Synopsis
Steven Johnson's diverse books (THE GHOST MAP, EVERYTHING BAD IS GOOD FOR YOU) demonstrate the seemingly random path of human intellectual advancement through history, and tease us with hints of how easily the world we know might have been transformed if ideas had been exchanged a little differently. In his latest endeavor, THE INVENTION OF AIR, Johnson tells the tale of Joseph Priestley, an 18th-century scientist and "thinker," with similarly eclectic interests. A Unitarian preacher and a great friend of both Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, Priestley is also often credited with the discovery of oxygen. His experiments were among the first to demonstrate that animals required oxygen to breathe, and that plants were a viable source of this life-giving gas. Priestley never realized the full import of his idea, just as we have never realized the importance of Priestley himself. Johnson's tantalizing tale of forgotten science causes us to pause and wonder, how close might we be today to a radical discovery that will have to wait centuries to gain significance?
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2008-12-26 | | Narrated by: | Mark Deakins | | Edition Description: | Unabridged |
| Size | | Height: | 5.8 in | | Width: | 5.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 5.4 oz |
Publisher's Note
A portrait of scientist and theologian Joseph Priestly evaluates his friendships with such founding fathers as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson while citing his role in the nation's intellectual development, the pursuit of key scientific agendas, and the founding of the Unitarian Church. Simultaneous.
Industry Reviews
"It isn't a work of conventional history or biography, though it contains snippets of both, but more like a case study in the history of ideas that hints at a grander analytical theory."
(01/09/2009)
"[Johnson's] approach gives [the] book power, makes it a tool for understanding where we stand today, and makes it satisfying in several ways."
(01/25/2009)
"Johnson ensures that we appreciate Priestley's greatest achievement...by enthrallingly tracing the process that evinced it."
(12/01/2008)
"Johnson...offers a clear-sighted and intelligent exploration of the condition that are propitious to scientific innovation, such as the availability of coffee and the unfettered circulation of information through social networks."
(02/02/2009)
"THE INVENTION OF AIR is not only an exemplary short life in an age of doorstopper and multivolume biographies of lights lesser than Priestley; it's also a stylishly presented meditation on the progress of science and what that progress means for institutions when science faces them with new paradigms."
(03/08/2009)
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