September 17, 2019
Lukas Rieppell, David and Michelle Ebersman Assistant Professor of History, Brown University
Dinosaur fossils were first found in England, but a series of late-nineteenth-century discoveries in the American West turned the United States into a world center for vertebrate paleontology. Around the same time, the United States also emerged as an economic powerhouse of global proportions, and large, fierce, and spectacular creatures like Tyrannosaurus, Brontosaurus, and Triceratops became powerful emblems of American capitalism. Tracing the links among dinosaurs, capitalism, and culture during this era, Lukas Rieppel reveals how these giant reptiles became intertwined with commercial culture, philanthropic interests, and the popular imagination during America’s long Gilded Age.
About the Speaker
Lukas Rieppel teaches the history of science, the history of capitalism, and nineteenth-century U.S. History at Brown University. His book on the history of dinosaurs and American capitalism, Assembling the Dinosaur, was recently published by Harvard University Press.