9780520950146
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520270305.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Race and Ethnicity
Schools are not the only places where scientists' knowledge of race makes its way to a lay audience. Formal education is just one of many institutions that reflect and convey scientific notions of ...
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Schools are not the only places where scientists' knowledge of race makes its way to a lay audience. Formal education is just one of many institutions that reflect and convey scientific notions of racial difference to the public. Textbooks and course lectures are not the only vehicles for spreading scientists' concepts of race: laws, regulations, news reports, bureaucratic practices, and commercial goods and services also embody and communicate notions of racial difference. This chapter aims to enlarge the theoretical perspective on racial conceptualization by broadening the range of institutions that readers understand as channeling scientific thinking about race. Scholarship on science popularization usually focuses on organizations and texts with explicitly communicative or educative functions, such as textbooks, “popular science” magazines, or mass media science reporting.Less
Schools are not the only places where scientists' knowledge of race makes its way to a lay audience. Formal education is just one of many institutions that reflect and convey scientific notions of racial difference to the public. Textbooks and course lectures are not the only vehicles for spreading scientists' concepts of race: laws, regulations, news reports, bureaucratic practices, and commercial goods and services also embody and communicate notions of racial difference. This chapter aims to enlarge the theoretical perspective on racial conceptualization by broadening the range of institutions that readers understand as channeling scientific thinking about race. Scholarship on science popularization usually focuses on organizations and texts with explicitly communicative or educative functions, such as textbooks, “popular science” magazines, or mass media science reporting.
Theodore Ziolkowski
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450358
- eISBN:
- 9780801463419
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450358.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter examines the popularization of the Gilgamesh epic and the broadening of its thematic use from 1959 to 1978. It discusses the many novels, stories, plays, poems, operas, drawings, ...
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This chapter examines the popularization of the Gilgamesh epic and the broadening of its thematic use from 1959 to 1978. It discusses the many novels, stories, plays, poems, operas, drawings, readings, performances, and new interpretations of the Gilgamesh theme in countries extending from Italy to Poland, in both Europe and North America. These works demonstrate that by the late 1970s Gilgamesh had emerged from what had been primarily a German and English cultural context to become an increasingly familiar name and story in the world at large. The story's appeal had moved beyond the initially more somber attraction of immediate postwar audiences because of its message of consolation after death and depression. During the 1960s, such social themes as homosexuality were coming to the fore along with the philosophical-psychological recognition of the archetypal significance of the epic's figures, the representation of the shift from matriarchy to patriarchy, the struggle between titanic action and humanistic contemplation, science fiction, and questions of religion.Less
This chapter examines the popularization of the Gilgamesh epic and the broadening of its thematic use from 1959 to 1978. It discusses the many novels, stories, plays, poems, operas, drawings, readings, performances, and new interpretations of the Gilgamesh theme in countries extending from Italy to Poland, in both Europe and North America. These works demonstrate that by the late 1970s Gilgamesh had emerged from what had been primarily a German and English cultural context to become an increasingly familiar name and story in the world at large. The story's appeal had moved beyond the initially more somber attraction of immediate postwar audiences because of its message of consolation after death and depression. During the 1960s, such social themes as homosexuality were coming to the fore along with the philosophical-psychological recognition of the archetypal significance of the epic's figures, the representation of the shift from matriarchy to patriarchy, the struggle between titanic action and humanistic contemplation, science fiction, and questions of religion.
Paola Iovene
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780804789370
- eISBN:
- 9780804791601
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804789370.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
Twentieth-century Chinese literature has been characterized by an obsession with the future, an obsession that is often commented on but rarely scrutinized. Most studies of Chinese literature ...
