The Invention of Air (edit title)

• Rated 2 stars

“I really only read a third of this, but want it on the list to remember the title. It wasn't too bad, but more science and less history than I wanted. Given to me by Bruce Samson”

• Rated 4 stars

“Johnson has written a wonderfully insightful book on the life of Priestley, a character with whom I had little acquaintance. However, Johnson does a remarkable job of describing his life and why he matters so much to science and to the founding fathers. I came away from this book with a great appreciation of science and I a particularly enjoyed Johnson’s thorough description of Priestley’s character, theology, and use of the scientific method. ”

• Rated 3 stars

“We often did research on scientists in the middle school where I was media specialist, and this is a fascinating bio and nonfiction work of the times in which Joseph Priestly lived and experimented. I enjoyed it.”

• Rated 4 stars

“This is a political and scientific biography of Joseph Priestly who was a very influential scientist, radical Unitarian Minister, and political revolutionary. His friendship with Benjamin Franklin played a role in the famous kite experiments. His friendship with Thomas Jefferson gave Jefferson reason to remain a Christian, refined many of Jefferson's political ideas, and provided the framework for Jefferson's renewed friendship with John Adams at the end of their lives.

I found this book to be an interesting overview of people and events who played key roles in the advancement of science and the brith of the U.S. Like all of Steven Johnson's books, this one includes some entertaining and educational diversions like the discussion of the development of Earth's atmosphere and how excess atmosperic oxygen lead to the development of gigantic dragonflies, and a discussion of how communication networks lead to the sharing and development of new ideas. I did not find these as distracting as the ones in The Ghost Map but not all readers agree with me.”

• Rated 0 stars

“I would like to be in the Club of Honest Whigs.”

• Rated 3 stars

“Interesting read about a little known but influential revoutionary war era scientist, Joseph Priestley. Informative but not as fun as the Ghost Map.”

• Rated 2 stars

“In The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America, author Steven Johnson calls forth a number of players, but if we had to pick out one main protagonist it would probably be Joseph Priestly. You may (or may not) remember Priestly as an 18th century contemporary of folks like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, to whom credit is often given for isolating gaseous oxygen. Interestingly, he was also the first person on the planet to realize that the oxygen that makes air breathable to us isn't something that is de facto just there; rather, it's produced by plants. In this way, Priestly isn't just the father of modern chemistry, but the whole science of ecology --the study of how organisms and environments interact with each other.

But let's back up a little bit. Much like he did in The Ghost Map, Johnson uses The Invention of Air to examine a wider set of interrelated subjects through events that seem unrelated at first. We get information about British coffee house culture, natural philosophers, coal mining in northern England, photosynthesis, burgeoning American revolution, riots over Unitarianism, the blending of religious faith and science, giant ferns from Carboniferous Era, Thomas Kuhn's codification of the scientific method, and the aforementioned founding fathers. Priestly is at the center of most of this, with the unifying theme that all these things interconnect and affect each other --a concept parallel to Priestly's own discoveries about the ecosystem involving oxygen, animals, bacteria, carbon dioxide, and plants.

So far, this sounds a lot like a history of science that you'd think I would enjoy if you were familiar with my reading list. Unfortunately while it's an interesting topic and approach, The Invention of Air falls kind of flat for me. It's just that Priestly either isn't that interesting a person when you get down to it, or Johnson fails in his job at storytelling and keeping things interesting enough. I found the big ideas here to be full of promise, but the execution just left me with my mind wandering off time after time. To continue the Ghost Map comparison, it didn't have a strong hook like a cholera epidemic to really pull you in and keep you there. It really needed something like that to make it both educational and entertaining at the same time.”

• Rated 4 stars

“A most interesting read. I like how Johnson suggests parallels to modern life without beating you over the head with them.

The science is kept to a minimum (no equations!), so don't let that scare you off.”