Science and Eccentricity

Download or read book Science and Eccentricity written by Victoria Carroll and published by University of Pittsburgh Press. This book was released on 2016-09-12 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The concept of eccentricity was central to how people in the nineteenth century understood their world. This monograph is the first scholarly history of eccentricity. Carroll explores how discourses of eccentricity were established to make sense of individuals who did not seem to fit within an increasingly organized social and economic order. She focuses on the self-taught natural philosopher William Martin, the fossilist Thomas Hawkins and the taxidermist Charles Waterton.