Search

To explore the transatlantic emigration of the ‘comparative method’(s) is to recover the range of European work – in institutional history, comparative legislation, and the theory of the State – that scholars in the nascent American science of politics drew on in the late nineteenth century. Their nascent science was, however, not merely derivative, and in the changing practices of comparative study from the mid-1880s through 1900 a distinctive American ‘political science’ began to emerge.

Summary

Geology can be characterized as ‘earth history’. As such it relies on narrative forms in its explanations and interpretations. Unlike ‘mere’ stories, however, geological narratives are tightly constrained by physical laws, and they typically play an important role in geological reasoning. It is not uncommon for geological narratives to be rewritten when new evidence emerges or when theories change, as is illustrated here by the history of the changing interpretation of a particular stratigraphic layer in north-west Scotland, which had been regarded as unremarkable in the late nineteenth century. In the 1960s, it was re-evaluated as being the product of a violent volcanic eruption and was named the Stac Fada Member. A further reinterpretation in 2006 led to it being identified as the material ejected from a meteorite impact crater. This chapter examines the reasons behind the rewriting of these explanatory narratives and explores how narratives are used in geology.

Search Results

Refine search

Refine search

Actions for selected content:

2 results

The Emigration of The ‘Comparative Method’: Transatlantic Exchange and The Birth of American Political Science

4 - The Narrative Nature of Geology and the Rewriting of the Stac Fada Story

Summary

Search Results

Refine search

Refine search

Actions for selected content:

Save Search

2 results

The Emigration of The ‘Comparative Method’: Transatlantic Exchange and The Birth of American Political Science

4 - The Narrative Nature of Geology and the Rewriting of the Stac Fada Story

Summary