- Hardcover: 236 pages
- Publisher: OUP Oxford (13 Mar 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0198525796
- ISBN-13: 978-0198525790
- Product Dimensions: 24.8 x 17.8 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,077,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
London's Leonardo: The Life and Work of Robert Hooke
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
Product Description
Review
"This fascinating book aims to rectify the lack of recognition accorded to a famous scientist of the 17th century, Robert Hooke, who had the misfortune to work in the time of Isaac NewtonThe author provides detailed accounts of the full range of his work. This book is profusely illustrated and has excellent chapter endnotes, very good bibliography, and serviceable index."--CHOICE, N. Sadanand
"London's Leonardo reevaluates Hooke's achievements in
four detailed, well-illustrated, and thoroughly referenced
reviews of different facets of his life and work.
London's Leonardo is a fascinating read.
--Quarterly Review of Biology
Product Description
Interest in Robert Hooke (1635-1703) is growing and his reputation is rising. A widespread sympathy for a neglected figure of seventeenth-century science is being displaced by something more positive - a mixture of astonishment at the extraordinary range and diversity of his talents, esteem for the originality and acumen of his science, admiration for his administrative capability and civic integrity, and fascination at the energy, emotion, and frailty evident in a life fully engaged with the world of Restoration London. Comparisons with his enemy Newton are giving way to an appreciation of Hooke on his own terms, passionately occupied with experiment, invention, argument, writing, teaching, and earning a living as a scientist in a competitive world. The diversity of Hooke's activities has presented a serious obstacle to previous attempts to deal with his life and work. As Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society, Gresham Professor of Geometry, Surveyor to the City of London, author and inventor, Hooke challenges the boundaries of modern expertise. This book takes a different approach, by juxtaposing four accounts of the man from different but intersecting viewpoints. Unlike the aloof and distant demeanor adopted by Newton, concealing his views and speaking through surrogates, Hooke was a public man, bustling though the London streets, talking and arguing in coffee houses, lecturing to whatever audience might attend at Gresham College, performing (the theatrical connotation is appropriate) experiments at the assembly of the Royal Society, being lampooned in a London playhouse. Each of the authors has a record of specialist research on aspects of Hooke and they have come together to provide a significant revaluation of the most important facets of his life and work: his career as a public man, his instrument designing and making, his scientific thought, and the private world of his personal life, his illnesses and his medications. The year 2003 is the tercentenary of Hooke's death.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book promised a biography of a fascinating man. However, the biography is lost in the editorial work.
The book is not a usual biography, beginning at birth, then academic life, then public life and then death. Instead, what you get is an essay collection on Robert Hooke's life, philosophy and ideas and his time. Of course you get glimpses of his life and work, but you get lost in the book structure. You dont know what his hobbies are, or how his experiments developed, you are just told what happened, out of the blue. His work as curator of the philosophycal society is explained in more detail, but that is all. As a detail, you dont get a portrait of Hooke!
The book is very well edited (it could win 5 stars) and also has good illustrations, the authors are undoubtedly learned an erudite on Hooke, but the message does not come through (therefore 3 stars).
The book is not a usual biography, beginning at birth, then academic life, then public life and then death. Instead, what you get is an essay collection on Robert Hooke's life, philosophy and ideas and his time. Of course you get glimpses of his life and work, but you get lost in the book structure. You dont know what his hobbies are, or how his experiments developed, you are just told what happened, out of the blue. His work as curator of the philosophycal society is explained in more detail, but that is all. As a detail, you dont get a portrait of Hooke!
The book is very well edited (it could win 5 stars) and also has good illustrations, the authors are undoubtedly learned an erudite on Hooke, but the message does not come through (therefore 3 stars).
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Historical > Britain > Military
- Books > Biography > Political > Britain
- Books > Biography > Science, Mathematics & Technology > Engineering
- Books > History > Cultural History > London
- Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > History of Science
- Books > Science & Nature > Mathematics > Popular Maths
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Linguistics > Reference
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
