Science and Eccentricity: Collecting, Writing and Performing Science for Early Nineteenth-Century Audiences

by Victoria Carroll

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.

304 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2008