
Authority and Contest
Periodicals and British Knowledge Politics, 1820-1860
Michael Rectenwald(Author)
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Published on 1. December 2025
Book
Hardback
316 pages
978-1-0364-5860-7 (ISBN)
Description
This study unveils the complex and contentious landscape of early to mid-nineteenth-century British knowledge politics. An in-depth account of new and emerging sites for the production, dissemination, negotiation, and appropriation of knowledge among a diverse group of participants, it examines how these actors vied for and contested cultural authority, based on beliefs claimed as "scientific." Treating a wide topography of science and culture-from the elite circles of gentleman naturalists to the demotic movements of radical artisans-the author argues for the pivotal role of periodicals in shaping scientific publics and discourses. Through explorations of radical science, the useful knowledge movement, Secularism, and the making and reception of key publications like Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology, this study illuminates the dynamic interplay between science, culture, and power. It offers a fresh and broadened perspective on how science was both produced and challenged in various overlapping and competing publics during this transformative period.
More details
Edition
Unabridged edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Newcastle upon Tyne
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Edition type
Unabridged edition
Product notice
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 212 mm
Width: 148 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0364-5860-7 (9781036458607)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Michael Rectenwald is an independent scholar and former New York University (USA) Professor in the Liberal Studies and Global Liberal Studies programs. He has also served as a Distinguished Fellow at Hillsdale College, USA. His works include Nineteenth-Century British Secularism: Science, Religion and Literature (2016), Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age (edited volume, 2015), and Academic Writing, Real World Topics (2015). His articles have appeared in the British Journal for the History of Science, The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Academic Questions, Endeavour, College Composition and Communication, International Philosophical Quarterly, Organized Secularism in the United States, and George Eliot in Context, among others.