| Title | Reign of the Beast |
|---|---|
| Subtitle | The Atheist World of W. D. Saull and his Museum of Evolution |
| Contributor | Adrian Desmond (author) |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0393 |
| Landing page | https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/OBP.0393 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Adrian Desmond |
| Publisher | Open Book Publishers |
| Publication place | Cambridge, UK |
| Published on | 2024-05-08 |
| ISBN | 978-1-80511-239-6 (Paperback) |
| 978-1-80511-240-2 (Hardback) | |
| 978-1-80511-241-9 (PDF) | |
| 978-1-80511-244-0 (HTML) | |
| 978-1-80511-242-6 (EPUB) | |
| Short abstract | In the 1830s, decades before Darwin published the Origin of Species, a museum of evolution flourished in London. Reign of the Beast pieces together the extraordinary story of this lost working-man's institution and its enigmatic owner, the wine merchant W. D. Saull. A financial backer of the anti-clerical Richard Carlile, the ‘Devil's Chaplain’ Robert Taylor, and socialist Robert Owen, Saull outraged polite society by putting humanity’s ape ancestry on display. He weaponized his museum fossils and empowered artisans with a knowledge of deep geological time that undermined the Creationist base of the Anglican state. His geology museum, called the biggest in Britain, housed over 20,000 fossils, including famous dinosaurs. Saull was indicted for blasphemy and reviled during his lifetime. After his death in 1855, his museum was demolished and he was expunged from the collective memory. Now multi-award-winning author Adrian Desmond undertakes a thorough reading of Home Office spy reports and subversive street prints to re-establish Saull's pivotal place at the intersection of the history of geology, atheism, socialism, and working-class radicalism. |
| Long abstract | In the 1830s, decades before Darwin published the Origin of Species, a museum of evolution flourished in London. Reign of the Beast pieces together the extraordinary story of this lost working-man's institution and its enigmatic owner, the wine merchant W. D. Saull. A financial backer of the anti-clerical Richard Carlile, the ‘Devil's Chaplain’ Robert Taylor, and socialist Robert Owen, Saull outraged polite society by putting humanity’s ape ancestry on display. He weaponized his museum fossils and empowered artisans with a knowledge of deep geological time that undermined the Creationist base of the Anglican state. His geology museum, called the biggest in Britain, housed over 20,000 fossils, including famous dinosaurs. Saull was indicted for blasphemy and reviled during his lifetime. After his death in 1855, his museum was demolished and he was expunged from the collective memory. Now multi-award-winning author Adrian Desmond undertakes a thorough reading of Home Office spy reports and subversive street prints to re-establish Saull's pivotal place at the intersection of the history of geology, atheism, socialism, and working-class radicalism. |
| Print length | 676 pages (xii+664) |
| Language | English (Original) |
| Dimensions | 156 x 35 x 234 mm | 6.14" x 1.38" x 9.21" (Paperback) |
| 156 x 37 x 234 mm | 6.14" x 1.46" x 9.21" (Hardback) | |
| Weight | 937g | 33.05oz (Paperback) |
| 1120g | 39.51oz (Hardback) | |
| OCLC Number | 1433109251 |
| LCCN | 2021388886 |
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Adrian Desmond was educated at University College London and Harvard University, where he was Stephen Jay Gould's first history of science PhD student. He has two MSc's, one in history of science, another in vertebrate palaeontology, and a PhD for his work on radical Victorian evolutionists. For twenty years he was an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London. He is the multi-award-winning author of nine books, which include: The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs, Archetypes and Ancestors: Palaeontology in Victorian London 1850-1875, The Politics of Evolution: Morphology, Medicine, and Reform in Radical London, Darwin, Huxley: The Devil’s Disciple, Huxley: Evolution’s High Priest, Darwin’s Sacred Cause (with James Moore)