Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution (Paperback)

from cmc

An excellent overview of the early days of scientific inquiry in seventeenth and eighteenth century England and Europe. Back then, everything was new, and the same people might work on astronomy, architecture, medicine, anatomy, clocks, chemistry, mathematics, and other areas, all overlapping, wi...

from mbmackay

This is a gem of a book. Basically a snapshot of science & scientists in the 1600's, it brings to life the sudden change in the intellectual world away from accepting received wisdom, and to the modern scientific age based on direct observation and experimentation. Loved it. Read in Samoa June 2002

from hcubic

A year or so ago, I greatly enjoyed reading another book by Lisa Jardine, "Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance", but I couldn't justify it for "Hal's Picks" because it didn't have much scientific content. When I heard about "Ingenious Pursuits", I bought it from a book club and read i...

from cabegley

The theme of Jardine's Ingenious Pursuits is that scientific study and discovery most often occurs collaboratively or competitively, with information or theory or partial discovery by one person touching off experimentation or discovery by another. She focuses in this book on the late 17th and ea...

from atiara

Not as interesting as I thought it would be. I had trouble following the book, mostly from lack of interest; there was more information than I needed. There is a cast of characters, but since the book is not organized chronologically, a timeline would have been helpful.