Science & Education

, Volume 19, Issue 4–5, pp 461–484 | Cite as

Joseph McCabe: A Forgotten Early Populariser of Science and Defender of Evolution

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Abstract

Joseph McCabe (1867–1955) was one of the most prolific and gifted polymaths of the twentieth century. Long before such a thing was thought respectable, and almost a century before any university established a chair in the public understanding of science, McCabe made a living as a populariser of science and a critic of philosophical and religious obscurantism. Through the first half of the twentieth century he wrote countless cheap and widely distributed books and pamphlets for those whose thirst for knowledge exceeded the money or time they could devote to such pursuits. This article will detail, and give some assessment of, McCabe’s career as a populariser of science and expositor of evolutionary theory and its philosophical, religious and cultural ramifications.

Keywords

General Reader Blue Book Great Chain Materialist Understanding Universe Today 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Center for InquiryAucklandNew Zealand

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