Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell

Principles of Geology Reviews

• 
  Keriann

  Charles Lyell, the father of modern Geology (although I disagree). Lyell was the student of James Hutton and through them the uniformitarianism vs catastrophism argument was born. Lyell is incredibally important to modern sciences and Sir Charles Darwin himself states in "The Origin of the Species" that if you have not read Lyell's book, to immediately put down Origin and read Principles first. Without Lyell's concept of Deep Time (or geologic time) evolution (and all of geology for that matter) cannot exist
• 
  Nathan Langford

  Read this book on a whim in college as I was studying geology as my major; it was and is considered the first great book of geology. It was already out of date from a scientific standpoint, however, it was valuable to understand and appreciate the growth in the science and our own views of the scientific process in general.
• 
  Alexa Davenport

  The history of this book is almost as interesting as the book itself. Lyell wanted to be a lawyer, following the profession of his father. But his poor eyesight--in the 1800s, lawyers had to have perfect vision--prevented him from law. He came from a wealthy family and could afford school, where he became interested in geology, enthralled by the eccentric Reverend William Buckland. So, he took up the natural sciences, which at the time were suspicious to the elite class.
  This book is meant to make geology more elegant as to ingratiate it to the upper class and thus approaches Christian subjects--think evolution--gently. His only real job in life was being a professor of geology at King's College in London from 1831-1833, during which he published this book... which is almost entirely a reproduction of James Hutton's Theory of the Earth (which is a strong candidate for the least read important book of science. Unfortunately, though teeming with the keenest insights, Mr. Hutton was "almost entirely innocent of rhetorical accomplishments").
  
  Anyways, it's of course intriguing to see all that was known in the 1830s and the approaches Lyell took to make the natural sciences fashionable to the upper class, a very successful pursuit. This became a one which the wealthy of Britain would stash above their fireplaces or upon their coffee tables.
  This is an interesting read although with some dense, flowery patches.
• 
  May Ling

  I read the free version from Gutenberg.org. I'm researching Darwin and trying to understand the period under which he developed his concepts. I think most of the reviews are more interested in the geology of the time and only give fleeting reference to the history, so my views may differ.
  
  I loved this book for it's ability to give context to the period that pre-dates Darwin. It is very hard to understand the degree to which the world has become indoctrinated with all of the concepts presented by Darwin and the subsequent anthropromophisms that arise. Darwin was the first to introduce a concept of competition into species as a driving force. In my mind, it's part of the reason that everyone believes AI will kill us. But more on that if you look-up my reviews on Darwin. While a speed reader, I had to read this book at about 1/2 speed because the modern perspective and common knowledge of science is so profoundly different that you miss the beauty of the man's argument and what he had to accomplish. In this regard, it is an amazing book to remind us that we must - when arguing our point, start from the point of view of your audience. His audience was quite religious, believed the earth was only a few thousand years old, and that it was formed exactly as it is today. They also believed the early was once very hot and has since cooled. FREAKIN AMAZING how he clearly lays out the common belief and then dispels each point using geology. Dope. Seriously dope. I cannot even imagine if I was transported to that time having to do the same thing. It would not even occur to me that someone could think that here in 2019.
  
  For example, his argument starts in Chapter 3, that in Da Vinci's time, he argued that fossils were not created by the stars in the rock to simulate life. (p. 42 on ibooks) "They tell us that these shells were formed in the hills by the influence of the stars; but I ask where in the hills are the stars now forming shells of distinct ages and species?" He then goes on that this was not a cool thing to say in that period and his ideas were lost for a few hundred years as a result. But NOW, here's the skinny on what we know in the way of geology. Remember, DNA wasn't isolated until the 1860's. This book was first published around 1830, so who's to say animal or plant among fossils.
  
  He then goes on and has to justify that the earth wasn't more or less like it is today. Throughout the entire book he's arguing things like, maybe it's not the gods, but it's just really dangerous to settle around a volcano because there's there's underground movement. Recall, there isn't a real theory of Panegea until the 1900s. This idea that the ground is super hot is no good.
  
  He also talks about the big mammoths that are being found in Russia. Apparently, there was a belief the earth was really hot and now its colder, a la Noah. That it was the cooling down of the earth that created land. But the frozen mammoths suggest the opposite happened. SO rad. I had no idea when those were found and why they so were important before this book.
  
