A delightful and highly informative blend of history, paleontology, and natural history
I can’t remember the last time I read a book that was such fun to read that also taught me so much! Most people today find fossils fascinating, but Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party explores the early days of fossil discovery and interpretation when the concept was perhaps even more fascinating but also highly contentious.
Although I learned a lot about paleontology and fossil discovery, this is primarily a work of history, and it is not surprising that it has a large cast of “characters”, a term I put in quotes because so many of the people involved were, not surprisingly, rather colorful and controversial, like George Cuvier, Gideon Mantell, William Paley, and Sir Charles Lyell. It was interesting to learn that a number of highly significant early finds were made by a poor, uneducated woman named Mary Anning who lived in Lyme Regis although her gender and social class kept her from being recognized appropriately at the time; she had to sell most of her fossils to support herself and her family. There were interesting personal items about relevant people, like the sad fact that the great naturalist Carl Linnaeus, who is responsible for our modern method of classifying plants and animals, had a stroke in his old age and could no longer remember any of the names he had assigned.
There is extensive exploration of how the fossil discoveries challenged many religious beliefs and the many ways people tried to reconcile them… or simply rejected either the science or the conventional religious teaching of the day. This was especially relevant since many of the scientists were also clergymen.
There was also discussion of other areas of natural science relevant to the main paleontology theme such as the unusual configuration of elephant skulls and the shape of the elements that carry colors in today’s birds, a shape also found in fossils.
The quality of the writing in Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party was as enjoyable as the content. There was a lot of material new to me in the book, and several times I made a Kindle note wondering “how did they know that”; a paragraph or two later Dolnick would tell me! He also has a real knack for expressing his ideas : “discovering is not merely finding something; discovering is finding and understanding that you’ve found something.” I appreciated the touches of humor, such as when he describes how paleontologist Richard Owen’s theories are about to be seriously challenged and says, ”Owen was at center stage, basking in applause….He took a step forward….He didn’t see he was about to topple into the orchestra pit.” There are also many excellent quotes from a wide variety of other sources, even poetry by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
Whether your interest is the history or the science or just an enjoyable read, you might want to invite some Dinosaurs to your Dinner Party!
I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley and Scribner

This book provided a lot of information on a subject I’d never given much thought to before. Having grown up during a time where dinosaurs are ubiquitous and scientists seemed to have unlocked all of the mysteries of prehistoric times, I’d never considered the initial discovery of dinosaur fossils or how those discoveries could upend society’s understanding of the world. A lot of this book dealt with the interplay between science/natural history and religion. I thought this quote captured it well:

“But putting religion and science into one basket was risky, though no one at the time seemed to see the danger….
Instead, both professional scientists and eager amateurs spent their lives in the happy belief that they were building a cathedral, never knowing that in fact they were erecting a tomb that would encase all that they held most dear.”

Victorian society was religious, and so were virtually all of the people who found, worked with, and wrote about these fossils. I really enjoyed learning how they reconciled (or attempted to reconcile) new information with their longstanding beliefs.

On a completely different note, it’s fun to see how far off these people were. They created wacky new species because they erroneously combined bones from multiple animals; they estimated that these creatures looked like dragons or unicorns, far from what we understand dinosaurs to be today. Of course, science is hard and our understanding is still changing 200 years later. Now we have theories that dinosaurs were fatter and had feathers. Who knows what new information tomorrow will bring! There is always more to unearth and I enjoyed this glimpse at the beginning of the journey.

My favorite dinosaur was stegosaurus. I had a model stegosaurus on the shelf next to my horse models. Our son’s favorite dinosaur was T-Rex. He had a hundred model dinosaurs if he had one. At age seven, he was so well read on dinosaurs that he amazed a friend who had been on digs in Montana and had amassed an impressive fossil collection. We all thought our son would grow up to become a paleontologist.

What kid hasn’t gone through a dinosaur stage? Author Edward Dolnick had a dinosaur collection, and like our son, drew imagined “epics” of dinosaur battles.

Dolnick wondered what people thought when dinosaur fossils were first being discovered. His deep research is evident in this book.

Dolnick first gives readers a firm understanding of Victorian Age society, religion, and science. His writing is entertaining and the concepts easy to grasp. Then he turns to the people who discovered, and interpreted, fossils.

Dolnick begins with Mary Anning, an impoverished girl who scoured the cliffs of Lyme for fossils to sell to tourists. It was dangerous work. Mary became an expert on her finds. Sadly, as a woman with no influence or class rank, she was sidelined.

