Matthew Goodrum

Matthew Goodrum is a historian of science.  His research interests include the history of paleoanthropology, the history of prehistoric archaeology, and their relationship to the natural sciences.

Selected Publications

“Resolving the Question of a Hiatus between the Paleolithic and Neolithic:  Nineteenth-Century Science and a Problem in Human Prehistory.”  Bulletin of the History of Archaeology 31 (2021):  1-12.

“Fluorine Dating.”  In Allan S. Gilbert (ed.).  The Encyclopedia of Geoarchaeology.  Pp.  275-276.  Dordrecht:  Springer, 2017.

"The Beginnings of Human Paleontology:  Prehistory, Craniometry, and the "Fossil Human Races"  British Journal for the History of Science 49 (2016):  387-409. 

"Paleoanthropology and Human Evolution."  In Georgina M. Montgomery and Mark A. Largent (eds.), A Companion to the History of American Science.  Pp. 213-226.  Chichester:  John Wiley & Sons, 2016. 

“Crafting a New Science:  Defining Paleoanthropology and Its Relationship to Prehistoric Archaeology.”  Isis 105 (2014):  706-733.

"Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey."  In John Jackson (ed.), Oxford Bibliographies in Anthropology.  Oxford University Press, (2014).

“The Study of Prehistoric Artifacts in National Context: Belgian Archaeologists and the Problem of Ancient Stone Implements.”  Bulletin of the History of Archaeology 23 (2013): 1-11.

“Phillip Vallentine Tobias (1925-2012).”  American Journal of Physical Anthropology 150 (2013):  167-169.

"History." In David R. Begun (ed.), A Companion to Paleoanthropology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, (2013): 17-33.

“The Idea of Human Prehistory:  The Natural Sciences, The Human Sciences, and the Problem of Human Origins in Victorian Britain.”  History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences (Special Issue on Human Evolution) 34 (2012):  117-46.

Associate editor and major contributing author (responsible for biographical and historical entries), Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution. Bernard Wood (editor). 2 vols. Chichester: Blackwell Publishers, (2011).

“Recovering the Vestiges of Primeval Europe:  Archaeology and the Significance of Stone Implements, 1750-1800.” Journal of the History of Ideas 72 (2011):  51-74.

“The Creation of Societies for the Study of Prehistory and their Role in the Formation of Prehistoric Archaeology as a Discipline, 1867-1929.”  Bulletin of the History of Archaeology 19 (2009):  27-35.

“The History of Human Origins Research and its Place in the History of Science:  Research Problems and Historiography,” History of Science 47 (2009):  337-57.

Matthew R. Goodrum and Cora Olson, “The Quest for an Absolute Chronology in Human Prehistory: Chemists, Anthropologists, and the Fluorine Dating Technique in Paleoanthropology,” British Journal for the History of Science 42 (2009): 95-114.

“Questioning Thunderstones and Arrowheads:  The Problem of Recognizing and Interpreting Stone Artifacts in the Seventeenth Century.”  Early Science and Medicine 13 (2008):  478-504.

"Clark, John Desmond." In New Dictionary of Scientific Biography vol. 2, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, (2008), pp. 123-127.

"Coon, Carleton Stevens." In New Dictionary of Scientific Biography vol. 2, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, (2008), pp. 172-176.

"Dart, Raymond Arthur." In New Dictionary of Scientific Biography vol. 2, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, (2008), pp. 237-242.

“Prolegomenon to a History of Paleoanthropology: The Study of Human Origins as a Scientific Enterprise.  Part 1.  Antiquity to the Enlightenment.” Evolutionary Anthropology  13 (2004):  172-180.

“Prolegomenon to a History of Paleoanthropology: The Study of Human Origins as a Scientific Enterprise Part II:  Enlightenment to the Twentieth Century.” Evolutionary Anthropology  13 (2004):  224-233.

"Robert Gray." In Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, (2004).

"Edmund D. Montgomery." In Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, (2004).

“The Meaning of ‘Ceraunia’: Archaeology, Natural History, and the Interpretation of Prehistoric Stone Artifacts in the Eighteenth Century.”  British Journal for the History of Science 35 (2002): 255-269.

“Atomism, Atheism, and the Spontaneous Generation of Human Beings:  The Debate over a Natural Origin of the First Humans in Seventeenth Century Britain.”  Journal of the History of Ideas (2002):  207-224.

“Biblical Anthropology and the Idea of Human Prehistory in Late Antiquity.” History and Anthropology 13 (2002):  69-78.

“The History of Twentieth Century Paleoanthropology: A Bibliographic Survey.” History of Anthropology Newsletter, 27/2 (2000):  10-15.

"Prehistory: Archaeology and Anthropology" in Reader's Guide to the History of Science. Arne Hessenbruch (ed.). London: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000.

"Denison Olmsted" in American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Online Resources

Matthew R. Goodrum, Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology.  

Virginia Tech Publishing (URL:  https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/paleoanthropology/)

“Wu Xinzhi.” Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology.  (2023).

“Phillip Tobias.” Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology.  (2022).

“Josef Szombathy.” Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology.  (2022).

