Sandra Herbert
University of Maryland , Baltimore , MD , USAProfessor Sandra Herbert is an historian of science. She is the editor of The Red Notebook of Charles Darwin (1980) and co-editor of Charles Darwin´s Notebooks, 1836-1844: Geology, Transmutation of Species, Metaphysical Enquiries (1987). Both were published by the British Museum (Natural History). She is also the author of Charles Darwin, Geologist (2005) published by Cornell University Press. She received a Ph.D. in the History of Ideas from Brandeis University and is recently retired from teaching at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (USA). She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. During the academic year 2006–2007 she was Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Christ´s College (University of Cambridge).
ABSTRACTThe Arc of Ambition: Charles Darwin as geologist
Charles Darwin´s first grand ambition was to simplify geology by identifying the pattern of movements of elevation and subsidence affecting the Earth´s crust. In the 1840s he had to modify this ambition in the wake of glacial theory. Still, despite his reduced ambition, he was able to make significant contributions to several areas in the field of geology ranging from tectonics to petrology to paleontology.
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