Synopses & Reviews
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 and 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 eighteenth-century space race, a contest made all the more exciting by the tumult of their time.
In A World on Fire, acclaimed writer Joe Jackson 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, Jacksons narrative deftly weaves together biography and history, scientific passion and political will. With their discoveries inside the laboratory paving the way for the identification of the elements as well as modern atomic physicsand the tragedy of their downfalls, Priestley and Lavoisier epitomize the plight of the scientist in the modern age. With A World on Fire, Jackson has transformed their story into a spellbinding work of narrative nonfiction.
Review
An exhilarating narrative, sweeping us through great discoveries and international rivalries, yet strengthened by meticulous research and analysis. (Jenny Uglow, author of
The Lunar Men)
This tale of eminent scientists victimized by political ideology is told with passion and a splendid attention to vivid detail. (Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times)
Synopsis
Like Charles Seifes
Zero and Dava Sobels
Longitude, this passionate intellectual history is the story of the intersection of science and the human, in this case the rivals who discovered oxygen in the late 1700s. That breakthrough changed the world as radically as those of Newton and Darwin but was at first eclipsed by revolution and reaction. In chronicling the triumph and ruin of the English freethinker Joseph Priestley and the French nobleman Antoine Lavoisierthe former exiled, the latter executed on the guillotine
A World on Fire illustrates the perilous place of science in an age of unreason.
Synopsis
Like Charles Seifeand#146;s
Zero and Dava Sobeland#146;s
Longitude, this passionate intellectual history is the story of the intersection of science and the human, in this case the rivals who discovered oxygen in the late 1700s. That breakthrough changed the world as radically as those of Newton and Darwin but was at first eclipsed by revolution and reaction. In chronicling the triumph and ruin of the English freethinker Joseph Priestley and the French nobleman Antoine Lavoisierand#151;the former exiled, the latter executed on the guillotineand#151;
A World on Fire illustrates the perilous place of science in an age of unreason.
About the Author
Joe Jackson is the author of one novel and three nonfiction titles, including Leavenworth Train, which was a finalist for the 2002 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime. He worked for twelve years as an investigative reporter for the Virginian-Pilot, covering criminal justice and the states death row.
Table of Contents
A World On Fire Prologue: God in the Air
Part I: Problem
1. The Cloth-Dresser's Son
2. The Sums and Receipts of Parallel Worlds
3. The Gas in the Beer
4. The Prodigy
5. The Goodness of Air
6. The Problem of Burning
Part II: Solution
7. The Sentimental Journey
8. The Mouse in the Jar
9. The Twelve Days
10. The Language of War
11. "King Mob"
12. The World Out of Joint
13. The New World
Epilogue: The Burning World
Dramatis Personae
Chronology
Glossary of Chemical, Historical, and Scientific Terms
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index