A World On Fire: A Heretic, An Aristocrat and the Race to Discover
Condition: SECONDHAND
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A gripping account of a key moment in the history of science, set against a revolutionary age. In the final decades of the 1700s, as the threat of revolution began to dim the radiance of the Enlightenment, two brilliant scientists simultaneously achieved a breakthrough that would alter the course of human thought in history: they discovered oxygen. The humble English dissenter Joseph Priestley and the French aristocrat Antoine Lavoisier were unlikely competitors, but their fierce rivalry to solve the "riddle of air" became a kind of 18th century space race, a contest made all the more exciting by the tumult of the time. In "A World On Fire", acclaimed writer Joe Jackson vividly brings to life the seismic intellectual and political shifts that ushered in modern science. Set against the conflagrations of the American Revolution, the storming of the Bastille and the Reign of Terror, Jackson's narrative deftly weaves together biography, history, science and politics. With their discoveries inside their laboratories and the tragedy of their downfalls, Priestley and Lavoisier epitomise the plight of the scientist in the modern age.
With "A World On Fire", Jackson has transformed their history into a spellbinding work of narrative non-fiction.
Author: Joe Jackson
Format: Hardback, 432 pages, 152mm x 228mm, 650 g
Published: 2005, Penguin Putnam Inc, United States
Genre: Popular Science
Description
A gripping account of a key moment in the history of science, set against a revolutionary age. In the final decades of the 1700s, as the threat of revolution began to dim the radiance of the Enlightenment, two brilliant scientists simultaneously achieved a breakthrough that would alter the course of human thought in history: they discovered oxygen. The humble English dissenter Joseph Priestley and the French aristocrat Antoine Lavoisier were unlikely competitors, but their fierce rivalry to solve the "riddle of air" became a kind of 18th century space race, a contest made all the more exciting by the tumult of the time. In "A World On Fire", acclaimed writer Joe Jackson vividly brings to life the seismic intellectual and political shifts that ushered in modern science. Set against the conflagrations of the American Revolution, the storming of the Bastille and the Reign of Terror, Jackson's narrative deftly weaves together biography, history, science and politics. With their discoveries inside their laboratories and the tragedy of their downfalls, Priestley and Lavoisier epitomise the plight of the scientist in the modern age.
With "A World On Fire", Jackson has transformed their history into a spellbinding work of narrative non-fiction.
A World On Fire: A Heretic, An Aristocrat and the Race to Discover