Awards
- Winner of Shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Folklore Book Award 1997 and the New South Wales Premier's History Prize 1997.
Overview
Historians have long puzzled over the `death' of astrology at the end of the seventeenth century. Visions of the Future demonstrates that astrology was alive and well for much of the nineteenth century, finding expression in one of the best-selling items of popular literature, the almanac. It examines the contents of the most notorious almanacs, such as Moore's and Poor Robin, publications which provide a colourful entry into popular culture and which suggest that a belief in the possibility of seeing the future was widespread. The book goes on to discuss why all claims to predict the future, including those of astrology, became categorized as `superstition'. It argues that this development was linked to two major cultural changes: the rise of statistical discourse and the dominance of Newtonian time. Statistical forecasting achieved the status of a `science' at the same time as `visions' of the future were being marginalized. Examining the historical context of the substitution of one type of knowledge for another makes an important contribution to current discussion about interaction between the different levels of culture.
Full Product Details
Author: Maureen Perkins (Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of History, University of Western Australia)
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Imprint: Clarendon Press
Dimensions:
Width: 14.50cm
, Height: 2.10cm
, Length: 22.40cm
Weight: 0.476kg
ISBN: 9780198121787
ISBN 10: 0198121784
Pages: 282
Publication Date: 17 October 1996
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
. ..excellent... --Journal of Interdisciplinary History
admirable monograph * Jon Mee, Oxford University, Jrnl of Religious History, Vol 23, no 2, June 1999 * This is a brilliant book, combining thorough scholarship with original insight. It should deepen our understanding of a remarkable number of subjects. There is also fascinating material here on comic almanacs and Australian almanacs. * Patrick Curry, Culture and Cosmos, Vol. 1, No.1, Spring/Summer 1997 * This is a brilliant book, combining thorough scholarship with original insights. It should deepen our understanding of a remarkable number of subjects. ... Perkins is no wild-eyed student of cultural studies, however; a more sober and thoroughly documented account would be hard to imagine. * Culture and Cosmos, vol.1, no.1, Spring/Summer 1997 *
.,. excellent... --Journal of Interdisciplinary History<br>
