Scientific Americans: The Making of Popular Science and Evolution in Early Twentieth-Century U.S. Literature and Culture (Intersections in Literature and Science)

Demonstrating the timely relevance of Theodore Dreiser, Edith Wharton, Jack London and Henry Adams, this book shows how debates about evolution, identity, and a shifting world picture have uncanny parallels with the emerging global systems that shape our own lives. Tracing these systems' take-off point in the early twentieth century through the lens of popular science journalism, John Bruni makes a valuable contribution to the study of how biopolitical control over life created boundaries among races, classes, genders and species. Rather than accept that these writers get their scientific ideas about evolution second-hand, filtered through a social Darwinist ideology, this study argues that they actively determine what evolution means. Furthermore, the book, examines the ecological concerns that naturalist narratives reflect - such as land and water use, waste management, and environmental pollution - previously unaddressed in a book-length study. Popular Science, Evolution And Global Information Management -- Dirty Naturalism And The Regime Of Thermodynamic Self-organization -- The Ecology Of Empire -- After The Flood: Performance And Nation -- The Miseducation Of Henry Adams: Fantasies Of Race, Citizenship And Biological Dynamos. John Bruni. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [225]-238) And Index. The book challenges narrow readings of evolution as 'social Darwinism' by looking at evolutionary theory through the interrelated perspectives of science, North American naturalist literature, and popular journalism.