Natural History was a Victorian fad. They loved to collect everything, including plants, shells, butterflies, and fossils. Any man with a few dollars in his pocket and social rank became a fossil hunter.

Geologist William Buckland discovered Megalosaurus. He also proposed that fossilized animals were killed in the biblical flood until a find made him reject his own theory and he embraced Louis Agassiz’s theory of ice ages. It was glaciers, not floods, that had killed these animals off. Cuvier also thought that catastrophes had killed these animals.

The Victorians contorted scientific discoveries to fit into their Christian worldview. The discovery of dinosaur bones had people scrambling to conform science to faith. They imagined the fossils had been unicorns, Goliaths, and dragons. Fossils were not really old, they just looked it, “like pre-distressed jeans.” Mammoths were not a separate creature, they were just big elephants. Thomas Jefferson, who had a huge collection of fossils, was sure that the wilds of America would reveal that these animals were not extinct, but alive and still living in America. Jefferson believed that creation was a perfect machine and if one cog or link disappeared, it would all fall apart. (We were priviledged to view Jefferson’s personal collection at the Franklin Institute!)

But new discoveries challenged the old paradigm. The “possibility that a species could go extinct was to suggest that God’s creation was flawed,” that God made imperfect creatures, and that perhaps the world was not made for mankind.

These colorful characters and the rivalry between them make for great reading. Buckland was a strange gourmand, trying out every creature at the dinner table. (His guests were not always amused.) Gideon Mantell went into the field and amassed a huge fossil collection, but economics forced him to sell, while Richard Owen, who never put spade to rock to find a single fossil, claimed the spotlight as the foremost dinosaur expert. Dolnick compares Owen to Uriah Heep in appearance, and as “brilliant, backstabbing, charming and manipulative.” It was Owen who came up with the name ‘dinosaur.’

The book closes with a famous dinner in the Crystal Palace where diners sat inside a replica of a dinosaur. Those crazy Victorians.

When Darwin published his Origin of Species in 1859, he started a revolution in science, proving that species did change and die off. Owen was ‘banished to history’s attic.”

It is an immensely entertaining book while also informative.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

Very accessible history, with a chatty tone that made it incredibly readable. It does manage to be both repetitive in its descriptions and disjointed in how it jumps around a bit with history.

What a delight! While the story of the discovery of dinosaurs and the first fossil hunters may be fairly well known, the author of this book takes a fresh and novel approach to the subject. His focus is not on paleontology itself, or even on the historical events, but on the mindset of the scientists who made these discoveries and the general public who marveled at them. For me, it was an eye-opening experience.

As Edward Dolnick writes, “We would perk up if someone showed up with incontrovertible proof that aliens had traveled from one of those stars and paid us a visit. A video of an alien army or a bit of alien corpse that matched nothing on Earth would be hard to dismiss. For our forebears in the nineteenth century, bones and skeletons from fierce, extinct creatures served as that sort of impossible-to-explain-away evidence”.

The challenge was that "in the early 1800s, science and religion were merged in a way that scarcely exists today, and religion was the dominant partner in that union”. As the mounting scientific evidence became less and less consistent with the teachings of the Bible, it caused a dramatic shift that created our modern secular world.

This is no ordinary history book. The author skillfully jumps around the timeline, diving into different topics and showing people’s approach to them from antiquity to the present day. He does this with such panache and wit that I laughed constantly. Even when he recalls familiar events and personalities, he presents them in a new light, peppering his account with a variety of surprising facts (did you know that Leibniz proudly displayed a unicorn skeleton? Or that Thomas Jefferson was "obsessed" with incognitum, as mastodons were called at the time?)

It is also worth noting that there is another interesting forthcoming book (“Impossible Monsters” by Michael Taylor – review coming soon!) that focuses on similar issues, but since it takes a different approach and covers a longer period, it is complementary rather than redundant.

Thanks to the publisher, Scribner, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

This book is so thoroughly researched that I'm not sure what to be more impressed by: the careful curation of knowledge or the absorbing writing. Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party is on the level of one my favorite natural history books, The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, which is saying a lot.

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party is a unique blend of compelling storytelling, both a wide and small-eyed lens on history and the outcomes of events, and this immersive world of scientists, naysayers, history, science, and religion. Dolnick magically blended all these elements together to create something worth reading, and re-reading.

A fascinating history of dinos before dinos were dinos. I thought this book was about one thing and was pleasantly surprised to find it was about something else. It definitely gave me lots to think about and lots of extra reading material from the bibliography.

