The Cultural Meaning of Popular Science
Phrenology and the Organization of Consent in Nineteenth-Century Britain

This study concentrates on the social and ideological functions of science during the consolidation of urban industrial society.

Roger Cooter (Author)

9780521673297, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 30 June 2005

436 pages
22.9 x 15.1 x 2.7 cm, 0.67 kg

This study of the popularity of phrenology in the second quarter of the nineteenth century concentrates on the social and ideological functions of science during the consolidation of urban industrial society. It is influenced by Foucault, by recent work in the history and sociology of science, by critical theory, and by cultural anthropology. The author analyses the impact of science on Victorian society across a spectrum from the intellectual establishment to working-class freethinkers and Owenite socialists. In doing so he provides the first extended treatment of the place and role of science among working-class radicals. The book also challenges attempts to establish neat demarcations between scientific ideas and their philosophical, theological and social contexts.

List of illustrations
Preface
Note on sources and abbreviations
Introduction
Part I. Historiography: 1. From out the cerebral well
Part II. Science and Social Interests: 2. The social sense of brain
3. The rites of passage
Part III. Popular Science: 4. George Combe and the remolding of man's constitution
5. The poacher turned gamekeeper: phrenologists abroad
6. Secular methodism
Part IV. Radical Appropriation and Critique: 7. Richard Carlile and infidel science
8. On standing socialism on its head
Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
Manuscript sources and public documents
Phrenological journals
Bibliographical index
General index.

Subject Areas: History of medicine [MBX]