I filled in this week with more than a couple of trash novels that are not worth mentioning, so despite the fact that last week was a non-fiction history, this week's pick is the same. Technically (by Dewey Decimal standards), it's a Mathematics and Science, but Edward Dolnick's The Clockwork Universe is a fascinating look at Sir Isaac Newton, his contemporaries, and "the birth of the modern world."
Prior to Newton's invention of calculus, much of what we comprehend today about the physical world was completely beyond our scope of understanding. However you feel about calculus (Personally, I hate it.), the amazing fact is that in the mid-seventeenth century, at a time when everything from plague to comets was a sign from God, Newton formulated a completely new way of measuring our world. Before calculus, philosophers and men of science had understood that infinite things could exist, but that knowledge was quickly shelved because there was no way to deal with infinity.
Dolnick's writing is clear and easy to read. He has a tendency to over-provide examples, but the narrative moves well. The worst part is the math. I'm so not a math person, and there were good-sized chunks when I felt like I was back in high school calculus. (I admit to skimming quite a bit here.)
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