Alain Corbin - Terra Incognita

1 Cover

2 Title Page Terra Incognita A History of Ignorance in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Alain Corbin Translated by Susan Pickford polity

3 Copyright

4 Acknowledgements

5 Epigraph

6 A Comprehensive History Implies the Study of Ignorance Notes

7 Part I Gaps in Enlightenment Knowledge of the Earth 1. The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 Notes 2. The Age of the Earth? Notes 3. Imagining the Earth’s Internal Structure Notes 4. The Mystery of the Poles Notes 5. The Unfathomable Mysteries of the Deep Notes 6. Discovering Mountain Notes 7. Mysterious Glaciers Notes 8. A Fascination with Volcanoes Notes 9. The Birth of Meteorology Notes 10. Conquering the Skies 11. The State of Scientific Ignorance at the End of the Age of Enlightenment

8 Part II A Gradual Decline in Ignorance (1800–1850) 12. Understanding Glaciers Notes 13. The Birth of Geology Notes 14. Volcanoes and the Mystery of ‘Dry Fogs’ Notes 15. The Ocean Depths and the Fear of the Unknown Notes 16. Reading Clouds and the Beaufort Scale Notes 17. The Poles Remain a Mystery Notes 18. The State of Scientific Ignorance in the Early 1860s

9 Part III Shrinking the Boundaries of Ignorance (1860–1900) 19. Exploring the Ocean Depths Notes 20. The Development of Dynamic Meteorology Notes 21. Manned Flight and the Discovery of the Troposphere and Stratosphere Notes 22. Scientific Volcanology and the Birth of Seismology Notes 23. Measuring the Grip of Ice Notes 24. Solving the Mysteries of Rivers: Fluvialism, Hydrology and Speleology Notes 25. A New Approach to Reading the Globe Notes 26. Was There Open Sea at the Poles? Notes 27. The Earth Sciences Slowly Filter into General Knowledge Notes 28. Measuring Ignorance at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century

10 Index

11 End User License Agreement

1 Cover

2 Table of Contents

3 Title Page

4 Copyright

5 Acknowledgements

6 Epigraph

7 A Comprehensive History Implies the Study of Ignorance

8 Begin Reading

9 Index

10 End User License Agreement

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Alain Corbin

Translated by Susan Pickford

polity

Originally published in French as Terra Incognita: Une histoire de l’ignorance. XVIIIe–XIXe siècle © Editions Albin Michel – Paris 2020

This English translation © Polity Press, 2021

Polity Press

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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4627-5

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Corbin, Alain, author. | Pickford, Susan, translator.

Title: Terra incognita : a history of ignorance in the 18th and 19th centuries / Alain Corbin ; translated by Susan Pickford.

Other titles: Terra incognita. English

Description: Cambridge ; Medford : Polity Press, [2021] | “Originally published in French as Terra Incognita: Une histoire de l’ignorance. XVIIIe-XIXe siècle (c) Editions Albin Michel - Paris 2020.” | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “A leading historian opens up a new terrain for understanding the past: the history of ignorance”-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020055368 (print) | LCCN 2020055369 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509546251 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509546268 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509546275 (epub) | ISBN 9781509548033 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: Science--Social aspects--History--18th century. | Science--Social aspects--History--19th century. | Ignorance (Theory of knowledge)--Social aspects.

Classification: LCC Q175.46 .C6713 2021 (print) | LCC Q175.46 (ebook) | DDC 303.48/309033--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020055368LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020055369

The publisher has used its best endeavours to ensure that the URLs for external websites referred to in this book are correct and active at the time of going to press. However, the publisher has no responsibility for the websites and can make no guarantee that a site will remain live or that the content is or will remain appropriate.

Every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, but if any have been overlooked the publisher will be pleased to include any necessary credits in any subsequent reprint or edition.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: politybooks.com

My thanks to Fabrice d’Almeida for helping me produce the book; Sylvie Le Dantec, who worked on the text; and Anouchka Vasak, who read the manuscript with an expert eye.