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Twentieth-century Chinese literature has been characterized by an obsession with the future, an obsession that is often commented on but rarely scrutinized. Most studies of Chinese literature conflate the category of the future with notions of progress and nation-building, and with the utopian visions propagated by the Maoist and post-Mao developmental state. The future thus understood has often been seen as a “destination” a preconceived endpoint that is propagated, at times even imposed, by a center of power. By contrast, Tales of Futures Past introduces the concept of “anticipation” as a lens through which to reexamine the textual, institutional, and experiential aspects of Chinese literary culture from the 1950s through the first decade of the twenty-first century. Anticipation names the “future in the present,” the expectations that permeate life as it unfolds and that are often mediated by literary texts. Each of the book’s five chapters details how different modes of anticipation find expression in contemporary Chinese literature, with a focus on fictional genres. Each chapter explores how emotions such as hope and fear as well as ideas on “what may come next” find concrete expression in a variety of Chinese texts and institutional contexts, ranging from science fiction to translation journals and from modernist writing to environmental literature, with the aim of tracing overlooked continuities throughout the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, and thus refining our understanding of Chinese socialist and postsocialist literary modernity.Less
Twentieth-century Chinese literature has been characterized by an obsession with the future, an obsession that is often commented on but rarely scrutinized. Most studies of Chinese literature conflate the category of the future with notions of progress and nation-building, and with the utopian visions propagated by the Maoist and post-Mao developmental state. The future thus understood has often been seen as a “destination” a preconceived endpoint that is propagated, at times even imposed, by a center of power. By contrast, Tales of Futures Past introduces the concept of “anticipation” as a lens through which to reexamine the textual, institutional, and experiential aspects of Chinese literary culture from the 1950s through the first decade of the twenty-first century. Anticipation names the “future in the present,” the expectations that permeate life as it unfolds and that are often mediated by literary texts. Each of the book’s five chapters details how different modes of anticipation find expression in contemporary Chinese literature, with a focus on fictional genres. Each chapter explores how emotions such as hope and fear as well as ideas on “what may come next” find concrete expression in a variety of Chinese texts and institutional contexts, ranging from science fiction to translation journals and from modernist writing to environmental literature, with the aim of tracing overlooked continuities throughout the second half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, and thus refining our understanding of Chinese socialist and postsocialist literary modernity.
Erik Braun
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226000800
- eISBN:
- 9780226000947
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226000947.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter examines works on meditation by Ledi Sayadaw to show his vision of meditative practice, grounded in features described in earlier chapters. Ledi popularizes practice for all people, ...
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This chapter examines works on meditation by Ledi Sayadaw to show his vision of meditative practice, grounded in features described in earlier chapters. Ledi popularizes practice for all people, whatever their station in life. He uses basic Abhidhamma study as the basis for meditation, stressing fundamental doctrinal categories, particularly the four elements of earth, fire, water, and wind. This approach simplifies practice, because such learning is sufficient for “dry insight meditation” (sukhavipassanā) that requires no prior “calming meditation” (samatha). Meditation becomes a practice that one can do in the midst of lay life. Abhidhamma emerges in the analysis as the factor that explains the birth of mass insight practice in Burma as nowhere else. In Ledi’s vision, the pursuit of awakening is part of modern lay life, and this fact reflects a Buddhist modernity that sees no conflict between religion and the modern world.Less
This chapter examines works on meditation by Ledi Sayadaw to show his vision of meditative practice, grounded in features described in earlier chapters. Ledi popularizes practice for all people, whatever their station in life. He uses basic Abhidhamma study as the basis for meditation, stressing fundamental doctrinal categories, particularly the four elements of earth, fire, water, and wind. This approach simplifies practice, because such learning is sufficient for “dry insight meditation” (sukhavipassanā) that requires no prior “calming meditation” (samatha). Meditation becomes a practice that one can do in the midst of lay life. Abhidhamma emerges in the analysis as the factor that explains the birth of mass insight practice in Burma as nowhere else. In Ledi’s vision, the pursuit of awakening is part of modern lay life, and this fact reflects a Buddhist modernity that sees no conflict between religion and the modern world.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226467597
- eISBN:
- 9780226466958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226466958.003.0002
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
In 1923 Austin Hobart Clark, a middle-aged curator in the Smithsonian's U.S. National Museum, began appearing in the program “Smithsonian Radio Talks,” which invited speakers from within his ...