“Theodore McCown.”  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Matthew R. Goodrum general editor.  (2021).

“Ofer Bar-Yosef.”  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Matthew R. Goodrum general editor.  (2021).

“Heinrich Wankel.”  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Matthew R. Goodrum general editor.  (2021).

“Glyn Isaac.”  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Matthew R. Goodrum general editor.  (2021).

"Francis Clark Howell."  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Matthew R. Goodrum general editor .  (2020).

"Ralph Solecki."  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology.  Matthew R. Goodrum general editor .  (2020).

"Alberto Carlo Blanc."  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology.  Matthew R. Goodrum general editor .  (2020).

"Karel Maška."  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology.  Matthew R. Goodrum general editor .  (2020).

"Henri Martin (Léon Henri-Martin)."  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology.  Matthew R. Goodrum  (2019).

"Germaine Henri-Martin."  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum (2019).

"Edouard  Piette."  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum (2019).

"Louis Lartet."  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum (2019).

"René Verneau."   Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2018).

"Julien Fraipont."   Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2018).

"Jia Lanpo."   Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2017).

"Wu Rukang."  In  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2017).

“Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger.”   Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2017).

"Emile Rivière."   Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2016). 

"Denis Peyrony"   Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2016). 

"Louis Capitan."   Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2016). 

"Otto Hauser."   Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2016).

"Hermann Klaatsch."   Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2016).

"Gustav Schwalbe."  Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2016).

"Hans Weinert."   Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2016).

"Hermann Schaaffhausen,"  Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2013)

"Ernest Theodore Hamy."  Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2015)

Book Reviews

Christa Kuljian, Darwin's Hunch:  Science, Race and the  Search for Human Oriigns (2016), in Journal of the History of Biology 52 (2019):

Lydia Pyne, Seven Skeletons:  The Evolution of the Worlds Most Famous Human Fossils (2016), in Journal of the History of Biology 50 (2017):  457-9.

Jan Albert Bakker.  Megalithic Research in the Netherlands, 1547-1911:From 'Giant's Beds' and 'Pillars of Hercules' to Accurate Investigations (2010), in Bulletin of the History of Archaeology 22 (2012):  30.

Brown, B. Ricardo, Until Darwin: Science, Human Variety and the Origin of Race (2010), in British Journal for the History of Science 45 (2012): 135-6.

Constance Areson Clark, God or Gorilla: Images of Evolution in the Jazz Age (2008) in Annals of Science 68 (2011): 575-577.

Marianne Sommer, Bones and Ochre:  The Curious Afterlife of the Red Lady of Paviland (2007) in Social Studies of Science 40 (2010):  155-8.

David N. Livingstone, Adam’s Ancestors:  Race, Religion, and the Politics of Human Origins (2008) in Annals of Science 67 (2010):  296-8.

Sigrid Schmalzer, The People’s Peking Man:  Popular Science and Human Identity in Twentieth-Century China (2008) in British Journal for the History of Science 43 (2010):  132-134.

Anne O’Connor, Finding Time for the Old Stone Age:  A History of Palaeolithic Archaeology and Quaternary Geology in Britain, 1860-1960 (2007) in Anthropos 105 (2010):  296-7.

Peter Rowley-Conwy, From Genesis to Prehistory:  The Archaeological Three Age System and its Contested Reception in Denmark, Britain, and Ireland (2007) in Isis 100 (2009):  936-7.

Ann Gibbons, The First Human:  The Race to Discover Our Earliest Ancestors (2007) in British Journal for the History of Science 42 (2009): 154-5.

Richard G. Delisle, Debating Humankind’s Place in Nature 1860-2000:  The Nature of Paleoanthropology (2007) in British Journal for the History of Science 41 (2008): 451-2.

Kim Sloan, A New World:  England’s First View of America (2007) in Early Science and Medicine 13 (2008):  210-211.

David Boyd Haycock, William Stukeley:  Science, Religion and Archaeology in Eighteenth-Century England (2002), in Isis 97 (2006): 556-7.

Raymond Corbey, The Metaphysics of Apes:  Negotiating the Animal—Human Boundary  (2005), in Anthropos 101 (2006):  593-4. 

Rosemary Sweet, Antiquaries:  The Discovery of the Past in Eighteenth-Century Britain (2004), in British Journal for the History of Science 39 (2006):  448-449.

Terry A. Barnhart, Ephraim George Squier and the Development of American Anthropology  (2005), in Isis 97 (2006):  164-5.

Brian Fagan, Grahame Clark: An Intellectual Biography of an Archaeologist (2001), in Journal of Human Evolution 48 (2005):  433-4.

G. Urton, Signs of the Inka Khipu:  Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records (2003), in Isis 95 (2004):  484-5.

W. Stoczkowski, Explaining Human Origins:  Myth, Imagination and Conjecture, tr. by Mary Turton (2002), in Journal of Human Evolution 46 (2004):  642-3.

R. Corbey and W. Roebroeks (eds.), Studying Human Origins:  Disciplinary History and Epistemology (2001), in Journal of Human Evolution 44 (2003): 395-6.

Frank Spencer, History of Physical Anthropology: an Encyclopedia, (1997) in Isis 89 (1998):  116-7.