John Wilson Foster

#2

2002

This book presents three lectures delivered at NUI Maynooth in February 2001. Each lecture draws attention to a neglected episode in Irish cultural history that occurred between mid-Victorian and Edwardian times. The first lecture discusses the reaction in Ireland to one version of Darwinism; the second lecture addresses the building of the RMS Titanic; and the last lecture discusses the explosive growth in popularity of fieldwork in geology, botany, and zoology in Ireland. All contribute to the cultural history of science in Ireland. -- From Introduction

#3

The story of the sinking of the Titanic based on first hand accounts collected in the days and weeks following the disaster. The story of the Titanic is now well known. But in the months following the disaster wild speculation was rife. On Thursday 22 May 1912, a mere 37 days after the sinking, respected London publisher Grant Richards, delivered Filson Young's book to booksellers around the capital. It was the first attempt to plot the demise of the unsinkable ship from a well-respected writer who had already argued in the light of the Oceana sinking, for proper use of the wireless on board ships. Both Filson and Grant knew victims of the sinking and both worked hard to gather first-hand testimony to use in the book. Much of his telling of the story still stands today and his speculations about the feeling of daily life aboard the doomed ship are used in books and films on the subject.