عنوان

The pseudoscience wars :

(Number (ISBN

022610172X

(Number (ISBN

0226304426

(Number (ISBN

9780226101729

(Number (ISBN

9780226304427

Erroneous ISBN

0226304434

Erroneous ISBN

9780226304434

Number

dltt

Title Proper

The pseudoscience wars :

General Material Designation

[Book]

Other Title Information

Immanuel Velikovsky and the birth of the modern fringe /

First Statement of Responsibility

Michael D. Gordin.

Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item

x, 291 pages ;

Dimensions

24 cm

Text of Note

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Text of Note

Introduction : Bad ideas -- The grand collision of spring 1950 -- A monolithic oneness -- The battle over Lysenkoism -- Experiments in rehabilitation -- Skirmishes on the edge of creation -- Strangest bedfellows -- Conclusion : Pseudoscience in our time.

0

Text of Note

Properly analyzed, the collective mythological and religious writings of humanity reveal that around 1500 BC, a comet swept perilously close to Earth, triggering widespread natural disasters and threatening the destruction of all life before settling into solar orbit as Venus, our nearest planetary neighbor. Sound implausible? Well, from 1950 until the late 1970s, a huge number of people begged to differ, as they devoured Immanuel Velikovsky's major best-seller, Worlds in Collision, insisting that perhaps this polymathic thinker held the key to a new science and a new history. Scientists, on the other hand, assaulted Velikovsky's book, his followers, and his press mercilessly from the get-go. In The Pseudoscience Wars, Michael D. Gordin resurrects the largely forgotten figure of Velikovsky and uses his strange career and surprisingly influential writings to explore the changing definitions of the line that separates legitimate scientific inquiry from what is deemed bunk, and to show how vital this question remains to us today. Drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished material from Velikovsky's personal archives, Gordin presents a behind-the-scenes history of the writer's career, from his initial burst of success through his growing influence on the counterculture, heated public battles with such luminaries as Carl Sagan, and eventual eclipse. Along the way, he offers fascinating glimpses into the histories and effects of other fringe doctrines, including creationism, Lysenkoism, parapsychology, and more -- all of which have surprising connections to Velikovsky's theories. Science today is hardly universally secure, and scientists seem themselves beset by critics, denialists, and those they label "pseudoscientists"--As seen all too clearly in battles over evolution and climate change. The Pseudoscience Wars simultaneously reveals the surprising Cold War roots of our contemporary dilemma and points readers to a different approach to drawing the line between knowledge and nonsense. - Publisher.

Lysenko, Trofim,1898-1976.

Velikovsky, Immanuel,1895-1979-- Appreciation.

Velikovsky, Immanuel,1895-1979-- Influence.

Creationism-- History.

Eugenics-- History.

Pseudoscience-- History-- 20th century.

Science-- History-- 20th century.

Number

Edition

Class number

Book number

Gordin, Michael D.

Date of Transaction

20160321083312.0

Cataloguing Rules (Descriptive Conventions))

rda

Electronic name

[Book]

Y