Michael Rectenwald

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A Category in Contention

Review of Victorian Scientific Naturalism: Community, Identity, Continuity. G. Dawson, B. Lightman (Eds.). University of Chicago, 2014. This anthology adds to a recent spate of publications devoted to ‘‘scientific naturalism,’’ including two other books published in 2014. This particular volume enhances our understanding of the creed and its advocates. But it also challenges its conceptual and historical coherence, despite the editors’ claims that the term should be accepted as a valid actors’ category and guide for historiography. A few of the most impressive essays in this volume challenge at least the first assertion, although this reviewer believes that the editors are correct in both claims. Published in Endeavour Vol. 39, No. 1. March 2015. Click here or on title.