Science, Progress, and Public Education in Nineteenth-Century Popular Nonfiction Literature

Abstract

The nineteenth century was not only an age of scientific discovery; it was also an age in which science became a public language. Scientific knowledge moved from specialist circles into the wider reading world, where it appeared in books, lectures, magazines, educational essays, family reading, and public debate. This movement changed the cultural meaning of science. It made science more than a body of expert knowledge. It turned science into a way of speaking about progress, order, improvement, education, and the future of society. Popular nonfiction played a central role in this change because it gave ordinary readers access to scientific ideas in language that could be read, remembered, and discussed.