  Then there's a lot of great stuff about the way in which water is more powerful in creating what land looks like today. It's a great read to really understand why people cared and what these implications are all about, particularly if you keep modern history in mind. None of these guys were using the techniques or instruments of today. Because he walks through both sides of the argument, it's almost like watching two young kid observe something and then think of a hypothesis and being super surprised they thought that (wrong or right). Puts so much of what we do now and how hard it was for us to come to current understandings into context. Gives you such a sense for how hard it is to get the entirety of the world to come with you. AMAZING!!!
• 
  Sebastian Palmer

  Rock solid reasoning
  
  Like others before me, I came to this book via Darwin. Having got heavily into reading Darwin, particularly over the period of his bicentennial, I wanted to go to some of Darwin's own sources: Malthus 'On Population', and the oft-referred to 'Principles of Geology', by Charles Lyell, for example.
  
  Not quite as easily readable as Darwin at his best (both Darwin and Lyell do at times exhibit that rather stodgy and verbose style so characteristic of their time), this is nonetheless fascinating and informative stuff. The Penguin Classics version I read is heftily abridged, so I guess I'll miss out on quite a bit of the detail that someone like Darwin no doubt ploughed through conscientiously! But even so I learned a lot, albeit that some of the ideas and information are now almost certainly out of date (this was written before the discovery of plate tectonics, and even Darwin's 'Origin' would add to, augment, and modify some of Lyell's ideas).
  
  But in principle - pardon the pun - the book remains sound. How and why? Because it's built on the bedrock of the scientific process: reasoning, theorising, and testing for evidence. And Lyell, averse initially to the conclusions Darwin was to reach in 'The Origin', in no small part thanks to some of Lyell's pointers, had, unlike another of Darwin's near contemporaries and mentors, Adam Sedgwick, the capacity for intellectual robustness and honesty that allowed him to modify his views as new evidence and better fitting theories emerged. So, in the long run, having started as a mentor, he became a friend and supporter of Darwin (in fact one of my only criticisms of Darwin's 'Origin' is that his references to Lyell veer towards the cloyingly reverential and ingratiating).
  
  One of the ways in which even the abridged version most resembles Darwin's 'Origin' (itself only intended as the 'abstract' of a never completed multi-volume version, doubtless inspired by Lyell's multi-instalment work) is the thoroughness of the research, and the copiousness of the cited examples, used to back up theories and arguments.
  
  A fascinating keystone work in the history of the modern sciences, in a well presented accessible format. Highly recommended.
• 
  Matthew Dai

  Although written a while ago, I still found myself enjoying reading Charles Lyell's book 'Principles of Geology'. By reading the book, I was exposed to the different geological periods of the earth and also the science behind the formations of geological structures. I find that Lyell's writing also allowed me to see the links between Earth Sciences and the principle of Evolution.
  
  I would recommend this book to anyone considering doing a degree in Earth Sciences or Geology at the tertiary level.
• 
  Ann

  This was an audiobook from LibriVox.
  
  
  https://librivox.org/principles-of-ge...
• 
  Forked Radish

  Note: There are three books in this edition, not two.
• 
  Robert Wood

  To begin, the Penguin introduction offers a good summary of the debates and controversies that defined Lyell's intervention into the field of geology. Lyell attempted to make the discipline a respectable for a gentleman to practice. He did so by continuing the empirical turn begun by Hutton and others. He built on the uniformitarian assumptions of Hutton, and attempted to understand the forces that had slowly transformed the earth. The book has a curious running debate with Lamarck that would only end with Lyell's acceptance of Darwin's theories of selection. Beyond that, the book is a remarkable force of synthesis, engaging with not only Lyell's substantial investigation, but with the work of other scientists around the globe.
• 
  Marts (Thinker)

  Charles Lyell's pivotal work on earth's geology emphasising the uniformitarianism theory as the basis of processes which have formed and continue to form earth's landscape...
• 
  YZ

  Selections
• 
  Celia

  a must read in order to truly grasp the Origin of Species.
• 
  dathomira

  vol1: chapter 5
  vol2: chapters 1, 2, 10, 11, 12