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Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist

by Thomas Levenson

Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist Cover

Review-a-Day   (What is Review-a-Day?)

"There are any number of settings where we might imagine Isaac Newton holding forth in February of 1699 — under his famed apple tree, say, or before an august assembly of the Royal Society. Draining drams with counterfeiters in a lowlife London pub called the Dogg, though, seems less likely. But that's just what Britain's greatest scientist was doing — and in Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist, Thomas Levenson has done an admirable job of explaining how that odd scene came about." Paul Collins, The Oregonian (read the entire Oregonian review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

In 1695, Isaac Newton — already renowned as the greatest mind of his age — made a surprising career change. He left quiet Cambridge, where he had lived for thirty years and made his earth-shattering discoveries, and moved to London to take up the post of Warden of His Majestys Mint.

Newton was preceded to the city by a genius of another kind, the budding criminal William Chaloner. Thanks to his preternatural skills as a counterfeiter, Chaloner was rapidly rising in London's highly competitive underworld, at a time when organized law enforcement was all but unknown and money in the modern sense was just coming into being. Then he crossed paths with the formidable new warden. In the courts and streets of London — and amid the tremors of a world being transformed by the ideas Newton himself had set in motion — the two played out an epic game of cat and mouse.

Review:

Sir Isaac Newton — bookish, asexual, harboring an uncool obsession with alchemy — doesn't sound much like Humphrey Bogart. But after his famous apple-beaning inspired a mechanical portrait of our universe that would stand unchallenged for 200 years, the godfather of the Enlightenment used his plush sinecure at the Royal Mint to wage a war on counterfeiters that demanded very real gumshoeing. Thomas... Washington Post Book Review (read the entire Washington Post review)

Review:

PRAISE FOR EINSTEIN IN BERLIN

"A complex, comprehensive and absorbing narrative, told with energy, skill and care."San Francisco Chronicle

"Levenson has a sharp eye for the dramatic events and personal details that bring history to life . . . an in depth study . . . new and original."Nature

 

About the Author

Thomas Levenson is a professor of science writing at MIT and the author of three previous books: Einstein in Berlin, Measure for Measure, and Ice Time. He is also the producer of ten documentaries for which he has won numerous awards.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780151012787
Subtitle:
The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist
Author:
Levenson, Thomas
Publisher:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)
Subject:
General
Subject:
Europe - Great Britain - General
Subject:
History
Subject:
General Biography
Subject:
England
Subject:
Historical - British
Subject:
Newton, Isaac
Subject:
Chaloner, William
Edition Description:
Trade Cloth
Publication Date:
June 2009
Binding:
Hardcover
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
318
Dimensions:
8.25 x 5.50 in

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