Product Description

It was an age of counterfeit giants, corrupt politicians, and intrepid pioneers. It was a time of scientific ferment. The second half of the 19th century — the so-called Gilded Age — was a time when Americans were exploring the West and building a nation which stretched from coast to coast. It was also when scientists began finding dinosaur fossils across the western half of the nation.

Could the answer to the history of life and the proof of evolution be found in these bones? That was the question two young American paleontologists — Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh — set out to answer. But what began as a friendly contest quickly turned into a bitter rivalry that would spill over into American science and politics and rage relentlessly for nearly three decades.

Despite their Gilded Age celebrity, the names of Cope and Marsh have disappeared into the recesses of the library and archive. In The Gilded Dinosaur, Mark Jaffe exhumes from those archives the notes, journals, and letters of these two great opponents to reanimate and retell one of the most fierce rivalries in the history of science.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #827817 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-20
• Released on: 2001-03-20
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.36 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

From Amazon.com
Feuds are common to all fields of human endeavor, but only scientists see them as integral to their work. Scientific progress is always contentious, as we are reminded by science writer Mark Jaffe in The Gilded Dinosaur, his delightful examination of the well-known war between paleontologists Edward Cope and O.C. Marsh in the context of the development of American science. Jaffe has delved deeply into the historical record to illuminate these large personalities and their struggle for access to physical and political territory on which to build their competing scientific empires. Fossil-hunting was inextricably linked with the expansion into the West, the explosion of industrial capitalism, and the new expression of America's status as a world power. Cope and Marsh, in part through their competition for scarce financial and scientific resources, forced the United States to build a scientific establishment combining elements of the public and private sectors.

Jaffe is careful with his details; though there are many of them, they always illustrate his themes and portraits rather than distracting from them. Instead of reproducing the legendary protracted newspaper battle in its entirety, he samples a few headlines and paragraphs, then explores the motives and reactions of the principals. Cope comes across as far more sympathetic than Marsh, but the reader is left with the sense that this reflects historical truth more than journalistic bias. How can you take two egos, thousands of tons of rocks and bones, and make a scientific infrastructure so sturdy that today's schoolchildren grow up with Apatasaurus? The Gilded Dinosaur explains it all. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly
Science in general and paleontology in particular came of age in America during the second half of the 19th century. Two of the dominant figures of the time, E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh, were responsible for uncovering and naming most of the dinosaurs found in America while feuding with one another for all of their adult lives. Journalist Jaffe (And No Birds Sing) does an admirable job of bringing these two, as well as the myriad politicians and scientists they interacted with, to life. Rather than focusing narrowly on their feud, as does David Rains Wallace in his recent The Bonehunters' Revenge, Jaffe provides much more context for their disagreement and uses it to demonstrate the nature of the scientific enterprise. Both wanted sole control of the best fossils found in the American West and both coveted the attention that came with being the world's foremost paleontologist. Neither was above using political connections, from fellow scientists to the inhabitants of the White House during numerous administrations, to further their careers. Jaffe's epic history--covering a search for the bones of the largest animals ever to walk the earth; the trials, tribulations and governmental abuses surrounding the Indian Wars; the transition of science from an avocation to a profession; and the political machinations associated with pork-barrel funding of scientific expeditions--is as engaging as an adventure novel while providing insight into America's Gilded Age. Agent, David Black. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
As a new science in the 19th century, paleontology attracted ambitious men--including O.C. Marsh and E.D. Cope, who spent the better part of 30 years searching and digging for dinosaur bones against a backdrop of cold winters, blazing hot summers, and warring Indians. These two brilliant paleontologists engaged in a bitter feud that was often reported in the national newspapers. When the dust finally settled, Marsh found and named the most specimens but did not formulate any significant ideas related to his fossils, while Cope wrote a record number of scientific publications and formulated precepts still recognized today. David Wallace's The Bonehunter's Revenge (LJ 9/15/99) focuses more on the newspaper war between Cope and Marsh and does not leave the reader with a true sense of these two men and their feud. Science writer Jaffe (And No Birds Sang) captures the complexity of the feud, both scientifically and personally, as well as the excitement of the Wild West, the treachery among rival camps, and the grueling conditions they endured. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.
-Gloria Maxwell, Penn Valley Community Coll. Lib., Kansas City
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.