Lukas Rieppel works on the history of the life, earth, and environmental sciences from the 18th to the 20th centuries, as well as the history of capitalism and museums. He has recently finished a book that traces how dinosaurs became a symbol of American economic might and power during the Long Gilded Age, "Assembling the Dinosaur: Fossil Hunters, Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle." Forthcoming with Harvard University Press, this project uses the history of paleontology as a means to examine how the ideals, norms, and practices of modern capitalism shaped the way scientific knowledge was made, certified, and distributed. Rieppel has also co-edited a recent issue of the journal Osiris (with Eugenia Lean & William Deringer) on the theme of "Science & Capitalism: Entangled Histories." Finally, he has written several essays about fossils, museums, and markets.
