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The Invention Of Air (Hardcover)

by Steven Johnson (Author)

4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 272 pages
Publisher: Riverhead (HC) (Dec 30 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594488525
ISBN-13: 978-1594488528
Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 15.6 x 2.8 cm
Shipping Weight: 459 g

Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #14,634 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories:

#4 in	Books > History > Americas > United States > Revolution & Founding
#4 in	Books > History > United States > Revolution & Founding
#19 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Scientists

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Product Description

Bestselling author Steven Johnson recounts—in dazzling, multidisciplinary fashion—the story of the brilliant man who embodied the relationship between science, religion, and politics for America's Founding Fathers.

The Invention of Air is a book of world-changing ideas wrapped around a compelling narrative, a story of genius and violence and friendship in the midst of sweeping historical change that provokes us to recast our understanding of the Founding Fathers.

It is the story of Joseph Priestley—scientist and theologian, protégé of Benjamin Franklin, friend of Thomas Jefferson—an eighteenth-century radical thinker who played pivotal roles in the invention of ecosystem science, the discovery of oxygen, the founding of the Unitarian Church, and the intellectual development of the United States. And it is a story that only Steven Johnson, acclaimed juggler of disciplines and provocative ideas, can do justice to.

In the 1780s, Priestley had established himself in his native England as a brilliant scientist, a prominent minister, and an outspoken advocate of the American Revolution, who had sustained long correspondences with Franklin, Jefferson, and John Adams. Ultimately, his radicalism made his life politically uncomfortable, and he fled to the nascent United States. Here, he was able to build conceptual bridges linking the scientific, political, and religious impulses that governed his life. And through his close relationships with the Founding Fathers—Jefferson credited Priestley as the man who prevented him from abandoning Christianity—he exerted profound if little-known influence on the shape and course of our history.

As in his last bestselling work, The Ghost Map, Steven Johnson here uses a dramatic historical story to explore themes that have long engaged him: innovation and the way new ideas emerge and spread, and the environments that foster these breakthroughs. And as he did in Everything Bad Is Good for You, Johnson upsets some fundamental assumptions about the world we live in—namely, what it means when we invoke the Founding Fathers—and replaces them with a clear-eyed, eloquent assessment of where we stand today.

About the Author

Steven Johnson is the author of the national bestsellers Everything Bad Is Good for You and Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life, as well as Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software and Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate.

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	72% buy the item featured on this page: The Invention Of Air 4.0 out of 5 stars (1) CDN$ 10.83
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Biography of Inventor, Theologian and 18th Century Radical Joseph Priestley, April 19 2009

By	Steve S. (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Joseph Priestly was a leading thinker of the Enlightenment, a radical preacher and political thinker, who was also a very accomplished "amateur" scientist who played a role in the discovery of various properties of air -- thus the title. It was an exciting time, when educated men were beginning to make connections between science, religion and politics. Priestly lived through both the American and French Revolutions, and made at least intellectual contributions to both. He as also a friend of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and many other important intellectuals of that era. Priestley led a fascinating life, one well worth reading about.

I am a bit puzzled as to why Johnson did not make it clear in the title, or at least a subtitle, that this is pretty much a biography. True, Johnson focuses on Priestely's intellectual life, rather than his personal life, and there may be a page or two that do not directly mention Priestley, but in the end it is pretty much a biography, and a good one at that.

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