Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution
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Overview
In this fascinating look at the European scientific advances of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, historian Lisa Jardine demonstrates that the pursuit of knowledge occurs not in isolation, but rather in the lively interplay and frequently cutthroat competition between creative minds.The great thinkers of that extraordinary age, including Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, and Christopher Wren, are shown in the context in which they lived and worked. We learn of the correspondences they kept with their equally passionate colleagues and come to understand the unique collaborative climate that fostered virtuoso discoveries in the areas of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, biology, chemistry, botany, geography, and engineering. Ingenious Pursuits brilliantly chronicles the true intellectual revolution that continues to shape our very understanding of ourselves, and of the world around us.
Synopsis
In this fascinating look at the European scientific advances of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, historian Lisa Jardine demonstrates that the pursuit of knowledge occurs not in isolation, but rather in the lively interplay and frequently cutthroat competition between creative minds.
The great thinkers of that extraordinary age, including Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, and Christopher Wren, are shown in the context in which they lived and worked. We learn of the correspondences they kept with their equally passionate colleagues and come to understand the unique collaborative climate that fostered virtuoso discoveries in the areas of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, biology, chemistry, botany, geography, and engineering. Ingenious Pursuits brilliantly chronicles the true intellectual revolution that continues to shape our very understanding of ourselves, and of the world around us.
Publishers Weekly
How do periods of great intellectual energy come about? Why are major discoveries made at certain historical moments? To answer such questions, Jardine (Worldly Goods; coauthor of Hostage to Fortune, a biography of Francis Bacon, Forecasts, Apr. 26) studies the intellectual community of late-17th-century London, beautifully evoking the excitement accompanying that period's major inventions and discoveries. Jardine traces relationships among the most famous figures of the period (e.g., Sir Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren, John Locke) and links their work to a network of scientists and philosophers generated by the founding of the Royal Society in London. A portrait emerges of a community of adventurous and imaginative people interested in science for its contribution to human understanding. Jardine's central contention is that the period was characterized by so much cross-pollination between what we now call the sciences and the humanities that the distinction between the two realms we now take for granted didn't yet exist. The chapters range across a huge body of ideas, discoveries and processes, which turn out to be closely connected: mapping the elliptical orbits of comets; tracing blood circulation; importing rare and remote plants to England; founding Britain's famous museums; inventing air pumps, diving bells, spring watches. The volume's comprehensive catalogue of gizmos and brainstorms comes at the expense of historical analysis, but Jardine gives a memorable account of cultural ferment and individual genius during the scientific revolution. Illustrations. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
How do periods of great intellectual energy come about? Why are major discoveries made at certain historical moments? To answer such questions, Jardine (Worldly Goods; coauthor of Hostage to Fortune, a biography of Francis Bacon, Forecasts, Apr. 26) studies the intellectual community of late-17th-century London, beautifully evoking the excitement accompanying that period's major inventions and discoveries. Jardine traces relationships among the most famous figures of the period (e.g., Sir Isaac Newton, Christopher Wren, John Locke) and links their work to a network of scientists and philosophers generated by the founding of the Royal Society in London. A portrait emerges of a community of adventurous and imaginative people interested in science for its contribution to human understanding. Jardine's central contention is that the period was characterized by so much cross-pollination between what we now call the sciences and the humanities that the distinction between the two realms we now take for granted didn't yet exist. The chapters range across a huge body of ideas, discoveries and processes, which turn out to be closely connected: mapping the elliptical orbits of comets; tracing blood circulation; importing rare and remote plants to England; founding Britain's famous museums; inventing air pumps, diving bells, spring watches. The volume's comprehensive catalogue of gizmos and brainstorms comes at the expense of historical analysis, but Jardine gives a memorable account of cultural ferment and individual genius during the scientific revolution. Illustrations. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.KLIATT
This is a book that should engage students of science and the history of science. Jardine writes lively, well-supported, carefully reasoned narrative history. She says she is particularly interested in the intellectual collaborations and exchanges behind famous names and discoveries; in other words, placing the familiar in the context of its times. Newton, Kepler, Huygens and many others emerge in a historically nuanced framework that is rendered concisely enough to cover the 17th and early 18th-century movement in under 400 pages, dotted with nearly 150 b/w illustrations. The book has an excellent index, a good list for further reading, and scrupulous chapter end notes that make it a good source for any student doing research on the era. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 1999, Random House/Anchor, 444p, illus, maps, notes, bibliog, index, 21cm, 99-41985, $16.00. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Daniel J. Levinson; History & English Teacher, Thayer Acad. Braintree, MA, May 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 3)Library Journal
Jardine, a Renaissance scholar at the University of London, exposits on the inventors and polymaths that drove the scientific revolution. She seeks to show that the convergence of the humanities and natural sciences drove technological innovation in order to solve very real problems of the age, such as maritime travel for wars and trade, and the need for accurate timepieces. In the prolog and epilog, Jardine attempts to show contemporary examples of this symbiosis between arts and sciences. Though certain continental scientists are mentioned, the focus is really on the British, particularly the Royal Society in London. A "cast of characters" is appended to give thumbnail biographies of natural scientists, both major and minor. One small problem: her vignette approach is sometimes confusing, as the loose narrative loops back to the same events (e.g., the Great Fire in London in 1666) in different chapters. Appropriate for both academic and large public libraries.--Wade Lee, Univ. of Toledo Libs., OH Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Booknews
Focusing on some of the remarkable advances of the 17th and 18th centuries (e.g. the discovery of the circulation of blood, selective animal and plant breeding, and the development of chemical substance analysis), Jardine (Renaissance studies, U. of London) shows how they grew out of pressures and practices of the discoverers' everyday lives. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)D. Graham Burnett
It is in [the context of the mammoth significance of the history of science] -- that Lisa Jardine must be commended for her new book on the ''scientific revolution'' of the 17th century...Robustly written, engagingly illustrated, briskly paced, quirkily detailed, Ingenious Pursuits may seduce readers not otherwise inclined to ponder the genealogy of the scientific enterprise.—The New York Times Book Review