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In 1923 Austin Hobart Clark, a middle-aged curator in the Smithsonian's U.S. National Museum, began appearing in the program “Smithsonian Radio Talks,” which invited speakers from within his institution's various bureaus. Clark's broadcasts represent one of the first sustained efforts in the United States to use radio to reach the public with science, the first wave in steadily expanding popularization efforts. The circumstances surrounding these pioneering broadcasts illuminate an important moment in the history of science and of American life. From the 1920s through the 1940s, the scientific community became more concerned about scripting its public image for the sake of increased funding and political support, and therefore became more engaged in popularization. The extent to which prestigious researchers in the United States cooperated in and supported ventures involving radio—a medium they regarded as intrinsically sensationalistic—demonstrated begrudging acceptance of the need for popularization.Less
In 1923 Austin Hobart Clark, a middle-aged curator in the Smithsonian's U.S. National Museum, began appearing in the program “Smithsonian Radio Talks,” which invited speakers from within his institution's various bureaus. Clark's broadcasts represent one of the first sustained efforts in the United States to use radio to reach the public with science, the first wave in steadily expanding popularization efforts. The circumstances surrounding these pioneering broadcasts illuminate an important moment in the history of science and of American life. From the 1920s through the 1940s, the scientific community became more concerned about scripting its public image for the sake of increased funding and political support, and therefore became more engaged in popularization. The extent to which prestigious researchers in the United States cooperated in and supported ventures involving radio—a medium they regarded as intrinsically sensationalistic—demonstrated begrudging acceptance of the need for popularization.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226467597
- eISBN:
- 9780226466958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226466958.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Thornton W. Burgess was a successful children's book author. His animal characters and natural history lessons had been enchanting children and their parents for many years. He also had his own show, ...
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Thornton W. Burgess was a successful children's book author. His animal characters and natural history lessons had been enchanting children and their parents for many years. He also had his own show, broadcast throughout Massachusetts. Burgess embraced a cosmopolitan, democratic, and pragmatic attitude toward science popularization. He assumed that the public was eager to learn about science and nature and that radio could assist that quest for understanding, and he was not averse to employing entertainment to enliven his presentations. He also devoted considerable attention to influencing the attitudes of his fellow citizens toward their natural surroundings. In January 1925 Burgess founded the Radio Nature League, an association requiring no dues and asking only that listeners “assist” in wildlife preservation through actions like feeding birds during the winter. Within three weeks of announcement of the League, Burgess had received over five thousand letters, from individuals and entire families in thirty-nine states, Canada, England, and Bermuda, all pledging (per the League's motto) “to do everything possible to preserve and conserve all desirable American Wild Life, including birds, animals, flowers, trees, and other living things; also the natural beauty spots and scenic wonders of all America.” By May over sixteen thousand people had enrolled as members.Less
Thornton W. Burgess was a successful children's book author. His animal characters and natural history lessons had been enchanting children and their parents for many years. He also had his own show, broadcast throughout Massachusetts. Burgess embraced a cosmopolitan, democratic, and pragmatic attitude toward science popularization. He assumed that the public was eager to learn about science and nature and that radio could assist that quest for understanding, and he was not averse to employing entertainment to enliven his presentations. He also devoted considerable attention to influencing the attitudes of his fellow citizens toward their natural surroundings. In January 1925 Burgess founded the Radio Nature League, an association requiring no dues and asking only that listeners “assist” in wildlife preservation through actions like feeding birds during the winter. Within three weeks of announcement of the League, Burgess had received over five thousand letters, from individuals and entire families in thirty-nine states, Canada, England, and Bermuda, all pledging (per the League's motto) “to do everything possible to preserve and conserve all desirable American Wild Life, including birds, animals, flowers, trees, and other living things; also the natural beauty spots and scenic wonders of all America.” By May over sixteen thousand people had enrolled as members.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226467597
- eISBN:
- 9780226466958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226466958.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
While individuals like Austin Clark, Thornton Burgess, and Harlow Shapley were experimenting with their broadcasts, two organizations in Washington were joining forces to create another new science ...
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While individuals like Austin Clark, Thornton Burgess, and Harlow Shapley were experimenting with their broadcasts, two organizations in Washington were joining forces to create another new science series. In the years following World War I, a newfound interest in public relations had rippled through the scientific community. The partnership between the National Research Council (NRC) and Science Service signaled to other scientists that radio could be an appropriate and dignified platform for popularization and for achieving positive publicity for all science. Although the NRC eventually relinquished its direct role in the series, Science Service continued to be involved in radio production for the next forty years, essentially functioning as the scientific establishment's sanctioned surrogate on the airwaves.Less
While individuals like Austin Clark, Thornton Burgess, and Harlow Shapley were experimenting with their broadcasts, two organizations in Washington were joining forces to create another new science series. In the years following World War I, a newfound interest in public relations had rippled through the scientific community. The partnership between the National Research Council (NRC) and Science Service signaled to other scientists that radio could be an appropriate and dignified platform for popularization and for achieving positive publicity for all science. Although the NRC eventually relinquished its direct role in the series, Science Service continued to be involved in radio production for the next forty years, essentially functioning as the scientific establishment's sanctioned surrogate on the airwaves.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226467597
- eISBN:
- 9780226466958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226466958.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Compared to film, radio production required far less expenditure of time and money. This made it more promising for a modestly conceived series of talks. For the first two years, Science Service ...
