Jack Meadows

This volume functions as a sort of "biography" of the Victorian scientist in general (using anyone who achieved eminence from the 1830s to 1900 as source material), divided up into sections concerning schooling, home life, training, research, jobs, and so on. There is frustratingly little on how the scientist was perceived within society, aside from small mentions of public enthusiasm for popular science texts and such. I also found the book's handling of women scientists (a small section in the final chapter) kind of perplexing. But on the whole it provides as effective a depiction of the career of the "typical" Victorian scientist as you are ever likely to find.… (mere)