Zakariya, Nasser Basem (Author)
Popular science readers embrace epics—the sweeping stories that claim to tell the history of all the universe, from the cosmological to the biological to the social. And the appeal is understandable: in writing these works, authors such as E. O. Wilson or Steven Weinberg deliberately seek to move beyond particular disciplines, to create a compelling story weaving together natural historical events, scientific endeavor, human discovery, and contemporary existential concerns. In A Final Story, Nasser Zakariya delves into the origins and ambitions of these scientific epics, from the nineteenth century to the present, to see what they reveal about the relationship between storytelling, integrated scientific knowledge, and historical method. While seeking to transcend the perspectives of their own eras, the authors of the epics and the debates surrounding them are embedded in political and social struggles of their own times, struggles to which the epics in turn respond. In attempts to narrate an approach to a final, true account, these synthesizing efforts shape and orient scientific developments old and new. By looking closely at the composition of science epics and the related genres developed along with them, we are able to view the historical narrative of science as a form of knowledge itself, one that discloses much about the development of our understanding of and relationship to science over time.
...MoreReview Francesco Sacco (2019) Review of "A Final Story: Science, Myth, and Beginnings". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 722-723).
Review Rosalind Williams (2019) Review of "A Final Story: Science, Myth, and Beginnings". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 144-145).
Article
John Beatty;
(2016)
What are narratives good for?
(/isis/citation/CBB867181599/)
Article
Daum, Andreas;
(2009)
Bringing the Actors Back In: Historical Perspectives on Scholarship and Its Many Publics
(/isis/citation/CBB001020663/)
Chapter
Paolo Casini;
(2010)
La storiografia della scienza: considerazioni preliminari
(/isis/citation/CBB688420785/)
Chapter
Luca Ciancio;
(2010)
Scienze della vita e scienze della terra nella più recente storiografia italiana della scienza: espansione o ripiegamento?
(/isis/citation/CBB097119814/)
Book
Alberto Postigliola;
Anna Maria Rao;
(2010)
Il Settecento negli studi italiani. Problemi e prospettive
(/isis/citation/CBB984151963/)
Book
Alan G. Gross;
(2018)
The Scientific Sublime: Popular Science Unravels the Mysteries of the Universe
(/isis/citation/CBB152695166/)
Article
Moore, P. G.;
(2015)
Peeping at Nature with the Reverend Charles A. Hall FRMS (1872--1965)
(/isis/citation/CBB001422131/)
Essay Review
Smocovitis, Vassiliki Betty;
(1999)
The Tormenting Desire for Unity
(/isis/citation/CBB000110345/)
Chapter
Briggs, John C.;
(2005)
“The Very Idea!”: Francis Bacon and E. O. Wilson on the Rehabilitation of Eidos
(/isis/citation/CBB000772020/)
Book
Kember, Joe;
Plunkett, John;
Sullivan, Jill A.;
(2012)
Popular Exhibitions, Science and Showmanship, 1840--1910
(/isis/citation/CBB001250506/)
Chapter
Lauren Neitzke-Adamo;
A.J. Blandford;
Julia Criscione;
Richard K. Olsson;
Erika Gorder;
(2018)
The Rutgers Geology Museum: America’s first geology museum and the past 200 years of geoscience education
(/isis/citation/CBB701025048/)
Chapter
Jere H. Lipps;
(2018)
Natural history museums: Facilitating science literacy across the globe
(/isis/citation/CBB596989597/)
Chapter
Sally Newcomb;
(2018)
The museums of Philadelphia
(/isis/citation/CBB566891630/)
Book
Elisa Fontanelli;
(2019)
"Per illuminare il suo popolo e renderlo felice col farlo più culto": I visitatori dell'Imperiale e Reale Museo di fisica e storia naturale nel Settecento
(/isis/citation/CBB719415646/)
Chapter
Claudine Cohen;
(2018)
Exhibiting life history at the Paris Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle (nineteenth–twenty-first centuries)
(/isis/citation/CBB437163939/)
Book
Andrea Tenca;
(2020)
Dinosauri, demoni, operai. Una storia culturale del sottosuolo tra scienza e letteratura
(/isis/citation/CBB116328239/)
Article
Wardhaugh, Benjamin;
(2007)
Poor Robin and Merry Andrew: Mathematical Humour in Restoration England
(/isis/citation/CBB000831576/)
Book
Costlow, Jane T;
(2013)
Heart-Pine Russia: Walking and Writing the Nineteenth-Century Forest
(/isis/citation/CBB001420376/)
Book
Richard Fallon;
(2021)
Reimagining Dinosaurs in Late Victorian and Edwardian Literature: How the ‘Terrible Lizard' Became a Transatlantic Cultural Icon
(/isis/citation/CBB569188287/)
Book
Cartwright, John H.;
Baker, Brian;
(2005)
Literature and Science: Social Impact and Interaction
(/isis/citation/CBB000772232/)
Be the first to comment!