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The Invention Of Air (2008)

by Steven Johnson(Favorite Author)

3.74 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1594488525 (ISBN13: 9781594488528)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Riverhead Hardcover

review 1: This biography of Joseph Priestly hit all of my interests - science, history, biography - so it was a natural read. I'm glad I did. Priestley discovered Oxygen. He published more than 500 books, pamphlets, and fliers on everything from Electricity to politics. He was fluent in half a dozen languages. He was a leading thinker, philosopher and politicker of the 18th century. He was a free thinker and member of the Honest Whigs.He infuriated the Crown and enraged people to the point that he had to flee England after a mob burned down his house and laboratory. He found refuge in America and with his good friend Thomas Jefferson. The book is good when the author focuses on biography. Keeping us in the company of Joseph Priestley is undoubtedly the strength of the book. But ... moretoo often he meanders into speculation of the distant past and far future. Those sections were unnecessary and distracting, adding nothing to the content.
review 2: “The Invention of Air” has a fantastic topic and story, so I make room for forgiveness where style and prose lack. The story of Joseph Priestley, whom I am not proud to hear about for the first time in this book, is remarkable. He is an educator, theologian, philosopher, politician, but at heart, a scientist and an inventor through all the turbulence of his life. Biographies are in general captivating. A biography that puts your brain to work – scientific experiments, hypothesis, results, and the meaning of discovery in an age where little was known about electricity, physics, chemistry and especially the air we breathe - makes the mark on higher levels.I found it delightful how the invention of coffee brought about a tremendous boost to productivity, replacing alcohol as the standard drink of the day. While not invented by Priestley, it certainly impacted his social life. Coffee served as one attraction but the coffee house of London with the divinity students, book sellers, musicians, poets, scientists, was a gathering place to think about and loudly discuss topics of significance such as the limits of religious orthodoxy or advancements in scientific experiments in some make-shift lab or the future of government and the end of the monarchy and freedom of the people. Later in life, Ben Franklin tells Joseph Priestly how sorely he missed the days at the coffee houses in London – which leads the author to grant Franklin a more British citizenship than the American one we bestow on him today.Johnson does one thing very well – he gives us the true essence of the character of Joseph Priestley. To fully appreciate this man’s fearlessness and sense of optimism, we follow him at the age of 61 on his voyage from Britain to US in what can be described as nauseating ship travels. Reading the first chapter of the book on what horrific afflictions must be endured by the human body and spirit, not to mention the very likely risk of death, was more than sufficient to convince me that a man in his condition must be perfectly insane to take on such a journey with his wife. Insane or optimism are in the beholder’s eyes – and it is clear that the infinite comforts of our age have spoiled us beyond comprehension of what was a standard affliction just over 200 years ago.It is hard not to be impressed with life story of a single person with his vast accumulation of knowledge in numerous fields, his ability to form relationships with the Founding Fathers and his substantial contribution to humanity – but it is impossible not to be impressed by a man who is unflappable as his entire home and possessions, including his haven of laboratory, is destroyed and set to fire by rioters. This I found the most inspiring and enduring trait of Joseph Priestley’s character.In letters that were found later describing the aforementioned dark night, Mary Priestley beautifully writes the following:“Undaunted he heard the blows which were destroying the house and the laboratory that contained all his valuable and rare apparatus and their effects, which it had been the business of his life to collect and use….he, tranquil and serene, walked up and down the road with a firm yet gentle peace that evinced his entire self-possession, and a complete self-satisfaction and consciousness which rendered him thus firm and resigned under the unjust and cruel persecution of his enemies……Not one hasty or impatient expression, not one look expressive of murmur or complaint, not one tear or sigh escaped him; resignation and a conscious innocence and virtue seemed to subdue all these feelings of humanity” less

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