Was Man Created?

Mott, Henry A. (Henry Augustus), 1852-1896Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 193K words
Chapters: 20

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Was Man Created? by Henry A. MottAuthor: Mott, Henry A. (Henry Augustus), 1852-1896,Language: English, Class: QH: Science: Natural history, Release Date: Nov 8, 2009

Editor's review

This book examines the proposition of whether man was created, occupying a space between the history of natural science and natural theology. Its author, Henry A. Mott, lived in the late nineteenth century, and his writing reflects that era's response to the tensions among Darwinism, the origin of species, and religious doctrine. For today's readers, its value lies not in offering the latest scientific conclusions but in presenting the intellectual scene in which modern scientific ideas and religious explanations collided and adapted to each other. The book's argumentative methods, terminology, and framing of questions help readers understand the specific context of the history of science communication. As a free eBook from Project Gutenberg, it is easy to search and excerpt, making it suitable as supplementary reading for the history of science, the history of religious thought, or nineteenth-century English-language sources. It should be read as a historical text rather than as popular science.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in the nineteenth-century clash between science and religious thought
Researchers of the history of science, natural theology, or English-language sources
Students who need a free original English text as course supplementary material
Those who enjoy reading modern polemical works and are interested in the history of ideas

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking the latest knowledge about contemporary biology or human origins
Readers who prefer light entertainment and are unwilling to engage with polemical writing
People with limited English reading ability who need a Chinese translation as support

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and preface to grasp the author's framing of the question and argumentative structure before moving into the main text.
Read alongside background materials on nineteenth-century science history, placing the book's views in their historical context.
Take brief notes when encountering religious and scientific terminology to distinguish period ideas from contemporary consensus.
Read closely the chapters directly concerned with human origins and skim the rest according to interest.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a contemporary scientific work?

No. The author, Mott, was a figure of the late nineteenth century, and the book reflects the way human origins were discussed in that era. It is better read as material for the history of science and intellectual history, and cannot replace modern works on biology or paleoanthropology.

What language proficiency is needed to read this book?

The original is in English, and Project Gutenberg provides an English electronic text. Readers need a certain level of English reading ability to handle the long sentences and religious and scientific vocabulary of nineteenth-century polemical writing; otherwise the barrier to understanding is relatively high.

Is this book suitable for reading straight through from beginning to end?

Not necessarily. For research purposes, read selected chapters by topic; to grasp the overall argument, read the preface and conclusion first, then return to the middle arguments. Polemical works tend to be repetitive, so selective reading is more efficient.

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About the author

Mott, Henry A. (Henry Augustus), 1852-1896 Author · American · 1852–1896

Henry A. Mott (1852–1896) was an American chemist who wrote works on chemistry and industrial technology. His representative work, Was Man Created?, discusses the question of human origins and reflects a writing approach that sets chemical knowledge against religious and philosophical issues. Public information about his education, institutional affiliations, and public activities is limited and cannot presently be confirmed. Only one of his works is held in this collection, so any judgment about the full range of his writing must rest on that single title. From the available information, he did not confine himself to experiments and processes when treating scientific subjects, but was willing to place chemical knowledge within larger intellectual debates, a style that gives his work the character of both a technical text and an intellectual argument and offers some reference value for understanding the range of concerns among nineteenth-century American writers on chemistry.