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Compared to film, radio production required far less expenditure of time and money. This made it more promising for a modestly conceived series of talks. For the first two years, Science Service staff also worked in partnership with the National Research Council, an arrangement that added prestige and legitimacy to their efforts. These circumstances, and Science Service's growing reputation for accurate, “authenticated” science news, became critical factors in persuading dozens of prominent scientists to sit down in front of a microphone. Radio, Science Service promotional literature declared, is “fast becoming part of our national life.” Now radio also became part of the public life of science.Less
Compared to film, radio production required far less expenditure of time and money. This made it more promising for a modestly conceived series of talks. For the first two years, Science Service staff also worked in partnership with the National Research Council, an arrangement that added prestige and legitimacy to their efforts. These circumstances, and Science Service's growing reputation for accurate, “authenticated” science news, became critical factors in persuading dozens of prominent scientists to sit down in front of a microphone. Radio, Science Service promotional literature declared, is “fast becoming part of our national life.” Now radio also became part of the public life of science.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226467597
- eISBN:
- 9780226466958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226466958.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
During the 1920s, radio evolved from experimental technology to potentially profitable business, from a playing field open to amateurs to a closed shop controlled by national commercial networks. ...
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During the 1920s, radio evolved from experimental technology to potentially profitable business, from a playing field open to amateurs to a closed shop controlled by national commercial networks. During the same month that NBC executive David Sarnoff so enthusiastically touted radio's potential, he and executives at AT&T, General Electric, RCA, Westinghouse, and other major broadcast companies were secretly negotiating to carve up the industry. Throughout the country, NBC and CBS were assembling networks of affiliates, and local station managers were losing control of programming. The transformation of American broadcasting—which occurred just as the scientific establishment was becoming comfortable with addressing the public via radio talks—refocused attention on the economics of popularization. Who should pay for interpreting science for the public and for advancing civic education in science—and why? To what extent should scientists cooperate with the advertisers underwriting commercial broadcasting? Each organization and entrepreneur answered these questions differently. Some rejected “commercialism” altogether; some embraced it, cautiously. Others favored civic education, whatever the venue or compromise. This disparity (and lack of coordination) in responses exemplified dilemmas that would haunt science popularization efforts for decades to come.Less
During the 1920s, radio evolved from experimental technology to potentially profitable business, from a playing field open to amateurs to a closed shop controlled by national commercial networks. During the same month that NBC executive David Sarnoff so enthusiastically touted radio's potential, he and executives at AT&T, General Electric, RCA, Westinghouse, and other major broadcast companies were secretly negotiating to carve up the industry. Throughout the country, NBC and CBS were assembling networks of affiliates, and local station managers were losing control of programming. The transformation of American broadcasting—which occurred just as the scientific establishment was becoming comfortable with addressing the public via radio talks—refocused attention on the economics of popularization. Who should pay for interpreting science for the public and for advancing civic education in science—and why? To what extent should scientists cooperate with the advertisers underwriting commercial broadcasting? Each organization and entrepreneur answered these questions differently. Some rejected “commercialism” altogether; some embraced it, cautiously. Others favored civic education, whatever the venue or compromise. This disparity (and lack of coordination) in responses exemplified dilemmas that would haunt science popularization efforts for decades to come.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226467597
- eISBN:
- 9780226466958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226466958.003.0007
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Popularization remained a marginal activity for the scientific and academic elite during the early 1930s, rarely high on their professional agendas. To some, popularization represented a necessary ...
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Popularization remained a marginal activity for the scientific and academic elite during the early 1930s, rarely high on their professional agendas. To some, popularization represented a necessary evil that, at best, drained resources and time from valuable research and, at worst, ran counter to science's best interests by subjecting it to the public spotlight. Neither attitude lent support to the struggle to gain airtime, an effort that required ever more ingenuity and accommodation to persuade listeners not to twist the dial away from science. Maurice Holland, director of the National Research Council's Division of Engineering and Industrial Research, blamed the scientific community for failing to realize radio's potential for presenting science. After a brief flirtation with the medium, he said, “science has abdicated from the throne of power”.Less
Popularization remained a marginal activity for the scientific and academic elite during the early 1930s, rarely high on their professional agendas. To some, popularization represented a necessary evil that, at best, drained resources and time from valuable research and, at worst, ran counter to science's best interests by subjecting it to the public spotlight. Neither attitude lent support to the struggle to gain airtime, an effort that required ever more ingenuity and accommodation to persuade listeners not to twist the dial away from science. Maurice Holland, director of the National Research Council's Division of Engineering and Industrial Research, blamed the scientific community for failing to realize radio's potential for presenting science. After a brief flirtation with the medium, he said, “science has abdicated from the throne of power”.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226467597
- eISBN:
- 9780226466958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226466958.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Radio programs whose titles promised “new horizons,” “adventures,” “explorations,” and “science on the march” harmonized well with 1930s political rhetoric and the New Deal ethos. Science ...
