ASSEMBLING THE DINOSAUR Fossil Hunters, Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle

Pete Cross offers a solid, easy-to-follow narration of this work about dinosaurs, museums, and American exceptionalism. His even tone carries the text well. He varies it effectively to point out irony and humor. During America's Gilded Age of the late 1800s and early 1900s, individual excess among industrialists was common. This phenomenon spread to fossil hunting and display. Museums supported by multimillionaires like Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan competed to have the showiest displays of dinosaurs. Soon the long-dead creatures became metaphors in defense of American business practices. This book is more about American culture than paleontology. Scientific terms are limited, and sentence structure generally is straightforward. Thus, it translates well to audio. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2019]