Abstract
The legacy of evolutionary theory had a profound effect upon art and
culture in the early twentieth century, not least via the various manifestations
of evolutionary ideologies that were widely embraced across the
political spectrum and sharpened in the popular mind by the events of
the First World War. As Gillian Beer has argued, evolutionary theory was
‘a form of imaginative history’ that impacted upon notions of the past and
visions of the future, and acted as a guiding metaphor for a wide range
of cultural applications that reached far beyond biology. Drawing
on works that assess the intersection of scientific ideas in application,
from Stephen Jay Gould to Oliver Botar, this chapter explores the ways
that popular scientific ideas about the life force, degeneration, cultural
evolution and the biogenetic law were disseminated and incorporated
into the symbols, philosophies and practices of experimental woodcraft
campaign groups in interwar England.
culture in the early twentieth century, not least via the various manifestations
of evolutionary ideologies that were widely embraced across the
political spectrum and sharpened in the popular mind by the events of
the First World War. As Gillian Beer has argued, evolutionary theory was
‘a form of imaginative history’ that impacted upon notions of the past and
visions of the future, and acted as a guiding metaphor for a wide range
of cultural applications that reached far beyond biology. Drawing
on works that assess the intersection of scientific ideas in application,
from Stephen Jay Gould to Oliver Botar, this chapter explores the ways
that popular scientific ideas about the life force, degeneration, cultural
evolution and the biogenetic law were disseminated and incorporated
into the symbols, philosophies and practices of experimental woodcraft
campaign groups in interwar England.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Being Modern |
| Subtitle of host publication | The Cultural Impact of Science in the Early Twentieth Century |
| Editors | Robert Bud, Paul Greenhalgh, Frank James, Morag Shiach |
| Place of Publication | London |
| Publisher | UCL Press |
| Chapter | 14 |
| Pages | 311-336 |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781787353930 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978178735-3954 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2018 |
