{"product_id":"9780822326687-useful-knowledge","title":"Useful Knowledge","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Victorians, Morality, and the March of Intellect\u003cbr\u003ePresents a social, cultural, and literary history of this knowledge industry and traces its relationships within 19th-century literature, ending with its eventual confrontation with Charles Darwin's \"Origin of Species\". This book touches on social and cultural anxieties that offer both historical and contemporary insights.\u003cbr\u003eNineteenth-century England witnessed an unprecedented increase in the number of publications and institutions devoted to the creation and the dissemination of knowledge: encyclopedias, scientific periodicals, instruction manuals, scientific societies, children’s literature, mechanics’ institutes, museums of natural history, and lending libraries. In \u003ci\u003eUseful Knowledge\u003c\/i\u003e Alan Rauch presents a social, cultural, and literary history of this new knowledge industry and traces its relationships within nineteenth-century literature, ending with its eventual confrontation with Charles Darwin’s \u003ci\u003eOrigin of Species\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003eRauch discusses both the influence and the ideology of knowledge in terms of how it affected nineteenth-century anxieties about moral responsibility and religious beliefs. Drawing on a wide array of literary, scientific, and popular works of the period, the book focusses on the growing importance of scientific knowledge and its impact on Victorian culture. From discussions of Jane Webb Loudon’s\u003ci\u003e The Mummy!\u003c\/i\u003e and Mary Shelley’s \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein, \u003c\/i\u003eto Charlotte Brontë’s \u003ci\u003eThe Professor\u003c\/i\u003e, Charles Kingsley’s \u003ci\u003eAlton Locke,\u003c\/i\u003e and George Eliot’s \u003ci\u003eMill on the Floss,\u003c\/i\u003e Rauch paints a fascinating picture of nineteenth-century culture and addresses issues related to the proliferation of knowledge and the moral issues of this time period. \u003ci\u003eUseful Knowledge\u003c\/i\u003e touches on social and cultural anxieties that offer both historical \u003ci\u003eand\u003c\/i\u003e contemporary insights on our ongoing preoccupation with knowledge.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eUseful Knowledge \u003c\/i\u003ewill appeal to readers interested in nineteenth century history, literature, culture, the mediation of knowledge, and the history of science.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53567286641014,"sku":"9780822326687","price":30.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_38131948_fba1a20e-bb61-46de-8de6-efb0eafe4657.jpg?v=1763731855","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780822326687-useful-knowledge","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}