Trying Leviathan : the nineteenth-century New York court case that put the whale on trial and challenged the order of nature / D. Graham Burnett.

Author: Burnett, D. Graham.

Imprint:Princeton : Princeton University Press, c2008.

Descriptionxiv, 266 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Note:Introduction. The peace offering that stank. Maurice v. Judd and the history of science. From dock to docket -- Common sense. Manhattan and its whales -- The philosophical whale. Samuel Latham Mitchill and natural history in New York City. "No more a fish than a man". Taxonomy at the bar -- Naturalists in the crow's nest. What the whalemen knew -- Men of affairs. The whale in the swamp -- The jury steps out. The Knickerbockers slay a Yankee whale. Who decides who decides? Picking up the Pisces -- Conclusion. New science, New York, new nation. Epilogue : Whales and fish, philosophers and historians, science and society.

Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references and index.

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