Disciplining the Earth: Earthquake Observation in Switzerland and Germany at the Turn of the Nineteenth Century.

The article discusses the history of late-19th-century discourse on earthquakes in Switzerland and Germany that involved a scientific transition from regarding earthquakes as rare and hazardous to events that were expected and statistically frequent. Western societies’ self-perception of social contingency reportedly helped sustain this transition and evoke an attitude that earthquakes could be planned for and that progress could be managed. Findings from earthquake and seismological research are discussed in terms of the political, economic, scientific, and cultural underpinnings they provided for globalization.