The Rejection of Continental Drift Theory and Method in American Earth Science [Paperback]

In the early twentieth century, American earth scientists were united in their opposition to the new--and highly radical--notion of continental drift, even going so far as to label the theory unscientific. Some fifty years later, however, continental drift was heralded as a major scientific breakthrough and today it is accepted as scientific fact. Why did American geologists reject so adamantly an idea that is now considered a cornerstone of the discipline? And why were their European colleagues receptive to it so much earlier? This book, based on extensive archival research on three continents, provides important new answers while giving the first detailed account of the American geological community in the first half of the century. Challenging previous historical work on this episode, Naomi Oreskes shows that continental drift was not rejected for the lack of a causal mechanism, but because it seemed to conflict with the basic standards of practice in American geology. This account provides a compelling look at how scientific ideas are made and unmade.

I. Not the Mechanism
1. Two Visions of the Earth
2. The Collapse of Thermal Contraction
3. To Reconcile Historical Geology with Isotasy: Continental Drift
4. Drift Mechanisms in the 1920s
II. Theory and Method
5. From Fact to Theory
6. The Short Step Backward
7. Uniformitarianism and Unity
III. A Revolution in Acceptance
8. Direct and Indirect Evidence
9. An Evidentiary and Epistemic Shift
10. The Depersonalization of Geology

Oreskes (Univ. of California, San Diego) argues that 'science is about how belief gets formulated,' and that the criteria used in the formulation of belief are historically contingent and play a significant role in constraining the boundaries of scientific knowledge in a cultural and social context. Using the history of evolution of the continental drift theory, she discusses how US earth scl³H