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The Beginning and the End of the World
£12.99
The Beginning and the End of the World—St. Andrews, Scandal, and the Birth of Photography
How a Scottish scandal gave birth to the art form that changed the world
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About the Ebook
In a work of spectacular imagination and remarkable synthesis, poet Robert Crawford celebrates St Andrews, the first town in the world to have its people, buildings and natural environment thoroughly documented through photography.
The Beginning and the End of the World tells the stories of several pioneering Scottish photographers, linking their work to one of the nineteenth century's most scandalous and hotly debated publications. Here is the extraordinary intellectual life of an eccentric society rich in apocalyptically-minded Victorian inventors and authors whose work has had an international impact. The protagonists include a very quarrelsome professor, a cello-playing ex-military golfer, a notorious scientist, a married couple coping with mental breakdown and a physician obsessed with sewage.
In paying full attention to these people's inter-relationship, implicitly and explicitly this book suggests that their lasting legacies may have a bearing on our own arguments about environmental sustainability and the possibility of largescale extinction.
Why You'll Love This Ebook
- Discover the hidden Scottish origins of the art of photography
- Follow the scandal that sparked an invention that changed how we see the world
- Explore art, science, and society in nineteenth-century Scotland
- Read another celebrated title from Birlinn Ltd - Independent Scottish Publisher
About the Author
Robert Crawford is Professor of Modern Scottish Literature at St Andrews University. He received his MA from Glasgow University and his DPhil from Oxford. He is a founding Fellow of the English Association and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He has taught at the universities of Oxford and Glasgow, and has been at St Andrews since 1989.Publication Details
Publisher: Birlinn Ltd
Publication Date: 14 June 2011
Print Length: 256 pages (Ebook edition)
ISBN (Ebook): 9780857900586
Format: Ebook
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