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Radio programs whose titles promised “new horizons,” “adventures,” “explorations,” and “science on the march” harmonized well with 1930s political rhetoric and the New Deal ethos. Science popularization too was infected by this spirit of social optimism. Eager to seem dynamic and forward-thinking, many of the creators of science series began to adopt dramatizations and similar entertainment techniques in the service of what Smithsonian secretary C. G. Abbot dubbed “ultra-popularization.” Corporate and government radio initiatives began adding dialogue and fictionalization to accounts of great experiments, employing professional actors to read the words of revered scientists, and using orchestral accompaniment and sound effects to evoke dramatic moods. The most notable projects—DuPont's Cavalcade of America and the Smithsonian Institution's The World Is Yours—relied on substantial corporate and government underwriting. Others, such as the American Museum of Natural History's New Horizons, combined private initiative with network production. The more listeners were drawn to such series, the more other programs imitated their approaches.Less
Radio programs whose titles promised “new horizons,” “adventures,” “explorations,” and “science on the march” harmonized well with 1930s political rhetoric and the New Deal ethos. Science popularization too was infected by this spirit of social optimism. Eager to seem dynamic and forward-thinking, many of the creators of science series began to adopt dramatizations and similar entertainment techniques in the service of what Smithsonian secretary C. G. Abbot dubbed “ultra-popularization.” Corporate and government radio initiatives began adding dialogue and fictionalization to accounts of great experiments, employing professional actors to read the words of revered scientists, and using orchestral accompaniment and sound effects to evoke dramatic moods. The most notable projects—DuPont's Cavalcade of America and the Smithsonian Institution's The World Is Yours—relied on substantial corporate and government underwriting. Others, such as the American Museum of Natural History's New Horizons, combined private initiative with network production. The more listeners were drawn to such series, the more other programs imitated their approaches.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226467597
- eISBN:
- 9780226466958
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226466958.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
In 1934, reflecting trends within radio generally, Watson Davis began to introduce more personality to the Science Service programs. The next year, “at the request of the network,” he added ...
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In 1934, reflecting trends within radio generally, Watson Davis began to introduce more personality to the Science Service programs. The next year, “at the request of the network,” he added interviews. Three years later, CBS renamed the series Adventures in Science and initiated a format that remained unchanged for the next two decades: an opening sequence of science news bulletins and a scripted conversation with a guest. The evolution of the “Science Service Talks” into Adventures in Science reflects the trends affecting all science popularization at the time: more emphasis on exciting breakthroughs rather than patient accumulation of knowledge; increased attention to social issues; a shift of focus from the science to the scientists; and the elevation of prominent scientists to the status of cultural celebrities. The remodeling of Adventures in Science also demonstrates how popular science became entangled with the commercial business of delivering mass culture. In 1938 and 1939 Watson Davis experienced a brutal reminder of who controlled radio. All the good intentions in the world—including noble visions of bringing science to the public—were so much stardust without access to a microphone.Less
In 1934, reflecting trends within radio generally, Watson Davis began to introduce more personality to the Science Service programs. The next year, “at the request of the network,” he added interviews. Three years later, CBS renamed the series Adventures in Science and initiated a format that remained unchanged for the next two decades: an opening sequence of science news bulletins and a scripted conversation with a guest. The evolution of the “Science Service Talks” into Adventures in Science reflects the trends affecting all science popularization at the time: more emphasis on exciting breakthroughs rather than patient accumulation of knowledge; increased attention to social issues; a shift of focus from the science to the scientists; and the elevation of prominent scientists to the status of cultural celebrities. The remodeling of Adventures in Science also demonstrates how popular science became entangled with the commercial business of delivering mass culture. In 1938 and 1939 Watson Davis experienced a brutal reminder of who controlled radio. All the good intentions in the world—including noble visions of bringing science to the public—were so much stardust without access to a microphone.
