A review by doloresofcourse
Assembling the Dinosaur: Fossil Hunters, Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle by Lukas Rieppel

5.0

If you going into this knowing that there is very little discussion about dinosaurs and paleontology, you will enjoy it more. This book is about how the rich of the Gilded Age shaped shaped museums and scientific institutions. Dinosaur bones are the currency of this book. The history of the dinosaur fossil trade and how it drove the creation of museums specifically for their display and public admiration is very interesting, but what I thought I was getting when I started this. The main dinosaur discussions are at the beginning and at the end. In the last chapter, there's an interesting discussion about how China has become the new fossil hotbed and some of the very cool discoveries that have been made there.