Recommended Reading - Four Revolutions in the Earth Sciences - page 276

Recommended Reading
General Reading
Stephen G. Brush's three topics in the series A History of Modern Planetary Physics offer excel-
lent detail about the evolution of thought on the age and origin of the solar system and the Earth.
Martin J. S. Rudwick's several topics provide a close look at the history of geology, its contro-
versies and accomplishments.
Greene, M. T. Geology in the Nineteenth Century: Changing Views of a Changing World .
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982.
Hallam, A. Great Geological Controversies . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983.
The Age of the Earth
Albritton, C. C. The Abyss of Time: Unraveling the Mystery of the Earth's Age . New York:
Dover, 2002.
Burchfield, J. D. Lord Kelvin and the Age of the Earth . Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1990.
Dalrymple, G. B. The Age of the Earth . Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1991. For a
less mathematical treatement, see Dalrymple's Ancient Earth, Ancient Skies: The Age of
Earth and Its Cosmic Surroundings (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2004).
Faure, G., and T. Mensing. Isotopes: Principles and Applications . Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2005.
Lewis, C. The Dating Game: One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth . Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 2000. A biography of Arthur Holmes.
Lindley, D. Degrees Kelvin: A Tale of Genius, Invention, and Tragedy . Washington, D.C.: Na-
tional Academies Press, 2004.
Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics
H. R. Frankel's four-volume series, The Continental Drift Controversy (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2012) is comprehensive and authoritative. Naomi Oreskes' The Rejection of
Continental Drift: Theory and Method in American Earth Science (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1999) is a masterpiece of scientific scholarship and writing
Glen, W. The Road to Jaramillo: Critical Years of the Revolution in Earth Science . Stanford,
Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1982.
Hallam, A. A Revolution in the Earth Sciences: From Continental Drift to Plate Tectonics . Ox-
ford: Clarendon, 1973.
Le Grand, H. E. Drifting Continents and Shifting Theories . Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1988.
Marvin, U. Continental Drift: The Evolution of a Concept . Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Insti-
tution Press, 1973.