The Gilded Dinosaur, by Mark Jaffee
Okay, so remember just a month or so ago when I read The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs? It might have spawned a minor obsession...particularly about the Bone Wars between E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh in the second half of the 19th Century. Two wildly different men, each a genius in his own right, struggled against each other for preeminence in the scientific race that was American paleontology after the Civil War. Both certainly had their strengths, but also had significant weaknesses, and Jaffe does a good job of illuminating both.
Cope was incredibly prolific and wide-ranging, but in his race to publish often made sloppy errors. Though brilliant at science, he was hopeless with money and managed to lose quite a big fortune by the time he was in his forties. He loved and helped educate his daughter Julia, but also though women and non-white races were subhuman and doomed to remain so because of the power of evolution and "survival of the fittest." Marsh was pompous and widely disliked personally, but incredibly good at politicking. His work went extremely slowly, so he didn't publish nearly as much as Cope, but was more often correct. There were also rumors (and some proof) that the many people he had working under him did most of the intellectual heavy lifting. But he was solicitous with the Native Americans at a time when that population was dwindling and being very sorely used by the government of the U.S., sticking his neck out for them in Washington in a way no one else dared, or cared, to.
Jaffe does an excellent job of framing the paleontological discoveries in the wider story of the progress of science. We learn about the birth of mighty institutions like the Smithsonian, and witness the opening salvos in the still-ongoing battle over whether government should be involved in and fund science at all. Digging dinosaurs and other ancient creatures out of the dry western territories was a crucial part of proving Darwin's controversial theory of evolution, which upended millennia of religious and philosophical thought. It's a fascinating history, minus some minor inaccuracies due to its age (published in 2000, Jaffe ends the story by remarking upon the mystery of the dinosaur's extinction - no mystery, anymore). Readers interested in the birth and growth of science as a discipline will be enthralled flies on the walls of Cope and Marsh's studies, thanks to rich documentary evidence of both their letters. The Gilded Dinosaur is an impressive work of historical and scientific synthesis, and quite fun to read.
It's no longer in print, so borrow it from your local library, as I did! I had to return it before getting a pretty picture, though :(
Cope was incredibly prolific and wide-ranging, but in his race to publish often made sloppy errors. Though brilliant at science, he was hopeless with money and managed to lose quite a big fortune by the time he was in his forties. He loved and helped educate his daughter Julia, but also though women and non-white races were subhuman and doomed to remain so because of the power of evolution and "survival of the fittest." Marsh was pompous and widely disliked personally, but incredibly good at politicking. His work went extremely slowly, so he didn't publish nearly as much as Cope, but was more often correct. There were also rumors (and some proof) that the many people he had working under him did most of the intellectual heavy lifting. But he was solicitous with the Native Americans at a time when that population was dwindling and being very sorely used by the government of the U.S., sticking his neck out for them in Washington in a way no one else dared, or cared, to.
Jaffe does an excellent job of framing the paleontological discoveries in the wider story of the progress of science. We learn about the birth of mighty institutions like the Smithsonian, and witness the opening salvos in the still-ongoing battle over whether government should be involved in and fund science at all. Digging dinosaurs and other ancient creatures out of the dry western territories was a crucial part of proving Darwin's controversial theory of evolution, which upended millennia of religious and philosophical thought. It's a fascinating history, minus some minor inaccuracies due to its age (published in 2000, Jaffe ends the story by remarking upon the mystery of the dinosaur's extinction - no mystery, anymore). Readers interested in the birth and growth of science as a discipline will be enthralled flies on the walls of Cope and Marsh's studies, thanks to rich documentary evidence of both their letters. The Gilded Dinosaur is an impressive work of historical and scientific synthesis, and quite fun to read.
It's no longer in print, so borrow it from your local library, as I did! I had to return it before getting a pretty picture, though :(
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