A review by avalon111
The Dinosaur Hunters by Deborah Cadbury
5.0
Deborah Cadbury's The Dinosaur Hunters is a definitive history of the very beginnings of paleontology, though for many decades that term wasn't employed, with the study of ancient fossils coming under the discipline of 'geology'.
The joy of this book its focus on the main characters. Mary Anning, so ludicrously mistreated by director Francis Lee in his 2020 movie, is recognised as the effective instigator of the art of dinosaur hunting. Though fossils had been found for centuries, it was Anning's findings, most notably of the Ichthyosaurus in the cliffs of Lyme which inspired the gentlemen-scientists of that century, beginning with the Reverend William Buckland.
And throughout the book, the key characters are followed. Anning of course, Buckland, Georges Cuvier, Charles Lyell and the two key ones; Gideon Mantell, the books true hero, and its 'baddie' in the form of Richard Owen. Mantell's work, both as an engaging lecturer who did so much to improve the public's comprehension of the new science and its findings, and his actual discoveries, are exquisitely detailed. Owen, despite his ultimate demise in the face of Charles Darwin and more brutally, his nemesis, Thomas Henry Huxley, is still recognised for his naming of 'dinosauria', when he realised that they were distinct from other reptiles, with some mammalian characteristics. Owen though simply didn't recognise quickly enough that Darwin's theory of natural selection was sweeping all before it.
Despite Owen's Machiavellian traits, Dinosaur Hunters emphasises just how extraordinarily polite the scientific discourse in the 19th century was conducted. Discussions and disagreements were invariably performed through written papers and letters-to-editors. No-one came to blows and conduct was expected to be gentlemanly and restrained. That of course contrasts with our 'modern' society, with its 'Cancel Culture' and established tendencies for the 'kind' element of society to send barrages of rape-and-death threats against those they determine to be satanists or Nazis, simply for not agreeing with them. And the 19th century was one of brutal existence for most, with poverty rife, no recognisable healthcare, 'transportation' to Australia for convicts, and a rigid and misogynistic class system. Yet even so, our societies cultural norms now stand-up badly against the society of 19th century England.
Illustrated throughout and with comprehensive notes and index, Cadbury's work matches any historians but with an added readability that few can match. She's a BBC TV producer, and The Dinosaur Hunters was adapted into a fictional drama by Grenada Television in 2001. Rightly, even after two decades since publication, the BBC should be rendering it into a multi-episode documentary series. Until then, we remain left with Cadbury's wonderfully written volume.
The joy of this book its focus on the main characters. Mary Anning, so ludicrously mistreated by director Francis Lee in his 2020 movie, is recognised as the effective instigator of the art of dinosaur hunting. Though fossils had been found for centuries, it was Anning's findings, most notably of the Ichthyosaurus in the cliffs of Lyme which inspired the gentlemen-scientists of that century, beginning with the Reverend William Buckland.
And throughout the book, the key characters are followed. Anning of course, Buckland, Georges Cuvier, Charles Lyell and the two key ones; Gideon Mantell, the books true hero, and its 'baddie' in the form of Richard Owen. Mantell's work, both as an engaging lecturer who did so much to improve the public's comprehension of the new science and its findings, and his actual discoveries, are exquisitely detailed. Owen, despite his ultimate demise in the face of Charles Darwin and more brutally, his nemesis, Thomas Henry Huxley, is still recognised for his naming of 'dinosauria', when he realised that they were distinct from other reptiles, with some mammalian characteristics. Owen though simply didn't recognise quickly enough that Darwin's theory of natural selection was sweeping all before it.
Despite Owen's Machiavellian traits, Dinosaur Hunters emphasises just how extraordinarily polite the scientific discourse in the 19th century was conducted. Discussions and disagreements were invariably performed through written papers and letters-to-editors. No-one came to blows and conduct was expected to be gentlemanly and restrained. That of course contrasts with our 'modern' society, with its 'Cancel Culture' and established tendencies for the 'kind' element of society to send barrages of rape-and-death threats against those they determine to be satanists or Nazis, simply for not agreeing with them. And the 19th century was one of brutal existence for most, with poverty rife, no recognisable healthcare, 'transportation' to Australia for convicts, and a rigid and misogynistic class system. Yet even so, our societies cultural norms now stand-up badly against the society of 19th century England.
Illustrated throughout and with comprehensive notes and index, Cadbury's work matches any historians but with an added readability that few can match. She's a BBC TV producer, and The Dinosaur Hunters was adapted into a fictional drama by Grenada Television in 2001. Rightly, even after two decades since publication, the BBC should be rendering it into a multi-episode documentary series. Until then, we remain left with Cadbury's wonderfully written volume.