From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature - Tapa dura

"Since this excellent account of changing attitudes in literature so clearly mirrors the changing attitudes in society, it should be of great interest -- and great concern... [A] wide-reaching and fascinating survey." -- Earth Sciences History

"A fascinating cruise through literary history from Aquinas to Zola, from Asimov to Wordsworth." -- New England Journal of Medicine

They were mad, of course. Or evil. Or godless, amoral, arrogant, impersonal, and inhuman. At best, they were well-intentioned but blind to the dangers of forces they barely controlled. They were Faust and Frankenstein, Jekyll and Moreau, Caligari and Strangelove--the scientists of film and fiction, cultural archetypes that reflected ancient fears of tampering with the unknown or unleashing the little-understood powers of nature.

In From Faust to Strangelove Roslyn Haynes offers the first detailed and comprehensive study of the image of the scientist in Western literature and film--from medieval images of alchemists to present-day depictions of cyberpunks and genetic engineers.