A spritely text telling of the Victorians who discovered fossils and began to assemble a new worldview.

In Dinosaurs at the the Diner Party, Dolnick pens a fun read about the great dinosaur hunting era. They introduce a vast array of people involved in this and how it served to fundamentally change our understanding of the world.

The author makes great use of first hand source material, allowing the Victorians to speak for themselves. It provides added insight to the thoughts these finds provoked and the exchange of ideas.

As a kid who was both obsessed with dinosaurs and with Victorian literature, how did I not know this was when we discovered dinosaurs? This book was so good, and honestly, I found it kind of funny because I can't imagine being a part of this time period and then learning about dinosaurs. I look back at it now as something to laugh about but I can't imagine how chaotic that was.

I loved the concept of this book and I think Dolnick did an excellent job of drawing from a variety of different perspectives about how Victorian England, particularly, had to shift their understanding of the world and time as they understood it to accommodate the new discovery of "dinosaurs". Much attention is (rightfully) paid to Mary Anning, and I appreciated Dolnick's focus on the personalities of the early paleontologists and how that affected the science. The overall narrative is a bit choppy, with present day research and scientific voices jumping out at the reader in a jarring manner at times. Overall, a lovely investigation into early paleontology (I would love to see Dolnick cover the American Bone wars!)

This was a delight to read. The history was conveyed in an engaging manner that was filled with modern comparisons that were thought provoking. I was pleasantly surprised by the laugh aloud moments and by the photos included. The author did a wonderful job with this book.

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party could easily be retitled to Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Fossils and More.

I was engaged with the cast of characters up until Mary Anning and then they all kind of started running together. The information on fossils kept transitioning between "back stories" and paleontologists. The material was interesting and I feel that I did learn quite a bit about fossils. Large bones had been found in the plowing of fields and industrialization, but nobody had any idea that dinosaurs existed. Often times large bones were thought to have predated Noah's ark and were pre-flood remains.

Mary Anning was meticulous with her collection, but so poor and unrecognized in regards to her discoveries.

Glad that I read Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party. Lots of pictures and drawings which added a nice dimension to this book.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, LLC for approving my request to read the advance review copy of Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party in exchange for an honest review. 336 pages. 06 Aug 2024.

Interesting and fast paced non fiction. Dragged a little but the information was easily presented. I enjoyed learning about how the Victorian era was a pivotal part of dinosaur exploration.

This is a fun book. It's a quick read focusing on the impact of the first dinosaur fossils on Victorian-era beliefs. I had forgotten how recent dinosaurs were, and what a gamechanger they represented. The book zips along from topic to topic, covering the major players (except Huxley, for some reason), as well as some popular events. Learn about how and why these fossils started appearing in numbers, and the first attempts to make sense of them.

I wish the book had gone on longer, as I feel there was more to cover. It ended (triumphantly?) with Darwin and evolution, as if that settled the matter once and for all. It didn't, of course, and maybe the author felt that warranted a separate book. If so, I'll read it.

I love a good nonfic full of Victorian drama. This was an interesting look at the beginning of the dinosaur craze/understanding. It got a little bogged down sometimes, but I enjoyed it.

Let's face it, most historical accounts possess the same soporific qualities as an elderly professor's droning lecture. Edward Dolnick however, in his work *Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party*, proves a delightful exception. This historical adventure dives into the fascinating era of early paleontology, when Victorians stumbled upon evidence of a world so fantastical, it defied their carefully constructed worldview.

Dolnick's prose is a captivating blend of scientific rigor and delightful wit. The tales of eccentric (and at times egotistical) paleontologists such as Mary Anning, William Buckland, and Richard Owen are not merely informative, but immensely entertaining. One might easily envision this trio as characters in a particularly quirky costume drama; Anning, a woman defying social expectations with her sharp eye for fossils, and the flamboyantly zealous Buckland, whose gastronomic experiments on the animal kingdom are almost as unsettling as the strange creatures his science reveals.

What truly excels in this work is Dolnick's ability to convey the profound ripple effects these discoveries sent through the bedrock of Victorian society. The concept of extinction, of an Earth not meticulously designed for its current inhabitants, was both bewildering and unsettling. Yet, the sheer grandeur of these vanished prehistoric beasts ignited a flame of wonder, a sense that the planet's history stretched far beyond human comprehension.

Naturally, as with any scientific endeavor, the road is riddled with missteps and false leads—and Dolnick doesn't shy from these either. There's a subtle humor in witnessing once-revered scientists cling to theories that appear comically inaccurate from our vantage point. But this isn't mere mockery; it illuminates the very nature of scientific progress.

