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This is the third Winchester book I’ve read in quick succession and I’m almost tempted to say that they just get better and better – except they probably don’t. I think they are all equally good. This one is about the ‘father of English Geology’. If the advance of knowledge really does depend on the geniuses who can see patterns where for the rest of us see only chaos – then William Smith is precisely that kind of genius: a man who ‘gets it’ and forever changes how we see the world.I’ll admit it...
The official blurb says it the best: "In 1793, a canal digger named William Smith made a startling discovery. He found that by tracing the placement of fossils, which he uncovered in his excavations, one could follow layers of rocks as they dipped and rose and fell -- clear across England and, indeed, clear across the world -- making it possible, for the first time ever, to draw a chart of the hidden underside of the earth. Determined to expose what he realized was the landscape's secret fourt...
This book turned out to be something that I wasn't much interested in after all. But, it was interesting none the less. It was well-researched and well-written and deserved a better rating, maybe by someone interested in geology.It was about Englishman William Smith who was a common man with no wealth or title. He dedicated his life to mapping the underground of England during the Age of Enlightenment . His findings became very beneficial to the economy of England, but he gained little fame or f...
Rocks. They’re old.Thank you for reading my review.OK, I guess I’ll go into slightly more detail. In his phenomenal A Short History of Nearly Everything , Bill Bryson devotes slightly less than a page to William Smith and the first geological map of Britain. This is likely a result of Bryson (or his editors) striving in vain to meet that promise of being “short”. Bryson promises us a more “comprehensive” account in The Map That Changed the World. I didn’t actually find this book through A Sho...
A well written account of the work of William Smith - a much mistreated but finally vindicated early and important geologist, perhaps even the first real geologist. Light science, biography, social history and a story with a happy ending. What’s not to like? At times the author goes off on diversions, including the longest chapter in the book which has nothing to do with the core focus on William Smith, which makes one wonder if there were too few details to fill a whole book without some paddin...
This is a very interesting story poorly told. The preface and the first chapter (both) tell the whole story in a nutshell, and the rest of the book goes on to fill out the details in an awkward, often overblown manner. The story is however quite compelling, about the dramatic life of William Smith, the first person to understand, survey and then map the stratification of rocks in England, thereby establishing modern geology. His is a cautionary tale for would be entrepreneurs that are not from t...
Winchester's biography of William Smith, one of the 'fathers' of English geology, should sing with the joy of intellectual discovery, but doesn't quite get there for me.From the start, Winchester flags the collapse of Smith's fortunes and the misappropriation of his findings by wealthier, better connected men than he. He builds anticipation of misfortune throughout until the bailiffs actually arrive and Smith is imprisoned for debt. When it actually happens it is almost a relief, as the long way...
This is the tale of William Smith, the first guy to create a geologic map. He identified the strata that makes up what comprises the ground for quite a ways down and figured out that it was standard. The story is an interesting one, about a poor bastard beset by the rich types who stole his work and denied him the credit he so deserved, to the point where the guy actually was consigned to debtor’s prison. His social life was even less successful. Late in life he married a much younger woman of f...
Though the writing style is not quite what his other books have been, I have to give it 4 stars for a thoroughly interesting trek through the world of eccentric 19thC English science. I love this period's history of scientific exploration and the pure enthusiasm and fearlessness and determination of many of the explorations into hitherto unknown realms. Geology was practically brand new except for elite, upper class fossil, mineral and rock collectors who met occasionally at elaborate dinner par...
I like maps, and I have as far back as I can remember. As a kid I would linger over maps in the encyclopedia, particularly those maps that described terrain, geology, natural resources, etc. so I was bound to like this book, especially considering the dust jacket is a fold-out, full-color reproduction of the map under discussion. This book, with its somewhat hyperbolic title, is a mix of biography, history, and science, and it is particularly good reminder of just how rough and contentious the b...
This is an account of the life of William Smith, who more or less single-handedly, without any special means or education, and much against the spirit of the time (before Lyell, let alone Darwin) created and perfected the first geological map of Great Britain (minus Scotland, more or less); the map the book tells about was published in 1815, but recognition only came to Smith a generation later, when he received the first Wollaston medal (the first of its kind; to this day, this is more or less
When I was a New York manny (before moving to western MA to go to grad school) one of the families I worked for gave me this book. I think I was probably supposed to return it, but wound up having to leave NY in a hurry because of a health and then a housing situation. So I still have this on my non-fiction shelves and every once in a while pick it up and flip through the pages and think about the "discovery" (such a loaded and often unwieldy term) of the consistent and patterned behavior of ear...
I have been reading this book for over a year. The story is fascinating. Winchester has the most irritating writing style I have ever encountered. It is hard to force myself to pick up the book. Sad, because William Smith and his geologic map of England mark an important milestone in the history of science. They are also important to understanding the development of the concept of deep time. Creationists are often stymied when they learn that Smith was able to use fossil species to place the roc...
I picked this up for cheap on Kindle some time ago, and meant to get to it a lot sooner than this. Especially as its part of an interesting period as our perception of how the world works.Winchester is as some pains to show how much of a change in thought was going on. This informs the main subject, which is a biography of William Smith. Smith is quite definitely Winchester's big hero, and the source of his interest in geology. I've seen some complaints that Smith's role in a lot of this is over...