About book L'universo Meccanico : Il Racconto Dell'astronomia Moderna (2014)
Overall this was very a good book. It described how Newton and Leibniz came to discover calculus independent of one another. additonally it portraits of other leading men of science during the 1600's, as well as the ancient Greeks and famous scientists throughout history.Dolnick's treatment of Liebniz was very sympathetic, which is far different from the way history has generally treated him. However, I found it very interesting that the author never mentioned Monadology.One of the defects of the book is the author seems to buy in into many of the canards concerning whatthe ancient Greeks believed, what the the so-called dark ages were like, and the persecution of Galileo. Aristotle aside, many of the the Greeks had a proper understanding of the workings of the solar system, the dark ages were far from dark (see C.S. Lewis' Discarded Image), and the "imprisonment" of Galileo was far from what legend has passed down to us.The author was very critical of what he saw as the religious mindset of the day, that the world was a place of corruption and people were equally as corrupt. Dolnick dismisses this world view, and then goes oon to tell of two men who were so venal as to live down to that description fo the world. I do enjoy reading about science and scientists. The story of the Royal Society and Sir Isaac Newton can be told over and over again but if the author finds a new thread around which to weave the story, I have no problem listening to it again. This is the case with this book as it turns around the fact that these were god-fearing men in god-fearing times and that all scientific advancement was geared to explaining god's role in the physical universe. Hence "clockwork universe", where all things are perfect, logical and beautiful because they were designed by god.I especially loved how the author was able to describe and make me feel what it was like to live in the different time periods of these great thinkers.
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If only high school science and history had been this entertaining...a fantastic read!
—lisa
Amazing eye opener. A joy to read. Will read it again in the years to come. Bravo.
—pankake
Solid overview of the scientific revolution with a solid helping of Isaac Newton.
—Chris_fang