If you harbor any lingering notions of paleontology as a dry recitation of species names and geological strata, *Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party* will shatter them with gusto. This book is as much about the thrill of discovery as it is a testament to the human capacity for embracing a universe far more expansive and strange than ever imagined. I would highly recommend it to the discerning reader – although one word of caution: you might find yourself craving a roast iguanodon after turning the final page.

At one point in the book, the author uses an analogy of a teenagers bedroom to explain stratigraphy, likening the layers of discarded clothing to that of the Earth's strata, but noting that geologic forces may make the specific progression of time unclear, analogizing that in particular to the resulting chaos created by a happy golden retriever chasing a tennis ball thrown into the room.

This analogy works both as an illustration of the book, <i>Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party</i>, but also an analogy for the book. The author writes as thought there was a non-fiction <a href="https://www.bulwer-lytton.com/">Bulwer-Lytton</a> award, and I am here for it. It is excitable, bombastic, and more florid than an adulterer's apology to his wife. But it feels authentic. The author is that excited about dinosaurs and dinosaur history, and so are you. Yes, you, reading this, trying to be all cool and detached. You know this speaks to your inner teenager, if not your inner Golden. It is infectious.

It is also chaotic. The title of the book refers to the party given by Benjamin Hawkins that took place inside an <i>iguanadon</i> model created for the occasion, as Hawkins was the artist creating what we now know as the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs and this was his shop. The party is described in soaring detail as the conclusion, not climax, of the book. The subtitle of the book "how an eccentric group of Victorians discovered prehistoric creatures and accidentally upended the world," is in contrast to the stated original question of the book in its acknowledgements, which describes it as a history of science of the discovery of dinosaurs, where the book itself is neither, or possibly both. It is interested in the Victorian greats like Anning and Owen, but stops short of a biographic history, and includes a long discussion on earlier scientific research, such as with ancient (usually not dinosaur) bones in France and the United States, but also Mayor's theories on Ancient Greek interpretations of ancient bones (again, usually not dinosaur, and also <a href="https://markwitton-com.blogspot.com/2016/04/why-protoceratops-almost-certainly.html">criticized</a>). For a book about the realization of Deep Time, it is adverse to chronology.

It is a mess, but it works, as each (short) chapter tends to work as a stand-alone document. Frustratingly, for me at any rate, the most interesting parts are those related most clearly with the subtitle, and the question of what as a matter of ideology set the Victorians apart in their relationship with scientific examination, the impulse towards collection, and the bifurcated interest in God and the natural world as either in opposition or in concert. I am suspect about this as an idea, but admittedly that is why it is the most attractive to contemplate. Here that I find the most to criticize about the author's style. I know that as of early 2024, proper citation is become an <i>idée fixe</i> within the commentator class and a culture war issue without. I am absolutely not accusing Dolnick of any misdoing. But the book has a sort of inconsistency in its methodology of citations and quotes where, in these chapters, where I am working on putting together a reading list to dive deeper, that lead to frustration and confusion on my part.

And while Darwin does not show up - he is in again the author's memorable method of description the bomb under the table Hitchcock-style at the titular dinner party - I know that the descriptions of some of these figure's problems with what would be Darwinism are reductive. This is the simplified view of a lot of these ideas, which the author seems to me to acknowledge in the end notes, commonly held but also capable of a lot more elaboration, usually in some degree of rehabilitation. The focus here though is on the fun stuff. So, when I think about the ideal audience for this book, I think about the teenager from the analogy. It is a light treatment of the subject, too scattered to be a useful introduction, but fun, and the sort of thing that ought to provoke further interest and glee.

Thank you to the author, Edward Dolnick, and the publisher, Scribner Books, for making the ARC available to me.

What a fun read! Dolnick couldn't have dreamed up a more eccentric cast of characters if he tried. The story moves along quickly as we follow the birth of the branch of science that would become paleontology, and how shocking it was for the society in Victorian England to discover that the earth wasn't created with only their well-being in mind. It was also interesting to learn about the women who were key in the development of the science, and how little their contributions were acknowledged. Should I be surprised?
Great illustrations/photos as well, although the details are hard to discern on an e-reader.
Good stuff! I've definitely got him on my "to read" list.

Really liked this book and will read more by Dolnick. Highly readable social and science history about a subject and era I was not familiar with. The synthesis of history / science in the context of the Victorian era was just fascinating. Highly recommended.