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home : culture : continental drift : english : times educational supplement : .................................................................................................................................. |
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"Continental Drift - Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures" .................................................................................................. |
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Review:
The Times Higher Education Supplement, June 20, 2000. .................... "The Shifting Fortunes of Drift" "The plate tectonic theme is continued in Constantin Roman’s "Continental Drift, Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures". Roman, having escaped Ceausescu’s Communist Romania in the late 1960’s arrived in Britain when, as in the United States the theory of plate tectonics was finally coming of age. Set against the background of Cambridge dons and college gardens, Roman’s story is centred on Bullard Laboratories, where the company of some of the most eminent earth scientists of the day, he began a PhD on deep earthquakes in the Carpathians. Despite some initial reservations, I soon became absorbed in the twists and turns that befell poor Roman bureaucratic hassles with entry visas, uncertainty about the academic credibility of his ideas of buffer plates and finally, just when he is confident that he is onto something big, he discovers that an American team have got there first. Nearly. But despite its human drama I cannot help wondering who this book is aimed at. It is a strange mix. It is neither a textbook, nor a history book in the sense of Oreske’s detailed work. Instead it is an autobiographical account bordering on the self-indulgent and peppered with the kind of bizarre incidents that would not seem out of place in a Terry Pratchet novel. I would nonetheless be surprised if the books did not share some common ground. I found it in Roman’s account of the subdued response from much of the geological community to his idea of non-rigid plate margins; "geology remains a conservative profession, where people view change with suspicion". A sentiment not out of place with the American mindset so thoroughly documented by Oreskes". Dr. Nick Petford, University of London |
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