Book ID: CBB960742427

The X Club: Power and Authority in Victorian Science (2018)

unapi

Barton, Ruth (Author)


University of Chicago Press


Publication Date: 2018
Physical Details: 576
Language: English

In 1864, amid headline-grabbing heresy trials, members of the British Association for the Advancement of Science were asked to sign a declaration affirming that science and scripture were in agreement. Many criticized the new test of orthodoxy; nine decided that collaborative action was required. The X Club tells their story. These six ambitious professionals and three wealthy amateurs—J. D. Hooker, T. H. Huxley, John Tyndall, John Lubbock, William Spottiswoode, Edward Frankland, George Busk, T. A. Hirst, and Herbert Spencer—wanted to guide the development of science and public opinion on issues where science impinged on daily life, religious belief, and politics. They formed a private dining club, which they named the X Club, to discuss and further their plans. As Ruth Barton shows, they had a clear objective: they wanted to promote “scientific habits of mind,” which they sought to do through lectures, journalism, and science education. They devoted enormous effort to the expansion of science education, with real, but mixed, success.  ​For twenty years, the X Club was the most powerful network in Victorian science—the men succeeded each other in the presidency of the Royal Society for a dozen years. Barton’s group biography traces the roots of their success and the lasting effects of their championing of science against those who attempted to limit or control it, along the way shedding light on the social organization of science, the interactions of science and the state, and the places of science and scientific men in elite culture in the Victorian era.

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Reviewed By

Review Iwan Rhys Morus (2021) Review of "Aesthetics, Industry, and Science: Hermann von Helmholtz and the Berlin Physical Society". Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (pp. 634-641). unapi

Review Bill Jenkins (2019) Review of "The X Club: Power and Authority in Victorian Science". Intellectual History Review (pp. 537-539). unapi

Review Matthew Wale (2019) Review of "The X Club: Power and Authority in Victorian Science". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 529-530). unapi

Review Edward J. Gillin (2019) Review of "The X Club: Power and Authority in Victorian Science". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 838-839). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB960742427/

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Authors & Contributors
Lightman, Bernard V.
Stanley, Matthew
Dawson, Gowan
Kaalund, Nanna Katrine Lüders
Elwick, James
White, Paul S.
Concepts
Science and religion
Darwinism
Evolution
Authority of science
Naturalism (philosophy)
Controversies and disputes
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
Places
Great Britain
England
United States
British Isles
Ireland
Institutions
X-Club
University Marine Biological Station Millport
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